CAGLIOLA, FILIPPO. - Theologian, historian, Conventual writer, born in Malta at the beginning of the seventeenth century, died in Naples in 1653. Having entered the Franciscans of the Sicilian province and been admitted to the Sistine College of S. Bonaventura in Rome (1634), he obtained there the mastership in theology (1637). Having returned to Malta, he founded in Valletta a Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception (1637). He subsequently served as lector at Syracuse, Catania, and Rome (1641). In 1643 he preached with great success at Messina in defence of the Immaculate Conception.
His discourses were collected in the volume La lettera di Messina in difesa di Maria, cioè l'Immacolata Concezione provata e difesa in 9 discorsi su detta Lettera (Messina 1650). Theologian to the bishop of Cefalù and consultor of the Holy Office in Malta and Sicily; superior at Palermo and Messina (1649); general commissary of Malta (1653), and secretary and provincial commissary of Sicily; general historiographer of the Order (1653), he composed other volumes, such as Siciliensis Provinciae O. F. M. Conv. manifestations (Venice 1644); Catholica pugna inquisitorum apostolicorum in haereticam pravitatem (completed in 1649), and Tractatus de Melitensibus rebus apologeticus, which remained unpublished.