TEATINI. — Chronologically the first of the Congregations of Regular Clerics to arise in the 16th century, it was founded in Rome on 14 September 1524 by St. Cajetan of Thiene (q.v.), who had as his first companions: Gian Pietro Carafa, later Pope Paul IV (q.v.) and already Bishop of Chieti (Teate, whence the name of the Order), Boniface de’ Colli, and Paul Consiglieri or Ghisleri (q.v.). All four were members of the Roman Oratory of Divine Love and aimed at the reform of the clergy and Christian people through an exemplary priestly life and the exercise of austerely rigorous apostolate.
The foundation, previously approved by Clement VII with a brief of 24 June 1524, not only authorized the founders to take vows but placed the nascent Order under the immediate jurisdiction and special protection of the Holy See; it empowered them to receive, after a year’s probation, other subjects, to draw up their own constitutions, and conferred upon them the privileges of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. On 14 September following, all four made their solemn profession in St. Peter’s Basilica, and Carafa was elected superior. They first dwelt in Via Leonina near S. Nicola ai Prefetti; then they moved to the Pincian hill. Among others who lodged with the Regular Clerics were Lodovico da Fossombrone, a follower of Matteo da Buscio, and Paolo Giustiniani with Pietro Gabrielli da Fano, to whom Carafa smoothed the difficulties at Court concerning the reforms they were then advocating in their respective Orders. After being maltreated by the soldiery during the Sack of Rome in 1527, they took refuge in Venice, where they established a permanent seat at S. Nicola da Tolentino.
In 1533 they were entrusted with the revision of the Psalter of the Seventy and of the Vulgate and the Roman Martyrology. In 1588 the Theatines, who until then had had as their supreme governing body the annual General Chapter, elected as their first prepositus general Fr. Giambattista Milani. In 1604 the Constitutions drawn up in the General Chapters were approved by Clement VIII (28 July). Eminently commented upon by A. Caracciolo, Cardinal de Bérulle had them reprinted in Paris for use in the ecclesiastical reform he was promoting. Updated and revised in accordance with the new Code, they were again approved by Pius XII on 12 July 1948.
The Order is divided into provinces, houses, and residences. The prepositus general is elected for six years, provincial and local superiors for three. Characteristic is the “vocalate,” made up of fathers chosen by the General Chapter for their personal qualities; they form the Provincial Chapter, which among other duties is responsible for electing delegates to the General Chapter.
After the founder’s death the Order, which had only the houses at Venice, Naples, and Verona, received from Paul IV the house of S. Silvestro al Quirinale (1555) and then spread rapidly in Italy, where by the end of the 17th century it numbered more than fifty houses. Less rapid was its diffusion abroad. In Spain, which received the Theatines in 1622, they established themselves in Madrid, Saragossa, Barcelona, Salamanca, Alcalá, and Palma de Mallorca. This was followed by foundations at Paris (1647), Lisbon (1648), Munich (1662), Prague (1663), Lviv (Armenian College, 1663), Warsaw, and Salzburg (1663). At the same time the Theatines began their missionary activity. A major part in the establishment of the College of Propaganda Fide was played by Fr. Michele Ghisleri, whose spiritual son was the founder, Mons. Giambattista Cives; the Theatines were entrusted by Urban VIII with the direction and teaching of the students (1641). In 1626, led by the Venerable Peter Avitabile, they founded missions in eastern Georgia and subsequently those in Mingrelia, Guria, and Imeretia, where for more than seventy years forty-one religious labored. Notable among these is Fr. Clement Galano (q.v.), to whom is owed the foundation of the Armenian Colleges at Constantinople and Lviv, the latter being the center of the union of Armenians with the Roman Church. Other missionaries, led by the same Fr. Avitabile, in 1646 settled at Goa (Portuguese Indies) and thence in the regions of Golconda, Idalcan, Gerlim, and Coromandel. The Venerable Anthony Ventimiglia evangelized Borneo, while other confreres reached Sumatra (1702) and as far as Meliapur and Manila. In the political conditions of 19th-century Europe, the Order shared the fate common to other religious families. Some houses in Italy resisted suppression until, through the protection of Bl. Pius X, the Order recovered, and today, with houses in Italy, Spain, the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil, it is in a hopeful phase of renewal.
