MOZZI, LUIGI. – Jesuit theologian, born in Bergamo on 26 May 1747, died at Oreno (Milan) on 2 July 1815. Forced to leave the Society in 1773, even before being ordained, he became a priest and then a canon, pro-synodal examiner, and archpriest of the Chapter of Bergamo, where he distinguished himself through his multifaceted activity. For fifteen years (1777–92) he fought against Jansenism and its adherents. Subsequently, he devoted himself to education, especially that of young workers.
Politically persecuted because of the strong sympathy and influence he enjoyed among young people, he had to leave Bergamo (1797), returning there only for a brief period and spending almost all the rest of his life preaching popular missions. Pius VII appointed him (1804) prefect of the Oratory of the Caravita in Rome, but M. soon abandoned this office in order to re-enter the Society of Jesus, re-established in Naples. When the Jesuits were expelled from Naples and then from Rome as well, after numerous vicissitudes he found refuge with the Counts Scotti of Milan and died in their villa at Oreno, assisted by his friend St V. Strambi.
His writings are predominantly polemical in character, directed against Jansenism. He also wrote several biographies, translated and annotated various foreign works, and left a considerable number of manuscripts and letters unpublished. In M.’s thought, the anti-Jansenist works are of particular importance; in them he attacks his adversaries, at times violently. Worth recalling are the works concerning the return of the Jews to the Church: Lettere ad un amico (Bergamo 1777); those concerning the questions of intrinsically efficacious Grace and gratuitous predestination: Il falso discepolo di s. Agostino e di s. Tommaso convinto di errore (Venice 1779); those concerning the events of the Church of Utrecht: Storia compendiosa dello scisma della nuova Chiesa di Utrecht (Ferrara 1785), Storia della rivoluzione della Chiesa di Utrecht (3 vols., Venice 1787); and that concerning devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Il culto dell'amor divino (2 vols., Bologna 1792; a work by Msgr J. H. Fumel, translated and annotated by M.).