BASCAPÈ (of the Basilica of St Peter), CARLO, Venerable. – Barnabite, born into a noble family on 25 October 1550 at Melegnano, died on 6 October 1615 at Novara; he was given the name Giovanni Francesco at the baptismal font. Having graduated in law at Pavia, he was a member of the Milanese college of doctors and served as secretary and most effective assistant to St Charles in the episcopal administration. Having entered the Barnabite Order in 1578, he gave definitive form to the Constitutions in 1579 and was elected three times as General of the Order (1586–93). Appointed by Clement VIII to the see of Novara in 1593, he devoted himself zealously, following the example of St Charles and in accordance with the prescriptions of the Council of Trent, to the reform of ecclesiastical discipline and the morals of the people, through frequent letters and pastoral visits; he convened the diocesan synod three times; he established at Novara the Oblates of SS Gaudenzius and Charles; he founded schools for Christian doctrine and pious congregations; 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 canonised in 1609.
Of the many works he left (a complete list may be found in the Biblioteca Barnabitica), we recall only: *De vita et rebus gestis Caroli S. R. E. Cardinalis... libri septem* (Ingolstadt 1592), a primary source; his pastoral writings from 1593 to 1609 (Novara 1609); *Novaria seu 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 are still under way today. The intimacy of Bl. Carlo with St Charles and their similarity of spirit and works led Innocent XI, when he was already Bishop of Novara, to call him ‘another St Charles’ (cf. note by Gobio in 2nd ed. F. Chiesa, *Vita del ven. C. B.*, II, Monza 1868, p. 238).