CESARE SPORTELLI, Venerable. — Redemptorist preacher, born at Mola di Bari on 19 June 1701, died at Pagani on 19 April 1730. Having become an advocate in the Neapolitan royal court, he served as procurator for the Prince of Vasto.
Together with his most pious mother, Barbara Pavia, he provided financial assistance to Bishop T. Falcoia of Castellamare di Stabia to bring the Maestre Pie of St Lucy Filippini from the Papal States into the Kingdom of Naples. In 1732 he joined St Alphonsus Mary de’ Liguori as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer was being founded, and remained steadfastly loyal despite the defections and persecutions of those early years.
Ordained priest in 1737, he zealously devoted himself to the salvation of the most abandoned souls in the Irpinian and Salernitan countryside; he also preached with abundant fruit to ecclesiastics and cloistered religious. As rector and general consultor he contributed to the building of the houses at Pagani and Materdomini. He left more than a hundred letters, chiefly of an ascetical nature, and various valuable notes on the early history of the Redemptorists. Although St Alphonsus laboured diligently for his beatification, the cause was not introduced until 1891.