CARLO da Sezzè, Blessed. – Franciscan tertiary, secular name Giovanni Carlo Melchior; b. at Sezzè Romano on 19 Oct. 1613, d. at Rome on 6 Jan. 1670. Having made solemn profession on 19 May 1636, after a brief stay in several convents of the Roman province, he entered that of S. Francesco a Ripa in Rome, where he remained almost uninterruptedly until his death. Through ecstatic prayer he attained to the passive purification of the soul and thence to mystical graces such as visions, prophecies, etc., by which he was venerated by many even during his lifetime. In the latter part of 1648, while praying in the church of S. Giuseppe a Capo le Case, his heart was pierced by a shaft of light emanating from the consecrated Host, and he bore the wound thereafter.
The process of beatification was opened immediately after his death, and on 1 Oct. 1881 Leo XIII enrolled him in the catalogue of the blessed.
Though almost entirely unlettered, he wrote several works, some of which have been published: Trattato delle tre vie della meditazione, e stati della santa contemplazione (Rome 1654; 2nd ed. ibid. 1664; 3rd ed. ibid. 1742); Conti spirituali (in appendix to the 2nd ed. of the foregoing); Cammino interno dell’anima (ibid. 1664); Settenari sacri (ibid. 1666), with an appendix Ejercicio dicto per la novena di Nostro Signore, reprinted in 1865. Many others are preserved in manuscript in the library of the Postulation of the Friars Minor in Rome, the most important being Le grandezze della misericordia di Dio, which contains his autobiography.