BASCAPE (A Basilica Petri), Carlo, Venerable. - Barnabite, born of a noble family on 25 October 1550 at Melegnano, died on 6 October 1615 in Novara; at baptism he was named Giov. Francesco. Having taken his degree in law at Pavia, he was a member of the Milanese college of doctors, and was St. Charles's secretary and a most valuable aid in the government of the diocese. Having become a Barnabite (1578), he gave definitive form to the Constitutions (1579) and was elected three times general of the Order (1586-93). Appointed by Clement VIII to the bishopric of Novara (1593), he devoted himself with zeal, following the example of St. Charles and in accordance with the prescriptions of the Council of Trent, to the reform of ecclesiastical discipline and of the morals of the people, by means of frequent letters and pastoral visits; he convened the diocesan synod three times; he established at Novara the Oblates of Sts. Gaudentius and Charles; he founded schools for Christian doctrine and pious confraternities; he improved and restored the seminary, adding to it the college of major clerics. A promoter of the beatification of St. Charles, he had the joy of seeing him canonized (1609).

Of the many works he left (a complete list will be found in the Biblioteca Barnabitica) we recall only: De vita et rebus gestis Caroli S. R. E. Cardinalis... libri septem (Ingolstadt 1592), a source of the first rank; the pastoral writings from 1593 to 1609 (Novara 1609); Novaria seu de ecclesia novariensi (ibid. 1612); Historia ecclesiae mediolanensis, lib. primus (ibid. 1615), suggested and desired by St. Charles, but left unfinished; De metropoli mediolanensi (Milan 1612); Commentarii canonici (Novara 1615).

The processes for his beatification were begun in 1620 and work on them is still going on today. The intimacy of the Venerable with St. Charles and their likeness in spirit and in works caused Innocent XI, formerly bishop of Novara, to call him: "another St. Charles" (cf. the note of Gobio in the 2nd ed. of F. Chiesa, Vita del ven. C. B., II, Monza 1868, p. 238).

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: F. Chiesa, Vita del ven. C. B., Milan 1626; P. L. Manzini, S. Carlo e il ven. B., Monza 1910 (letters of the Venerable to St. Charles on his legation to Philip II; cf. the new ed. by G. Guariglia, La corrispondenza di C. B. a s. Carlo Borromeo nella collezione della Bibl. Ambrosiana, Milan 1936). - O. Premoli, Due carteggi inediti tra due santi prelati (B. and A. Sauli), offprint from Riv. di Scienze storiche, 5 (1908); id., Storia dei Barnabiti nel Cinquecento, Rome 1913, passim; G. Boffito, Bibl. barnabitica, I, Florence 1933, pp. 95-117; IV, ibid. 1937, appendix, pp. 387-89 (complete bibliographical survey); A. Saba and G. Caviglioli, in Pagine di cultura, 1 (1934), pp. 83-91, 131-35; P. Barzaghi, in Eco dei Barnabiti. Studi, 5 (1941), pp. 19-31.

Pio Pecchiai

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Bascape (A Basilica Petri), Carlo, Venerable

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