GAGLIARDI, ACHILLE. - Jesuit, theologian and writer on asceticism, b. in Padua in 1538, d. in Modena on 6 July 1607. Having entered the Order after university studies in his native city and together with his two younger brothers, Lionetto and Ludovico, he was professor of philosophy (1563-66) and of theology (1567-68) at the Roman College; then rector in Turin (1568-75), where with the favor of Duke Emmanuel Philibert he promoted the teaching of the catechism to children of respectable station; subsequently, after some years of teaching theology in Rome and Padua, he was rector in Milan, Brescia and Venice. From 1606 he retired to Modena.
Cultured and full of zeal, an indefatigable preacher, he was on close and friendly terms with St. Charles Borromeo, whom he accompanied on his pastoral visits and at whose wish he composed a Catechism of the Catholic faith with a compendium for children (Milan 1584). The following year he made an edition of it for the diocese of Crema (there
1583). His other works, on the other hand, were published posthumously, and they assign him a distinguished place in the field of asceticism: Ad Patres et Fratres S. I. de plena cognitione Instituti, edited by Fr. G. Boere (Rome 1841); S. p. Ignatii de Loyola de discretione spiritum regularum explanatum (Naples 1851); Commentarii seu Explanationes in Exercitia spiritualia s. p. Ignatii de Loyola, edited by Fr. C. van Haken (Bruges 1882).
As for the Breve compendio intorno alla perfezione cristiana (Brescia 1611 and then repeatedly reprinted and translated), attributed by many to him, although others assigned it to a "Milanese lady," it is due, in its substance and ideas, to Isabella Cristina Bellinzaga Lomazzi, a Milanese; Fr. G., however, her spiritual director, certainly cooperated in it by revising, correcting and introducing various developments: how large a part he thus took in it remains difficult to determine. All the more so because the direction of that soul caused various and serious troubles for Fr. G., who had great difficulty in perceiving the element of illusion contained in the Vita that he had written of the Milanese lady, and in understanding that several supporters of her mystical doctrine, who would have wished to introduce changes in the Institute of the Order, were abusing his ingenuousness. Fortunately the counsel of St. R. Bellarmine averted the danger, saving the reputation and the good faith of the director and of the directee.
Bibliography2 works
Celestino Testore