ROSSIGNOLI, BERNARDINO. – Jesuit, writer on asceticism, born at Ormea in 1547, died at Turin on 6 June 1613.
Having entered the Order in 1563, after 11 years of teaching philosophy and theology at Milan, he served as rector of the Roman College and of the one at Turin, and as provincial of the Roman and Milanese provinces. Of outstanding virtue and perfection, he was also a much sought-after spiritual director.
He wrote two works of great ascetical value: De disciplina christianae perfectionis pro triplici hominum statu, incipientium, proficientium et perfectorum (Ingolstadt 1600), which went through 5 editions, had two translations, French and Polish, and many imitators; De virtutibus (ibid. 1603), which went through 4 editions; both give considerable prominence to the doctrine of the Fathers. The Stimulus virtutis (Rome 1592) and the Historia Thebea (Turin 1589), on the other hand, are falsely attributed to him, which
Having abandoned medicine, he resumed his ecclesiastical studies and was ordained in 1878. A teacher at the Seminary of Novara, he wrote a Corso di filosofia, highly esteemed at the time and published in several editions. Canon of the Cathedral (1897), he was shortly afterward appointed a member of the Roman Academy of St. Thomas. He devoted himself intensely to social questions and presided over the Opera dei congressi (v.) in his diocese. In 1897, on his initiative, a chair of sociology was established at the Seminary, and he became its holder. In addition to very numerous articles in Scuola cattolica and the Rivista internazionale di scienze sociali, as well as other literary, poetic, and hagiographical works, he also wrote: Il determinismo nella sociologia positiva (Rome 1893–94); Concetto dell'autorità politica nella sociologia cristiana (Siena 1903); La famiglia, il lavoro, e la proprietà nello Stato moderno (Novara 1907).