ROSSIGNOLI, BERNARDINO. - Jesuit, writer on asceticism, b. at Ormea in 1547, d. at Turin on 6 June 1613.
Having entered the Order in 1563, after 11 years of teaching philosophy and theology at Milan, he held the office of rector at the Roman College and at Turin, and of provincial of the Roman and Milanese provinces. A man of distinguished virtue and perfection, he was also a much sought-after spiritual director.
He wrote two works of great ascetic value: De disciplina christianae perfectionis pro triplici hominum statu, incipientium, proficientium et perfectorum (Ingolstadt 1600), which had 5 editions, two versions, French and Polish, and many imitators; De virtutibus (ibid. 1603), which had 4 editions; both give a large place to the doctrine of the Fathers. Falsely, however, the Stimulus virtutis (Rome 1592) and the Historia Thebea (Turin 1589) are attributed to him, which he polemicized against the materialist doctrines of his teachers in the Unità cattolica (1871) and was part of the editorial staff of the Palestra (1875), publishing a Teoria fisiologica e psicologica dell'istinto animale e della volontà umana, which was later to earn him the qualification for teaching philosophy. His thought oriented itself toward and adhered to the neo-Scholastic movement.
Having abandoned medicine, he resumed ecclesiastical studies and received ordination in 1878. A teacher in the Seminary of Novara, he wrote a Corso di filosofia much appreciated at the time and circulated in several editions. A canon of the Cathedral (1897), shortly afterward he was appointed a member of the Roman Academy of St. Thomas. He occupied himself intensely with social questions and presided over the Opera dei congressi (v.) in his diocese. In 1897, on his initiative, a chair of sociology was established in the Seminary and he became its holder. Besides very numerous articles in the Scuola cattolica and the Rivista internazionale di scienze sociali, and other literary, poetic and hagiographic 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).
Bibliography2 works
Augusto Moreschini