GAZOTTI (CASOTTI), AGOSTINO, blessed. – Dominican bishop and confessor, born at Traù (Dalmatia) around 1260, died at Lucera (Apulia) on 3 August 1323. A religious, from 1278 he energetically combated heresy in Bosnia and Hungary.
Bishop of Zagreb from 1303 to 1322, he devoted himself to the reform of the clergy, the defense of the rights of the Church, and the pacification of spirits divided by conflicting parties. In 1322 he was transferred to the diocese of Lucera. Here he labored greatly for the conversion of the Saracens.
A model of apostolic zeal and every virtue, immediately after his death he was venerated as a saint. His cult, approved by Innocent XII (17 July 1700), was extended by Clement XI to Croatia, Dalmatia, and the diocese of Lucera (1702). Feast day: 3 August.
al-ĠAZZĀLI, ABŪ HĀMID MUḤAMMAD IEN MUḤAMMAD AT-ṬŪSĪ. – One of the greatest philosophers, mystics, and theologians of the Arabic-speaking Islamic world, well known to Latin scholasticism and especially to St. Thomas under the name of Algazel or Algazelut. Born at Ṭūs in Khorasan in 1058, he died there in 1111. A professor of theology in Baghdad, having embraced Sufism, he moved to Syria, Mecca, and other places, devoting himself entirely to the ascetic and literary life. Finally, after teaching once more at Najābūr in Persia, he withdrew with several disciples to a religious life in his native city.
His doctrine is characterized by the primacy granted to the heart and feeling over the intellect and reason, to religion and revelation over philosophy, to morality and the ascetic life over formalistic rites, and to interiority over exteriority. He was therefore an opponent of pure Aristotelianism, although his spirit was wholly permeated by the doctrine of Aristotle, the great educator of all Arab thinkers. He reproached Aristotelianism for its inability to demonstrate the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and other fundamental doctrines of the Islamic religion. In his view, superior men ought to devote themselves to the ascetic and mystical life of Sufism, which would be the sole path to moral perfection; one must not, however, fall into the excesses of the pantheistic doctrines of certain mystics. The influence of al-G. on Islam was profound and lasting; he infused into it something of the Christian spirit.
His works are numerous. Against the Aristotelianism of the Arab philosophers he wrote the Tahāfūs al-falāsifah, Destructio philosophorum. In Nei Propositi dei filosofi, a book likewise translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, he offers a brief treatment of logic, physics, and metaphysics. The book Il salvante dall'errore is autobiographical in character. His principal work, however, is La Vinificazione delle scienze della religione, one of the most remarkable books of Islam, in some respects not far removed from Christianity, whose influence his broad and understanding spirit felt to a not inconsiderable degree.