CATALDINO, GIUSEPPE - One of the founders of the Paraguay missions. Born at Fabriano (Ancona) in April 1574, died at S. Ignazio Minì on 10 July 1653. He was already a priest when he entered (1601) the Society of Jesus. Still a novice, he set out for America with Fr. Diego de Torres. In 1605 or 1606 he was sent from Peru to Paraguay, where a new province of the Order was established shortly thereafter. In 1609 he was appointed, together with Fr. Simone Massetta, likewise an Italian, to found new reductions in Guayrà, where he remained superior for many years. In 1633 he founded the reduction of S. José near the Sierra del Tapé. After Fr. Marcel de Lorenzana, he was also superior of all the Paraguay missions.
BIBL.: F. Xarque, Vida apostolica del ven. p. Josef C., uno de los primeros, y mas insignes conquistadores de las dilatadas provincias y bárbaras naciones del Guayrà, Saragossa 1664; Streit, Bibl., II, p. 559; P. Pastells, Historia de la Comp. de Jesús en la provincia del Paraguay, 2 vols., Madrid 1912-15, passim. Edmondo Lamalle