GIOVANNI (PILI) da FANO. - Franciscan friar and later a Capuchin, died at Urbania on March 5, 1539. Of noble birth, he became a Franciscan friar and distinguished himself for his zeal and activity. As provincial minister, he strongly opposed the early beginnings of the Capuchin reform.
Repenting of this, he not only favored it but embraced it (1534) and worked diligently to spread and consolidate it, especially in northern Italy and the Marches. In 1663 his body was found incorrupt. Together with St. Jerome Emiliani, he founded in Brescia the work of the Orphans of Mercy, and he also combated Protestant infiltrations in Italy through his writings.
BIBL.: M. a Pobludura, Historia generalis Ordinis Cappucinorum, I, Rome 1648, V. indice; G. Cantini, I Francescani d'Italia di fronte alle dottrine luterane e calviniste durante il Cinquecento (Bibliotheca Pontificii Athenaei Antoniani, 3), ibid. 1948, pp. 69-74, with bibliography by Alberto Ghinato.