Capecelatro, Alfonso

CAPECELATRO, ALFONSO. - Cardinal, writer, b. in Marseille on 5 February 1824; his father Francesco, duke of Castel Pagano, had taken refuge there to avoid the reprisals of Ferdinand I, who had returned to Naples with the help of Austrian arms. In 1830 the C. family, having returned to Italy, settled in a villa at S. Paolo Belsito (Nola). At the age of sixteen C. entered the Congregation of the Filippini of Naples. At about twenty, during a visit to Montecassino, he formed a friendship with the monk don Luigi Tosti. Ordained a priest in 1840, at the Gerolamini near the Church of S. Filippo in Naples he displayed his industriousness as a scholar and as a religious: several times Alfonso Casanova, p. Lodovico da Casoria, Enrico Cenni, p. Gaetano Bernardi, Federico Persico met at his house. As a recognition of his historical and literary merits, Leo XIII in 1879 wanted him first as vice-librarian and immediately afterwards as archbishop of Capua (1889); he then created him cardinal in 1885 and in 1893 librarian and prefect of the Vaticana. He died at Capua on 14 November 1912.

Because of their historical and apologetic character, with ample references to the times and with that classical literary taste which did not displease Carducci, C.'s biographies are still regarded as documents of conscientious investigation and texts of good Italian prose. We recall the Storia di S. Caterina da Siena, Newmann, La religione cattolica in Inghilterra, S. Pier Damiani, La vita di Cristo (in refutation of Renan), La dottrina cattolica, S. Filippo Neri, P. Lodovico da Casoria, S. Alfonso. Some of his books of prayers are significant: Sursum corda, L'anima con Dio, L'elevazione al Sacramento. Of his episcopal activity there remain to us the Pastorali and the Discorsi, and numerous pamphlets, among which: L'amore della patria agli italiani, La questione sociale e il cristianesimo, Il mio augurio agli italiani del sec. XX, La povertà, Le vie nuove del Clero... published in Milan by the house of L. F. Cogliati. Precious information can be gleaned from an examination of the Carteggio, following the history of C.'s friendships with P. Zocchi, Fogazzaro, Montalembert, Manzoni, Tommaseo, Conti, with card. Mercier and with Tosti.

Giovanni Fallani