CHIESA, GIANNICOLA. - Augustinian ascetic-mystical writer, b. in Genoa in 1695, d. 23 April 1782. He entered the Hermits of St. Augustine in 1711, and in 1725 moved to the Congregation of St. John a Carbonaria in Naples; he was a lecturer and regent of studies, prior and secretary general of his Order. A religious of austere life, he was reputed to be one of the best masters of the spiritual life of his time.

Perhaps the most widely circulated and important of his spiritual works is Il religioso in solitudine ovvero esercizi spirituali proposti ai religiosi agostiniani (Naples 1736; 5th ed., ibid. 1899); also worthy of mention is the Breve istruzione intorno alle vie mistiche (ibid. 1768), in which C. follows by preference the ancient authors, among them St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Bonaventure, not without also making use of some more modern authors, such as Luigi da Ponte and the cardinals Bona and Brancati.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: P. Benincasa, Vita del servo di Dio, il p. G. C., Naples 1787; D. A. Perini, Bibliographia augustiniana cum notis biographicis. Scriptores Itali, I, Florence 1929, pp. 226-27; A. Tonna-Barthet, I mistici agostiniani, ibid. 1934, pp. 140-43; F. Lang, s. v. in DSp, I, coll. 840-42.

Felice da Mareto

@incollection{ec3_chiesa_giannicola, author = {Felice da Mareto}, title = {Chiesa, giannicola}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1525}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/chiesa-giannicola} }

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Chiesa, Giannicola

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