FERRARI, BARTOLOMEO, venerable. - Co-founder of the Order of the Barnabites, born in Milano in 1499, died there on 25 November 1544. After a serious and studious youth devoted to works of charity, among which the heroic assistance he gave to plague victims in 1524 was especially noteworthy, having enrolled with his friend Antonio Morigia in the Sodality of Eternal Wisdom, around 1530 he met there s. Antonio M. Zaccaria, who was contemplating the project of a union of priests who would cause Christian life—languishing amid indifference and immoral conduct and threatened by the Protestant revolt—to flourish anew.
The community of purpose closely united the three friends: thus was born the new Congregation of Regular Clerics, which in 1533 obtained the approval of Clement VII, chiefly through the efforts of F., who had a brother at the papal court. Ordained a priest, F. devoted himself entirely to the work of reform in Milano and, from 1537 to 1542, in Vicenza and Verona. Succeeding Morigia in the government of the Congregation in 1542, he consolidated its foundations, taking particular care of the formation of novices and obtaining from Paolo III exemption from the Ordinary and from Carlo V an imperial diploma of protection and immunity. After his death, together with Zaccaria and Morigia, he bore the title of blessed until the decrees of Urbano VIII.