CARLO FRANCESCO DA BRENO

Image from page 515
Image from page 515

CARLO FRANCESCO da Breno. — Born in Breno (Brescia) on 7 Sept. 1672 into the noble CAMOZZI family, died in Rome at the convent of S. Francesco a Ripa on 28 Jan. 1745. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1689, he was called to hold the chair of Controversies at the missionary college of S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome, but had to resign it on account of illness.

He published a substantial work: Manuale missionariorum orientalium, 2 vols. in-fol., Venice 1727. In vol. I he treats the most widespread errors in the Near East, including those of the Copts and Abyssinians; in vol. II he sets forth the Catholic faith from the pastoral-missionary point of view. Important for missiology is also an appendix to vol. II, pp. 413-74: De instructione missionariorum apostolicorum. He later published a summary of the main work: Epitome manualis miss. orient., Rome 1736.

Bibl.: B. Spila, Memorie storiche della provincia riformata romana, I, Rome 1890, pp. 531-32; Streit, Bibl., I, pp. 379-80; A. Kleinhaus, Historia studii: linguor arabicae et collegii missionum S. Petri de Urbe (G. Golubovich, Bibl. biobibliogr. di Terra Santa, new series, 13), Quaracchi 1930, pp. 123-26.