Panzuti, Biagio

PANZUTI, BIAGIO. - Redemptorist theologian, b. at Aieta (Cosenza) on 21 Oct. 1773, d. at Naples on 8 May 1846. A religious in 1792, he taught theology with success to the students of his Congregation, of which he became consultor and procurator general.

P., a sought-after preacher of spiritual exercises, published some oratorical writings on the Madonna, St. Alphonsus and the clergy; he devoted himself more intensely to the study of Alphonsian moral theology, becoming an effective popularizer of it. Besides the Sacrae theologicae speculativae institutiones (6 vols., Naples 1828-31), his classic work, from which other treatise-writers drew inspiration, is the Theologia moralis B. Alphonsi M. de Ligorio in institutiones redacta ad usum studiosae inventatis ipsius praesertium Congregationis (4 vols., ibid. 1824): this first systematization of Alphonsian doctrine made P. known in Europe, also because of the controversies that arose among Italian theologians. In 1825 the minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs urged in a circular the bishops of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 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 Feb. 1826 by 4 Roman revisers (Ventura, Zecchinelli, Orioli and Santini). A month later, at the request of the nuncio and of the cardinal archbishop of Naples, they were examined by the S. Congregation of the Index, which declared them in agreement with the teachings of St. Alphonsus.

In 1842 he published two notable volumes of casuistry, according to the thought of St. Alphonsus.