CASATI, FELICE

CASATI, FELICE. - A Capuchin, he is the Fr. Felice of the plague of Milan, made famous by Manzoni. Born in 1583 to Count Alfonso, he donned the Capuchin habit at the age of twenty-two; he was master of novices at Orta and Vigevano, guardian at Cremona, Como, Erba, and Milan, provincial of Lombardy, and from 1632 (not from 1630, as Manzoni leads one to believe), the year in which he left the lazaretto, until 1656, definitor of the Order. In 1630, when he was entrusted with the mission of the lazaretto, he was preaching the Lenten sermons at S. Maria del Castello in Milan; in 1644 he was sent by the city of Milan to Madrid to obtain from Philip IV relief from the disorder and misery of the duchy. Elected in 1656 to represent the Lombard province at the General Chapter of Rome, he died while travelling, at Livorno.