PETRONIUS, Saint — Particular of the Madonna enthroned between St. Petronius and St. John the Evangelist by Francesco del Cossa (1474) — Bologna, Pinacoteca.
PETRONILLA, Saint — The deceased Veneranda with the martyr St. Petronilla. Painting from the second half of the 4th century — Rome, Catacomb of Domitilla.
July 1701. Entered among the Oratorians on 2 Feb. 1661; in 1678 he became preposito of the Congregation. On 20 May 1681 he took possession of the diocese of Jesi. On 2 Sept. 1686 he was created cardinal by Innocent XI.
P[etronius] is the leading exponent of Italian Quietism, in which, unlike Molinos (q.v.), he represents a “moderate” type of Quietism. Not everything in P[etronius] is heretical (sometimes, in fact, his Quietism is merely a “state of mind”); yet heresy appears in him in the theological delineation of the mystical stage, inasmuch as he affirms not only the suspension of discursive intellect but the suspension of intellect itself: “in this situation the theory of ‘nothingness’ emerges as the exemplar of mystical life and the center of the soul” (*I mistici enigmi disvelati*, Venice 1683, p. 34). His anti-intellectual stance leads him to define a God who on earth “must be believed in, hoped in, adored, and loved, not known or beheld” (*Lettere e trattati spirituali e mistici*, part 2, 1679, p. 168). P[etronius] openly maintained the impeccability of man once placed in the contemplative stage. The theories of P[etronius], as expressed in his writings (in addition to those cited: *La contemplazione mistica aquilata*, 1682; *Il nulla della creature e l’atto di Dio*, Bologna 1682; *Lettere brevi spirituali e sacre*, Jesi 1682), and the method of spiritual guidance he practiced with his penitents in Jesi caused great scandal: on 17 Dec. 1687 he was forced to retract his heretical propositions in the hands of Innocent XI, which provoked the “disgust” of the Congregation of the Holy Office, which demanded a public retraction. P[etronius’] works were placed on the Index on 5 Feb. 1683.