PAOLO BURALI (d’Arezzo), Blessed. — Born at Irri in 1511. He took a doctorate in law at Bologna and practised as an advocate in Naples with such success that in 1550 he was appointed councillor to the Council of S. Chiara; though reluctant, he was entrusted with political and legal duties on behalf of the city. A man of authority and then of charity, he felt a strong religious vocation and in 1557 entered the Order of the Clerks Regular Theatines, changing his baptismal name Scipione to Paolo. He refused offices and bishoprics, but in 1568 was compelled by Pius V to accept the see of Piacenza, where in 1570 he held a synod and laboured as a zealous pastor, founding schools, hospices, orphanages and the seminary. In 1570 Pius V raised him to the purple.
He served on the cardinalitial commission charged with applying the decrees of the Council of Trent and reforming the clergy, and strove to enforce the obligation of episcopal residence. In 1576 he was translated to the archiepiscopal see of Naples, which he governed until his death on 17 June 1578. His holiness of life was such that Philip Neri lamented his death as a loss to all Christendom. He was beatified on 13 May 1772 by Clement XIV. Feast: 17 June.