ORATORY OF ETERNAL WISDOM. - An association or Company of ecclesiastics and laypeople desirous of a more intense spiritual life, born and flourishing in Milan (early 1500s) through the work of Msgr. G. A. Bellotti, of Ravenna, who, having moved to France, had been made commendatory abbot of the abbey of St. Anthony (Grenoble).
The O. had its seat at the monastery of the Augustinian nuns of St. Martha, where the venerable Arcangela Panigarola was prioress, who perhaps suggested its name, since she had a particular devotion to this divine attribute personified in the Word. Unlike the Company of Divine Love, in the Milanese o. the discipline of secrecy did not apply and the number of members was not limited. Regular and secular ecclesiastics, religious and laypeople of either sex could belong to it; and among the members are remembered Cardinal Gugl. Briçonnet; Giac. Simonetta, bishop of Pesaro, later cardinal; Fr. Simonetta, bishop of Perugia; Msgr. Franc.
Landini, suffragan of the archbishop of Milan; Gaston and Odet of Foix, called Lautrec; Maximilian and Francis II, dukes of Milan; the king of France himself, Francis I of Valois; especially the three founders of the Barnabites, Gioac. Ant. Morigia, Bart. Ferrari, St. Ant. M. Zaccaria, and Ludovica Torelli, countess of Guastalla. The internal life of the Association and the activity of its members are not known. That they engaged in the care of the sick is confirmed by the example of Msgr. Landini, of Ferrari and of Morigia, who exerted themselves during the plague of 1524. According to the Jesuit Rosignoli, biographer of Torelli, the purpose of the o. della E. S. was "to defend the Catholic faith in those dangerous times, to prevent the scandalous vices that were creeping about; to promote frequent reception of the Holy Sacraments, to take into safety girls in danger, to succor the poor and the sick" (op. cit. in bibl., p. 30).
The institution, however, did not have a long life. The plague of 1524, the death of Panigarola (16 Jan. 1525), the defeat of Francis I (24 Feb. 1525), the departure of Bellotti, who took refuge in Crema, thinned the ranks and diminished the activity of the O., which until then had been under the protection of France. Once political passions had somewhat calmed, Bellotti was able to return to Milan; but in Oct. 1528 he died. He was succeeded in the direction of the o. della E. S. by Msgr. Landini, later bishop of Laodicea, who, having died in 1533, does not appear to have had a successor. But perhaps, in fact, even earlier the confraternity no longer existed or had been transformed. It is certain that with the approval (18 Feb. 1533) of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (Barnabites) no further mention is made of the Milanese o.; which makes probable the thesis of Fr. Mazenta that the Confraternity, through the work especially of Zaccaria and his companions, was transformed into the religious families of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul and of the Angelics and into the Association of the Married. These have such intimate relations among themselves that they presuppose a common origin.
Bibliography3 works
Luigi Manzini