SERAFINO da FERMO. - Ascetical writer and preacher, born at Fermo in 1496, died at Bologna in 1540. He entered the Lateran Canons Regular, preached fruitfully in northern Italy (Milano, Mantova, and Bologna), drawing Battista da Crema (v.) and gaining a distinctive place in the pre-Tridentine reform.
Among his ascetical writings, widely circulated at the time and translated into various languages, may be recalled: Opera nova del discernimento delli spiriti (Mantova 1535); Specchio interiore (Bologna 1539); Problemi sull'orazione (ibid. 1539), in the form of questions and answers; Primo e secondo trattato della discrezione (ibid. 1539); Trattato per la vita cristiana utilissimo della cognizione et vittoria di se stesso (ibid. 1541), a compendium of the principal work of fra' Battista da Crema; Apologia di fra' Battista da Crema (Milano 1541); the booklet, placed on the Index in 1564, was removed from it in 1900); Trattato della mental orazione (ibid. 1543), S.'s most complete work, almost a guide to the spiritual life.
The spiritual doctrine of S., although an occasional elaboration of that of fra' Battista da Crema and lacking in systematic character, insists on the work of Grace and on the complete renunciation of one's own will. He advises «to pray in the interior of the spirit», because this is the ordinary way of attaining perfect union with God. For S., the absence of effort is one of the characteristic elements of contemplation.