ANTONIO PAVONI, Blessed. — Dominican inquisitor and martyr, born in Savigliano in 1326, died in Bric(h)erasio on 9 April 1374. He took the religious habit in the convent of Savigliano (c. 1341), of which he was repeatedly prior. He was a master in theology.
Having been killed by the heretics on 2 February 1365, P. was called to succeed him as general inquisitor for Piedmont, Lombardy, and Liguria. Because of his zeal in the exercise of his office, he was targeted by the Waldensian heretics and stabbed while leaving the church of Bricherasio on Low Sunday, as he had foreseen. Pius IX confirmed his cult on 4 December 1856. Feast day: 9 April.
Bibl.: Acta SS. Aprilis, I, Paris 1865, pp. 844-46; Année dominicaine, new ed., 1 (1889), pp. 295-301; I. Taurisano, Catalogus hagiographicus Ordinis Praedicatorum, Rome 1918, p. 30, 48.