AVVOCATI (AVOGADRO), VINCENZO. - Dominican theologian, b. 12 Sept. 1702, d. 18 Sept. 1767. Of precocious intellect, at the age of nineteen he left the legal profession to enter the convent of S. Zita in Palermo, where he made his profession on 6 Apr. 1721.
He perfected his philosophical and theological studies at the college of « Divi Thomae » in Rome, obtaining the lectureship in a disputation before Benedetto XIII, who ordained him priest in 1727. In the convents of Palermo and Trapani (according to Mazzuchelli, also in the seminary of Agrigento) he pursued a long and fruitful teaching career. On 12 July 1734 he underwent the examination ad gradus in Rome. Highly proficient in the biblical languages, philosophy, and the various branches of theology, he became renowned in ecclesiastical literature not only for several pamphlets but also for eight treatises on exegetical, moral, canonical, and apologetic subjects. Worth noting is the work De sanctitate librorum qui in Ecclesia catholica conservantur (I: Praeparatio biblica; II: Demonstratio biblica, Palermo 1741-42), dedicated to Benedetto XIV.
To his teaching he added singular merits of virtue and spirituality. He was master of novices, prior of S. Zita, companion to the Master General on his visitation of Sicily, and finally Provincial (1765-66).