MARIO da MERCATO SARACENO. - The first Capuchin historiographer, born in 1512–13 into the noble Fabiani family, died at Tolentino in 1581. From the Hermits of S. Agostino he passed to the Capuchins in 1539–40; three times provincial, of Bologna (1555, 1561) and of the Marche (1556–59); four times general definitor, twice minister general (1567–73).
At the initiative of Cosimo I dei Medici he wrote the Relationes de origine Ordinis Fr. Min. Cappuccinorum, (ed. Melchior a Pobladura, Assisi 1937); he subsequently wrote several Poemetti; he was also an accomplished preacher: one of his Lenten sermon cycles is still preserved unpublished in the Biblioteca Estense of Modena (v. L. 12.11).
BIBL.: Melchior a Pobladura, De vita et scriptis p. Marii Fabiani a Foro Sarsinio, in Collectanea Franciscana, 6 (1936), pp. 352-94; id., Poemetti del p. M. Fabiani generale del Cappuccini, in L'Italia franciscana, 12 (1937), pp. 315-25, 409-14; 13 (1938), pp. 27-32, 418-23; id., Historia generalis Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Cappuccinorum, part 1, Roma 1947, pp. 59-61, 237 ff.; N. Mancini, Un poemetto mariano del p. M. Fabiani?, in L'Italia franciscana, 9 (1934), pp. 195-208; T. Graf, Zur Entstehung des Kapazinerordens. Quellenkritische Studien, Olten 1940.
Melchiorre da Pobladura