Arcudio, Pietro

ARCUDIO, PIETRO. - Catholic theologian and controversialist, b. in Corfu around 1562, d. in Rome in 1633. He was one of the first pupils of the Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome. He gained his first experience in the Kingdom of Poland, defending, alongside Pociéj, bishop of Vladimir, the Union of the Ruthenian Church of Brest. On this occasion he published the Antirrhisis (Vilna 1600) against the Calvinist Bronski, Cardinal Bessarion's pamphlet On the Procession of the Holy Spirit (Cracow 1602) and the Inscriptions of John Bekkos (Cracow 1603). Having returned to Rome, he spent his last years there at the Greek College, devoting himself to the composition of his works.

Among these, particular mention may be made of: Libri VII de concordia Ecclesiae occidentalis et orientalis in septem sacramentorum administratione, Paris 1616, 1629; De purgatorio igne adversus Barlaam (published posthumously in a Greek-Latin edition), Rome 1637. He also printed numerous Greek treatises in his collection Opuscula aurea theologica... circa processionem Spiritus Sancti, Rome 1630. E. Legrand cites other still unpublished works of A., among which are a History of the Early Times of the Greek College of Rome and the History of the Union of the Ruthenians.

Maurizio Gordillo