CAVANIS, ANTON'ANGELO E MARCANTONIO

CAVANIS, Anton'Angelo and Marcantonio. – Priests, the first born in Venice on 16 January 1772, the second on 19 May 1774, sons of Count Giovanni and a Pasqualigo Basadonna, who gave them a family upbringing that was distinctly religious and directed them towards the magistracies of the Republic. Antonio Angelo soon became secretary of the Ducal Chancellery, and Marco Antonio extraordinary notary; but while the former, at the death of his father (1793), became a priest, the latter continued in his employment, only becoming a priest in 1806. In the final years of the Republic they gathered in their home a circle of priests and clerics, with whom they discussed philosophy and apologetics, and devoted themselves to teaching Christian doctrine in their parish church. From their work with young people and their experience of their religious needs, Marco Antonio conceived the idea of establishing a Marian Congregation for them. Together with his brother, though not yet a priest himself, he gathered a good number in an old chapel attached to the church of S. Agnese and led them, on feast days, into a large garden: in the Palazzo Da Mosto, near that garden, they gradually established the Schools of Charity for poor boys and, amid a thousand difficulties, developed them into regular schools offering elementary and gymnasial courses, for both sexes in two separate branches. Later, to provide the schools with directors and teachers, they also founded the Congregation of Priests and the Teachers of the Schools of Charity. Their various foundations did great good in Venice and have also spread somewhat in the Veneto in recent times. Marco Antonio died in Venice on 11 October 1853, and Antonio Angelo, blind, on 12 March 1858. The works they founded survived them. The process of beatification is underway.