APOSTOLINI (APOSTOLIC FRIARS). — A religious congregation of the fifteenth century, so called by the people because its members, renouncing the vanities of the world, led a poor life according to the Gospel, following the example of the apostles, at first as hermits and later united in a congregation. The movement of the pseudo-apostles of Segurelli and Dolcino provoked a reaction in a Catholic direction among men desirous of truly living according to evangelical norms under the obedience of the bishops; thus arose the congregation of the A., whose origins nevertheless remain shrouded in the silence of contemporaries. The first certain information dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the testament of Angelo, bishop of Recanati and vicar of Gregory XII for the Marches.
Under Eugenius IV, who granted them the convent of SS. Simone e Giuda in Viterbo, the A. were already officially designated as friars of the Order of the A., living under the jurisdiction of the bishops. Innocent VIII prescribed the habit they were to wear, and Alexander VI solemnly approved them, subjecting them to the rule and obedience of the Augustinians. They were especially widespread in central and northern Italy. The first convent they built was that of Siena; at Recanati, where they were highly esteemed by the people and the authorities, they occupied a monastery left by the Benedictines. The most representative figure was Blessed Placido, or Bartolomeo da Fermo, commonly called da Recanati. After approximately a century of existence, in 1589 Sixtus V united them with the Congregation of the Ambrosians ad Nemus and of Milan; but since the union did not produce the hoped-for results, Urban VIII suppressed them as a congregation in 1643, placing the members and their property under the diocesan ordinaries. Innocent X confirmed the suppression, and from then on every trace of the A. disappeared.