ANTONIO da OLIVADI, venerable. - Preacher and ascetical writer, b. in 1653 at Olivadi (Catanzaro), entered the Capuchins of the province of Reggio Calabria in 1670, d. 22 Feb. 1720. For more than thirty years he evangelized southern Italy and Sicily, amid the enthusiasm of the crowds, who venerated him as a saint.
The favorite theme of his meditations and sermons was the Passion of Jesus; he erected calvaries, churches, altars, and confraternities in honor of the Wounds of Jesus. He published the Anno doloroso di Gesù (Naples 1692, Turin 1923), comprising 365 meditations, written in only twenty-one days amid the labors of the apostolate; then the Anno doloroso di Maria (Naples 1698, Bassano 1848). These valuable works enjoyed wide circulation and numerous editions: more than thirty of the first are known, and some fifteen of the second. In 1758 the cause of his beatification was introduced.