In the new current of Christian spirituality the Theatines are represented by *The Spiritual Combat* of Fr. Lawrence Scupoli (q.v.), one of the fundamental treatises of modern spirituality. Particularly venerated by the Theatines is Our Lady of Purity, patroness of the Order, while among the devotions practiced are the blue scapular of the Immaculate Conception and the vow in favor of the souls in Purgatory, illustrated and propagated by Fr. Gaspar de Olen (q.v.). The Order has always maintained its original concern for the splendor of divine worship and liturgical life, as is evident in treatises such as those by Tomasi and Merati and in the magnificent churches, most of them built by Theatine architects (Grimaldi and Guarini [q.v.]).
The Order counts two saints: Cajetan of Thiene and Andrew Avellino (q.v.); three blessed: John Marinoni (q.v.), Paul Cardinal Burali d’Arezzo (q.v.), and Joseph Cardinal Tomasi; and a considerable number of venerables. It has had one pope: Paul IV (Carafa), eight cardinals, and more than 250 bishops, for which in early times it earned the appellation “Seminary of Bishops.” Many others have distinguished themselves in sacred and profane learning and the arts: theologians (Diana, Pasqualigo, Verani), biblical scholars (Agelli [q.v.]), liturgists, orientalists (Galano [q.v.], Lamberti), philosophers (Ventura [q.v.]), historians (A. Caracciolo [q.v.], Silos, Paciaudi), mathematicians, astronomers (Piazzi [q.v.], Cossali), architects, and painters (Zoccolini, Galletti).
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TEATINI — St. Cajetan with his companions founds in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican the Regular Clerics T. Tempera by C. Maiola (1625–64?) — Ferrara, church of S. Maria della Pietà.
In the same year Cajetan of Thiene succeeded Carafa as prepositus of the Congregation.
What has distinguished Theatine life from the beginning has been the refusal to seek ecclesiastical benefices and the practice of perfect poverty, without even common ownership of property, trusting in Providence for their sustenance. The Theatines devoted themselves to promoting ascetical life among clergy and laity through frequent Communion, then little practiced, and the exercise of charity toward the poor and sick, as was also part of the program of the Companies of Divine Love (q.v.), which they promoted and assisted. They also took care to safeguard the purity of Catholic doctrine and the decorum of worship, engaging in the revision of the books of the Roman liturgy in accordance with the authorization they had received from Clement VII (briefs of 24 June 1524 and 21 January 1529).
After almost a decade of existence, the Theatines (T.) received full establishment and approval from Clement VII by a brief dated 7 March 1533. In the same year St Cajetan, Blessed John Marinoni (v.) and other companions founded their first house in Naples, where in 1538 they obtained from the Viceroy Pedro de Toledo the church of S. Paolo Maggiore and there carried out an extensive programme of reforms. The innovators Ochino, Valdés and Vermigli found in them their most resolute opponents. They devoted themselves to the Hospital for the Incurables, to the reform of women’s monasteries (Dominican nuns of La Sapienza, Franciscans of S. Maria in Gerusalemme, Convertite at the Incurables) and to social assistance: the Monte di Pietà, from which the Banco di Napoli derives, regards Thiene and Marinoni as its inspirers. As their numbers grew, the Theatines always stood alongside the Apostolic See in the reform of the Church. At the Council of Trent the English Theatine Thomas Goldwell (1500–85), Bishop of S. Asaph, took an active part and was entrusted with the thorny issues concerning England; while in Rome Frs. Girolamo Seripando and Bernardino Scotti (later a cardinal), Sirleto (v.), attended to important conciliar business. The primary role of the Theatines in the reform of the Breviary, later sanctioned by Pius V (1568), is well documented, as is that of Frs. AGELIO (v.) and Vincenzo Massa in the Greek edition.