MATTEO da BASCIO. - Born in Bascio (Carpegna), diocese of Montefeltro, around 1495; died in Venice on 5 August 1552. He entered the Order of Friars Minor Observant. When he was ordained priest (1520), his longing to conform as faithfully as possible to St Francis left him no peace. In January 1525 he fled from the convent of Montefalcone Appennino to go to Rome and beg Clement VII for the grace to imitate the Saint perfectly in his manner of dress, in his extreme poverty, and in his evangelical preaching. For himself and a companion, M. da B. obtained from Clement VII the privilege of wearing a rough, tight-fitting habit with a pointed hood sewn to it, of preaching anywhere, and of observing the Rule to the letter, on condition of presenting himself every year to his provincial minister. Giovanni da Fano, who was then governing the province of the Marches, made use of a rescript recently issued by the Pope against wandering friars to have him imprisoned in the convent of Forano. Released through the energetic intervention of Caterina Cybo, Duchess of Camerino, from the end of July 1525 until his death, M. da B. was able to lead undisturbed the wandering life of a penitential preacher, first within the emerging Capuchin family, then under the obedience of the Minister General of the Observants, to whom he nominally returned around 1530.
The concession obtained by M. da B., purely personal, was the starting point for other initiatives that led to the canonical institution of the new Franciscan family of the Capuchins. Notable is his contribution to the religious renewal then beginning in Italy, the Catholic Reformation. He preached with great success. He assisted the plague-stricken on several occasions, in Camerino and in Rome. In 1546 he accompanied into Germany the papal troops that Paul III sent to aid Charles V in his struggle against the Lutheran princes of the Schmalkaldic League: at the battle of Mühlberg (1547), M. with a cross in hand encouraged the Catholic soldiers to complete victory.
He was venerated as a blessed by clergy and people alike until the decrees on the public cult of the servants of God issued under Urban VIII (1625–1634).
Th. Graf, Zur Entstehung des Kapuzinerordens. Quellenkritische Studien, Olten 1940; Davide da Portogruaro, Il processo dei miracoli del p. Matteo (ott. 1552), in Collect. Franciscana, 15 (1945), pp. 92–116; Melchior a Pobladura, Hist. generalis Ord. Fr. Min. Cap., pars 1°, Rome 1947, p. 21 sq.