MATTEO DA BASCIO. — Born at Bascio (Carpegna), in the diocese of Montefeltro, around 1495; died in Venice on 5 August 1552. He entered the Order of the Observant Friars Minor. When he was ordained a priest (1520), the desire to conform himself as faithfully as possible to St Francis left him no further rest. In January 1525 he fled from the convent of Montefalcone Appennino to go to Rome and implore Clement VII for the grace to imitate the Saint perfectly in his manner of dress, in the highest poverty, and in evangelical preaching. For himself and a companion, M. da B. obtained from Clement VII the privilege of wearing a coarse, close-fitting habit, with a pointed hood sewn to it, of preaching everywhere, and of observing the Rule to the letter, on condition that he present himself each year to his provincial minister. Giovanni da Fano, who then governed the province of the Marches, availing himself of a rescript issued shortly before by the Pope against wandering friars, had him imprisoned in the convent of Forano. Freed through the energetic intervention of Caterina Cibo, Duchess of Camerino, from the end of July 1525 until his death M. da B. was able to lead undisturbed his wandering life as a penitential preacher, first within the emerging family of the Capuchins, 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., though purely personal, was the starting point for other initiatives that led to the canonical institution of the new Franciscan family of the Capuchins. M. da B.’s contribution to the religious renewal then beginning in Italy, the Catholic Reformation, is worthy of note. He preached with great success. He assisted plague victims several times, in Camerino and in Rome. In 1546 he accompanied to Germany the papal troops that Paul III was sending to aid Charles V in his struggle against the Lutheran princes of the Schmalkaldic League: at the battle of Mühlberg (1547), M. encouraged the Catholic soldiers with the cross in his hand until complete victory.
He was venerated as a blessed by clergy and people alike
until the decrees concerning the public worship of the servants of God issued under Urban VIII (1625–1634).