GIACINTO (BRUGIOTTI) OF VETRALLA. - Capuchin missionary of the Roman province, born in Vetralla on 23 January 1601, he entered the Order at the age of 24; preacher, provincial definer, prefect of the mission in the Congo from 1651 to 1657, died in Rome on 29 August 1659.
He wrote various reports rich in data on the regions, kingdoms, and mission of the Congo (cf. Analecta Ord. Min. Cappuccinorum, 13 [1897], pp. 89-96), which served as documentation for his confrere missionary G. A. CAVAZZONI (v.). Before going on mission, he compiled a Doctrina christiana ad profectum missionis totius regni Congi in quattro lingues per correlativas columnas distincta (Rome 1650), with the Kongo, Portuguese, Latin, and Italian texts, and some rules of pronunciation. After returning home, he published: Regulae quaedam pro difficillimi Congensium idiomatis faciliori captu ad grammaticae normam redactae (ibid. 1659), which were translated into English by H. Grattan Guinness (London 1882).
GIACINTO DA VETRALLA — GIACOBBE
Gesenius, Handwörterbuch, 173rd ed., p. 613: “full of traces of blood.”
The name G. (in the manuscripts of 'Ajn Fešbah discovered in 1947, where the spelling is consistently 'plena' 'fa'qābh) especially in prophetic and poetic literature denotes the entire people (Gen. 49:7), in parallel with ‘Israel’ (cf. Num. 23:10, 21; 24:5; Is. 2:5; 40:27; Jer. 2:4, etc.). Among the prophets, G. sometimes denotes only the northern kingdom (Is. 9:7; Mi. 1:5), or only Judah (Mi. 3:1, 8).
G. was born to Isaac and Rebecca (Gen. 25:26; 29:23 ff.). Gen. 25:19–50:25 recounts the story of G.’s youth and years of wandering: the struggle with his twin brother Esau for the birthright; his flight; the dream at Bethel; his service with Laban and his marriage to Laban’s daughters Leah and Rachel; his return and his struggle with the angel Israel (v.); and his reconciliation with Esau. Various episodes in G.’s life are contained in the pages dealing with Joseph (v.): his move to Egypt and his reunion with Joseph. In Egypt G. died 17 years after his immigration, at the age of 137, and was later buried in the cave of Machpelah, in the tomb of the patriarchal family.
Regarding the so-called “tricks” of G., it must be kept in mind that the consequential blessing given by Isaac was meant to fall upon the future patriarch and not upon Esau, the dull and coarse hunter; the firstborn is the bearer of the divine promise and the responsible minister of Abraham’s religious heritage. G., as patriarch of the chosen people, had to overcome obstacles in any way possible in order to secure the future of the people, which could have been compromised had Esau exercised the right of primogeniture. Faced with Laban’s unjust behavior, G., the weaker party, sought to defend himself with the only means at his disposal, namely cunning; nor should it be forgotten that the narratives of cunning used in the struggle against the unjust and the wicked (and of saints in their struggle against the devil) teach that in the end the wicked must succumb and give way to the just.
ARCHAEOLOGY. - The patriarch G. does not appear in funerary frescoes; Wilpert has identified G. blessed by Isaac in a sarcophagus now in Paris at the Louvre Museum (Sarcophagi, pl. 116, 1), a scene he considers inspired by St. Paul (Hebr. 10:20) and has identified G.’s dream in another sarcophagus.
