Scaglia, Sisto

SCAGLIA, SISTO. - Reformed Cistercian of La Trappe and Christian archaeologist, b. at Anzola d'Ossola (Novara) on 14 Dec. 1872, d. at Rome on 19 Sept. 1918.

Having spent his childhood and early youth in Novara, owing to the straitened circumstances of his family, he was admitted in 1894 to the Seminary of Arona, whence he passed in 1895 to that of Gozzano; in 1899 to that of Novara, where he then carried on his apostolate among the young people of the Salesian Oratory. The tragic death of his mother inspired in him a vocation to an austere life, and he entered among the Trappists in Rome, where he devoted himself to Christian archaeology, dwelling for a long time at the cemetery of St. Callixtus. He then passed in 1914 to the Cistercian Congregation of Italy, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Among his notable scientific output, the work in 4 vols. Notiones archeologiae Christianae disciplinis theologicis coordinatae, Rome 1909-11, stands out. Other esteemed works by S. are Les catacombes de St Callixte, Rome 1909; I mosaici antichi di S. Maria Maggiore (ibid. 1910); Manuel d'archéologie chrétienne (Turin 1916); I « Novissimi » nei monumenti primitivi della Chiesa (Schio 1923).

Gioacchino Mancini