Cavanis, Anton'Angelo and Marcantonio

CAVANIS, ANTON'ANGELO and MARCANTONIO. — Priests, born in Venice, the former on 16 January 1772 and the latter on 19 May 1774, to Count Giovanni and Pasqualigo Basadonna, from whom they received a family upbringing that was markedly religious, and were directed toward careers in the magistracies of the republic. Antonio Angelo soon became secretary of the ducal chancery and Marco Antonio an extraordinary notary; but while the former became a priest upon his father’s death (1793), the latter continued in his employment, becoming a priest only in 1806. During the final years of the republic, they gathered in their own home a circle of priests and clerics with whom they discussed philosophy and apologetics, and they devoted themselves to teaching Christian doctrine in their parish church. From his work with young people and his experience of their religious needs, Marco Antonio conceived the idea of establishing a Marian Congregation for them. Together with his brother, while not yet a priest, he gathered a considerable number of them in an old chapel adjoining the church of S. Agnese and, on feast days, led them to a large garden: in the Da Mosto palace, near that garden, they then gradually established the Schools of Charity for poor boys and, amid a thousand difficulties, developed them into regular elementary and secondary schools, for both sexes in two separate branches. Later, in order to provide the schools with administrators and teachers, they also founded the Congregation of Priests and Schoolmistresses of the Schools of Charity. The various foundations did much good in Venice and, in more recent times, also achieved some dissemination throughout the Veneto. Marco Antonio died in Venice on 11 October 1853; Antonio Angelo, blind, on 12 March 1858. Their works survived them. The process of beatification is under way.