Benincasa, Osanna, Venerable

BENINCASA, OBSOLA, venerable. - Foundress of the Congregation of the Theatines, b. in Naples on 20 Oct. 1547, d. there on 20 Oct. 1618. From her childhood she was animated by singular religious fervour, and thus lived in an almost cloistered manner when she was unable to take the habit of the Capuchin nuns of the monastery of S. Maria in Gerusalemme. She subsequently withdrew into solitude on Monte S. Elmo, being regarded by all Naples as a saint. In 1582 she went to Rome to present herself to Pope Gregorio XIII, who entrusted Cardinal of S. Severina, G. A. Santori, with assembling a Congregation of learned men, which also included s. Filippo Neri, to examine her virtues; these were universally acknowledged. Having then returned to Naples, she founded, in that same house on Monte S. Elmo, the Congregation of the Most Holy Conception of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, later called that of the Theatines because of the similarity of its rules and habit to those of the Theatines and because the new foundation was likewise placed under the direction of those fathers. The Theatines, whose rules were approved by Gregorio XV on 23 June 1623, are divided into the two branches of the Congregation and the Hermitage. Pio VI approved the venerable woman's heroic virtues by decree of 7 Aug. 1793.