INNOCENZO da CALTAGIRONE. – Capuchin, of the Marcinò family, born in Caltagirone on 24 Oct. 1589, died there on 16 Nov. 1665. He taught Hebrew, philosophy, and theology, served as provincial minister (1635–38), visitor of the Messina province (1638–40), provincial minister of the Otranto province (1642), and minister general (1643–50).
He distinguished himself in preaching and in his offices through his extraordinary virtues and supernatural charisms; the itinerary of his visitation to all the provinces of the Order, marked by honorific receptions from civil and religious authorities and by mass devotional movements, is a document of 17th-century piety. On the instructions of Innocent X, he negotiated at the courts of France and Spain (1647–48) for the cessation of the Thirty Years’ War. Many of his *Conciones* and a Hebrew grammar survive in manuscript. As popular devotion to him persists, the processes for his beatification are underway.
(da V. ERCOLE, *Les yountiers mes. des bibl. publ. de France*, Innocenti, *strage dei santi* – Miniatura del Salterio di Parigi o Salterio della regina Ingeburga (ca. 1500), Chantilly, Biblioteca del Museo Condé, ms. 9 (1695), f. 18°.)