Bascape (A Basilica Petri), Carlo, Venerable (BASCAPÈ (A BASILICA PETRI), CARLO, VENERABILE)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BASCAPÈ (from Basilica Petri), CARLO, venerable. — A Barnabite, born of a noble family on 25 October 1550 at Melegnano, he died on 6 October 1615 at Novara; at the baptismal font he was given the name Giov. Francesco. Having graduated in law at Pavia, he was a member of the Milanese college of doctors, and secretary to St. Carlo, to whom he was an invaluable assistant in episcopal government. Having become a Barnabite (1578), he gave definitive form to the Constitutions (1579) and was elected three times superior general of the Order (1586–93). Appointed by Clement VIII to the bishopric of Novara (1593), he devoted himself zealously, following the example of St. Carlo 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 visitations; he convened the diocesan synod three times; he founded at Novara the Oblates of ss. Gaudenzio and Carlo; he established schools for Christian doctrine and pious congregations; he improved and restored the seminary, adding to it a college for major clerics. A promoter of the beatification of St. Carlo, he had the joy of seeing him canonized (1609).

Of the many works he left (a complete list will be found in the Biblioteca Barnabítica), we mention only: De vita et rebus gestis Caroli S. R. E. Cardinalis... libri septum (Ingolstadt 1592), a first-rate source; 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. Carlo, but left unfinished; De metropoli mediolanensi (Milan 1612); Commentarii canonici (Novara 1615).

The proceedings for his beatification were begun in 1620 and are still being pursued today. B.’s intimacy with St. Carlo and their similarity in spirit and works led Innocent XI, formerly bishop of Novara, to call him “another St. Carlo” (cf. Gobio’s note in the 2nd ed. of F. Chiesa, Vita del ven. C. B., II, Monza 1868, p. 238).

BIBL.: F. Chiesa, Vita del ven. C. B., Milan 1626; P. L. Manzini, S. Carlo e il ven. B., Monza 1910 (letters from B. to St. Carlo concerning his legation to Filippo 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. e A. Sauli), reprinted from Riv. di Scienze storiche, 5 (1908); id., Storia dei Barnabiti nel Cinquecento, Rome 1913, passim; G. Boffito, Bibl. barnabítica, I, Florence 1933, pp. 95–117; IV, ibid. 1937, appendix, pp. 387–89 (a 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