PAVONI, ANTONIO, blessed. – Dominican inquisitor and martyr, born in Savigliano in 1326, died at Bricherasio on 9 April 1374. He took the religious habit at the convent of Savigliano (c. 1341), of which he was repeatedly prior. He was a master in theology.
After Pietro Cambiani da Ruffia was killed by 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 as he was leaving the church of Bricherasio on the Sunday in Albis, as he had presented himself. On 4 December 1856, Pius IX confirmed his cult. Feast day: 9 April.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Aprilis, I, Parigi 1865, pp. 844-46; Année dominicaine, nuova ed., 1 (1889), pp. 295-301; I. Taurisano, Catalogus hagiographicus Ordinis Praedicatorum, Roma 1918, p. 30, n. 48.