PINI, MICHELE, Blessed. — Camaldolese recluse, b. in Florence in 1442, d. at Camaldoli on 21 Jan. 1522. Raised at the court of the Medici, he was a favorite of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who had him ordained priest and granted him wide freedom to devote himself to a life of piety, merely to keep him near himself.
Having fallen in love with the eremitical life, after a visit to the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, he took monastic vows on 24 March 1502. After three years he became a recluse and remained such for 17 years until his death. He attained high degrees of mystical union in a life of uninterrupted prayer and rigorous penance, suffused with such cheerfulness that he was beloved by all his brethren. Among other things, he predicted the supreme pontificate for Cardinals Giuliano de’ Medici and Alessandro Farnese. He wrote a treatise on the Most Holy Sacrament and one on prayer. He instituted, by divine inspiration, the “Corona del Signore,” which was immediately approved (14 Feb. 1616) and enriched with numerous indulgences by Leo X.