CAJETAN OF THIENE, Saint. - Born of a noble Vicentine family in Oct. 1480, to Gaspare and Maria
(Ist. Gab. Ist. nat.)
GAETA, ARCHDIOCESE of - Bell tower. The base is from the 9th century, the three stories are the work of Nicola d'Angelo (1148-74), the terminal part is from 1279.
da Porto. He completed his legal studies at Padua with a doctoral degree and entered the papal Curia around 1508 with the office of scribe. Ordained a priest on 30 Sept. 1516, he was a member of the Company of the Divine Love, founded by Ettore Vernazza, which gathered at the house of Giuliano Dati, apostolic penitentiary and parish priest of S. Dorotea in Trastevere. Having returned to the Veneto in 1518, he lived under the spiritual direction of friar Battista da Crema, directed the Companies at Vicenza and Verona, guiding their members toward a more intense spiritual life and the practice of charity. He moved to Venice in 1520 and there established the Company and was the founder and promoter of the Hospital of the Incurables at the Giudecca. He returned to Rome in 1523, where he resumed his activity in the Company and took charge of the hospital of the Incurables.
Having entered into relations with Gian Pietro Carafa, bishop of Chieti and of Brindisi, and with two other companions, Bonifacio de' Colli and Paolo Consiglieri, having obtained permission from Clement VII, and having renounced together with them the offices and benefices he held, on 14 Sept. 1524 he began the Congregation of the Regular Clerics later commonly called Theatines or Chietini, near the church of S. Nicola dei Prefetti and soon afterward on the Pincio. Imprisoned in 1527 during the sack of Rome, he managed to save himself with his companions on the Venetian ships that were stationed in the Tyrrhenian Sea in the service of the league, and reached Venice, where, with the help of friends, he took up residence first at S. Clemente, then at S. Nicola di Tolentino, which became an active center of spiritual life and charitable activity. In fact, besides assistance to the Incurables, provision was made for the rise of other initiatives, and among them one for the benefit of orphans, of which St. Jerome Miani, his disciple, took on the particular task. As the number of religious grew, it seemed to Carafa in Aug. 1533 that he should comply with the desire of the Neapolitans by sending Thiene to their city; and Naples was his ordinary place of residence, except for the three years 1540-43, when he resumed the government of the Venetian community. After several temporary residences, the Saint in 1538 established his dwelling at S. Paolo maggiore, which became the center of his spiritual activity. At Naples he repeated what he had done at Venice, raising the tone of spiritual life and giving origin and growth to those charitable institutions that left so broad a mark on the life of the city. He died on 7 Aug. 1547, and to his intercession was attributed the pacification of Naples at a moment that had presented itself as very critical. He was buried at S. Paolo, leaving to Christendom a constant and heroic example of trust in Providence.
He was canonized by Clement X on 12 Apr. 1671. Feast on 7 Aug. - See plate CXXIV.
Bibliography2 works
Pio Paschini