GIACINTO da Casale MONFERRATO. - Born in Casale to the counts Natta on 21 January 1575, died there on 18 January 1627. He studied literature in Pavia, sciences in Salamanca, law in Bologna, and gained practical experience in diplomacy at the ducal court of Mantua. Having entered the Capuchins of Venice in 1601, he devoted himself with apostolic freedom to preaching, exerting a vigorous reforming influence upon the masses.
At the Diet of Regensburg in 1613, as theologian to Cardinal Madruzzi, he successfully opposed the emperor Matthias’s policy of concessions to Protestants; he induced Ferdinand II to grant the Palatinate electorate to the Duke of Bavaria, thereby preserving the Catholic majority and overcoming, through intense activity and frequent travels to European courts, the dangerous opposition of princes; he reconciled the dukes of Parma and Mantua; and he persuaded Gregory XV to occupy the Valtellina with papal troops in order to preserve the balance of power and avert war among the European powers.
Besides lost political writings, he left an unpublished collection of questions; he composed several ascetical pamphlets and a work on Franciscan poverty, translated into various languages.