PANZUTI, BIAGIO. – Redemptorist theologian, born at Aieta (Cosenza) on 21 October 1773, died at Naples on 8 May 1846. He entered religious life in 1792 and successfully taught theology to the students of his Congregation, of which he became consultor and procurator general.
P., a sought-after preacher of spiritual exercises, published several oratorical writings on the Madonna, s. Alfonso, and the clergy; he devoted himself more intensively to the study of Alphonsian moral theology, becoming an effective disseminator of II. In addition to the Sacrae theologicae speculativae institutiones (6 vols., Naples 1828–31), his classic work, which inspired other treatise writers, is the Theologia moralis B. Alphonsi M. de Ligorio in institutiones redacta ad usum studiosae inventatis ipsius praesertium Congregationis (4 vols., there 1824): this first systematization of Alphonsian doctrine made P. known throughout Europe, also because of the controversies that arose among Italian theologians. In 1825 the minister of ecclesiastical affairs urged the bishops of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in a circular to adopt these institutions in the seminaries, while certain rigorists denounced them to the king as “lax and erroneous.” Nor did the controversies cease after the favorable opinion given on 15 February 1826 by four Roman revisers (Ventura, Zecchinelli, Orioli, and Santini). A month later, at the request of the nuncio and the cardinal archbishop of Naples, they were examined by the S. Congregation of the Index, which declared them consonant with the teachings of s. Alfonso.
In 1842 he published two noteworthy volumes of casuistry, according to the thought of s. Alfonso.