ANTONIO DA PISTICCÌ - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. I, p. 932

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ANTONIO da Pisticcì. - Franciscan missionary. Having studied Oriental languages at the missionary college of S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome, he left for Egypt in 1670. On 5 Oct. 1677 he was appointed prefect of the mission, and in 1680 he became guardian of the convent in Cairo. He worked successfully for the union of the Copts and the monks of Mount Sinai with the Catholic Church.

BIBL.: D. de Gubernatis, *Orbis Seraphicus*, *de Missionibus*, II, Quaracchi 1886; T. Somighi, *Etiopia Francescana in documenti dei secoli XVII e XVIII*, Quaracchi 1928; A. Kleinhans, *Historia studii linguae arabicae et collegii missionum O.F.M. in conventu ad S. Petrum in Monte Aureo*, Quaracchi 1930. Pancrazio Maraschakerverd

ANTONIO PRIMALDO (GRIMALDO) and COMPANIONS, Blessed Martyrs. - Gedik Ahmed Pasha, admiral of the fleet of Mehmet II, after the conquest of Otranto, put to death about 800 inhabitants on the nearby hill of Minerva on 14 Aug. 1480, in hatred of the faith. The first to be killed was the elderly Antonio Primaldo or Grimaldo, a shearman or tailor, who encouraged his fellow citizens with fiery words to die for Christ.

The following year the bodies of these martyrs were transferred to the Cathedral and became the object of popular veneration, so much so that in 1539 the ordinary process for their beatification was begun. Their cult was recognized by Clement XIV on 14 Dec. 1771.

BIBL.: G. M. Laghetto, *Historia della Guerra di Otranto del 1490*, ed. L. Muscari, *Galatina 1940* (the author’s father is its principal source); *Acta SS. Augusti*, III, Antwerp 1737, pp. 179-98, with extracts from the ordinary process of 1539. A. Pietro Frutaz