GESUALDO, ALFONSO. — Archbishop of Naples, born in Naples around 1540 to Luigi, count of Consa and later prince of Venosa. Clement VIII made him archbishop of Naples on 25 February 1596; there he displayed a multifaceted activity as pastor and administrator.
The 39 parishes existing in the city, insufficient for the administration of the Sacraments and the care of souls, were increased by a further 15 on his orders. A combative spirit, he became involved in a dispute with Cardinal Bellarmino, who wished to remove the island of Procida from his jurisdiction; and the Pope, convinced by the learned documentary evidence produced by G., confirmed his rights. A prelate of exemplary piety and austerity, he undertook to reform the convents of nuns in Naples, but encountered the opposition of the city’s seggi, jealous of certain prerogatives that G. was attempting to undermine. He died at the age of 63, at the beginning of 1603 (or 1605).
In 1367 they obtained approval of the Order from Urban V at Viterbo. Because they frequently repeated the name of Jesus in their sermons, they were called G. They wore a white cassock, drawn tight at the waist by a leather belt, with a square white hood and a gray mantle. At first their statutes were modeled, broadly speaking, on the Benedictine Rule; from 1426 they adopted the so-called Rule of s. Augustine and the constitutions compiled by bl. Giovanni di Tossignano, prior of one of their houses.
The G. experienced considerable growth in Italy; in 1425 some of them settled in Toulouse, where they led an eremitical life modeled on that of the Camaldolese. During the frequent epidemics of the period, they distinguished themselves by their very high spirit of self-sacrifice in caring for the afflicted and burying the dead; they had also specialized in the manufacture of medicines and of brandy, and for this reason were also called the Fathers of Brandy. Until 1606 they were all, without exception, laymen; in that year Paul V granted that they might enter the priesthood, so that each monastery had one or two priests.
The Order of the G. included bl. Giovanni da Tossignano and bl. Giannetto da Verona, Bianco da Siena, the gentle fifteenth-century mystical poet, Paolo Moriggia (d. 1604), author of a Storia degli uomini illustri del suo Ordine, and Bonaventura Cavalieri, the renowned mathematician.
In the seventeenth century, when the Order had declined from its primitive fervor, it was suppressed by Clement IX with the bull Romanus Pontifex (6 Dec. 1668).
Around 1367, bl. Colombini induced his cousin Caterina Colombini (d. 20 Oct. 1387) to establish the Gesuate, or Poor Gesuate Sisters of the Visitation of the Madonna, with a contemplative purpose. They observed silence, frequently fasted, scourged themselves twice every night, wore the cilice, and slept on straw. The Gesuate survived in Italy as a Congregation until 1872.