D'Afflitto, Annibale

D'AFFLITTO, ANNIBALE. - Archbishop of Reggio Calabria, b. in Naples in 1560 into a most noble family originally from the duchy of Amalfi, d. at Reggio Calabria in 1638.

Formerly chaplain to the king of Spain, he was consecrated bishop of Reggio Calabria in 1593, where he remained until his death, refusing on several occasions greater and wealthier sees. He was a man of great religious zeal and profound charity. He had occasion to give proof of his pastoral virtues already at the beginning of his episcopate, when the city was attacked in 1594 by the fleet of Amurat III under the command of the renegade Cigala, and, five years later, in the desolation wrought there by a tremendous earthquake. In the civil strife that blazed among the families of Reggio, d'A. gave proof of great ability, succeeding in the end in restoring peace. He convened the diocesan synod five times and in 1611 promulgated in the church of S. Maria della Cattolica the abolition of the Greek rite and of the jurisdiction of the protopapa. Two publications by him survive concerning the Councils of 1595 and 1614, along with a group of manuscript letters preserved by the Jesuits of Palermo. He died in the odor of sanctity.

Luigi Berra