ANTONIO of GAETA. - Missionary, son of Francesco Laudati, Duke of Marzano. He was first a Knight of Malta and then a Capuchin (1632). After several years of fruitful apostolate in the Neapolitan region, in 1652 he went to the Congo and settled in Angola and later in Massangano. He was tireless in the exercise of his apostolic ministry and achieved numerous conversions, including the famous one of the Queen of Matamba, called Zinga, who for many years had forgotten her Christian profession, as is evident from the account by A., published by his confrere Fr. Francesco Maria Gioia of Naples in 1669. In 1658 he governed the mission as vice-prefect and in 1662 was elected apostolic prefect. He died on 19 July of the same year in Loanda.
BIBL.: F. M. Gioia da Napoli, *Vita e morte del servo di Dio frati Antonio da Gaeta*, in *La meravigliosa conversione alla santa fede di Cristo della Regina Signa*, Naples 1669, pp. 450-465; R. da Cesinale, *Storia delle Missioni dei Cappuccini*, III, Rome 1873, pp. 596-623; Apollinaris a Valentia, *Bibliotheca Fr. Min. Capuccinorum prov. Neapolitana*, Naples 1886, p. 43; C. da Terzorio, *Le missioni dei Minori Cappuccini*, X, Rome 1938, pp. 457-90.