Belluno Cathedral
Belluno Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the historic centre of the city of Belluno, Italy, dedicated to Saint Martin. It is the episcopal seat of the diocese of Belluno-Feltre, it was elevated to the status of a minor basilica on 18 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II. The present cathedral stands on the site of a palaeo-Christian church. A subsequent church dedicated to Saint Martin and built in around in 850 is documented; the present building was built between 1517 and 1624, to plans by the architect Tullio Lombardo, in the style of the Renaissance. The cupola was completed only in 1756; the campanile is by Filippo Juvarra. The unfinished west front is of stone, divided vertically into three, between two lower wings; the lower part contains a rich Baroque portal and two Gothic windows, while the upper part, terminating in a tympanum which rests on an entablature delineated by lesene, contains a central rose window, the glass of which depicts figures of Saint Gioatà, Saint Lucanus and Saint Martin.
The interior of the cathedral, majestic in appearance, has Renaissance lines if the height of the pilasters tends more to the Gothic. There are three naves of six spans; the presbytery has triple rows of stalls. The cupola is light; the semi-circular apse contains a fresco by Antonio Ermolao Paoletti of a triumphal Assumption. Among the works by distinguished artists kept in the cathedral, two paintings by Gaspare Diziani stand out for the complexity of their composition: Saints Charles Borromeo, Francis de Sales and Andrew Avellino and the Conversion of St Paul. An altar in the northern nave is decorated by a painting by Egidio Dall'Oglio depicting the Holy Family; the organ, dating from 1946, is by Mascioni. The Baroque campanile, built between 1732 and 1743, stands at the exit from the sacristy, it was designed by the Messinese architect Filippo Juvarra. Including the angel on the top it is 67.35 metres high. The angel, of wood covered in copper, by Andrea Brustolon, is 4.63 metres high. Diocesan website: Belluno Cathedral Basilica cattedrale
Somaschi Fathers
The Somascan Fathers are a charitable religious congregation of priests and brothers, founded in Italy in the 16th century by Saint Jerome Emiliani and named after the motherhouse at Somasca. They are called Somascans for short, their formal name is Ordo Clericorum Regularium a Somascha, abbreviated as C. R. S. after members' names. There are about 500 Somascans serving around the world, they provide staff for boys' homes, serve in 95 parishes, engage in other ministries. In 1532, the priests Alessandro Besuzio and Agostino Bariso joined the charitable labors of Jerome Emiliani, a converted former soldier from Venice. Emiliani founded the religious order called the "Company of the Servants of the Poor" in 1534, calling together his collaborators and companions for a general assembly; this handful of laymen and priests adopted an organized structure for the movement of religious and social reform started by Jerome in 1529 in Venice. Their goal was to dedicate themselves to the care, promotion of poor, abandoned youth, etc. to any kind of works of mercy, to any pastoral ministry according to the instructions of the bishops.
Jerome placed the motherhouse at a secluded hamlet between Milan and Bergamo. The group was recognized by the papal nuncio to the Republic of Venice in 1535. Jerome Emiliani died at dawn on 8 February 1537. After the death of Jerome the community was about to disband, but was kept together by Angelo Marco Gambarana, chosen superior, it was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, confirmed by Pius IV in 1563. In 1568 the Company was constituted a religious order, according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with solemn vows, by Pius V with the name of Somascan Regular Clerics. At this time the first Constitutions were issued to define a common lifestyle for all its members, both lay and clergy. In 1547 the Somascans were united with the Theatines, but as the care of orphans was different from the purpose of the latter community, they separated in 1554. In 1569 the first six members made their profession, Gambarana was made first superior general. Great favour was shown to the order by St. Charles Borromeo, he gave it the church of St. Mayeul at Pavia, from which church the order takes its official name "Clerici regulares S. Majoli Papiae congregationis Somaschae".
The education of youth was put into the programme of the order, the colleges at Rome and Pavia became renowned. It spread into Austria and Switzerland, before the great Revolution it had 119 houses in its four provinces: Rome, Lombardy and France; the spirituality of St. Jerome consists in the desire to bring the Church "to the state of holiness" of the early Christian communities, serving Christ in poor, abandoned children and, showing them the tender "fatherhood and motherhood" of God. In the rule, Jerome puts down as the principal work of the community the care of orphans and sick, demands that dwellings and clothing shall bear the mark of religious poverty; the Order extended its charitable ministries beyond the care of orphans by supporting and staffing seminaries, by educating and forming youth, by ministering to people in parishes. Its expansion, was abruptly stopped by laws obstructing religious life issued by Napoleon in 1810 and by the Italian government in 1861, it followed a painful dark period characterized by persecution, suffering, from which only at the beginning of the 20th century did the Order emerge with new vitality.
Its expansion resumed, reaching new new countries. Nowadays, the Somascans number about 500 religious; the Somascan Fathers and Brothers continue St. Jerome's mission as either priests or brothers by living in communities, pursuing holiness by prayer and ministry to the poor, living in humility and kindness, loving poverty and work, praying to Jesus and Mary, they perform different ministries in the Church, such as the care of orphans, the disadvantaged and the poor. They work in group homes and rehabilitation centers, retreat houses, youth centers, parishes; the Somascan operate in the following countries: Europe: Italy, Poland, Albania. Official website
Pope Francis
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, the first to visit and hold papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century. Born in Buenos Aires, Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina's provincial superior of the Society of Jesus, he became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina; the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March, he chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as Pope, concern for the poor and commitment to interfaith dialogue.
He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes. He maintains that the Church should be more welcoming, he does not support Marxism, or Marxist versions of liberation theology. Francis maintains the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, ordination of women, clerical celibacy, he opposes consumerism and overdevelopment, supports taking action on climate change, a focus of his papacy with the promulgation of Laudato si'. In international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba and supported the cause of refugees during the European migrant crisis. Since 2016, Francis has faced open criticism from theological conservatives, on the question of admitting civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion with the publication of Amoris laetitia, on the question of the alleged cover-up of clergy sexual abuse.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936 in a neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He was the eldest of five children of Regina María Sívori. Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro in Italy's Piedmont region. Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian origin. Mario José's family left Italy in 1929 to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. According to María Elena Bergoglio, the Pope's only living sibling, they did not emigrate for economic reasons, his other siblings were Oscar Adrián and Marta Regina. Two great-nephews and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles, a school of the Salesians of Don Bosco, in Ramos Mejía, Buenos Aires, he attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N° 27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past President of Argentina, graduated with a chemical technician's diploma. He worked for a few years in that capacity in the foods section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where his boss was Esther Ballestrino.
Before joining the Jesuits, Bergoglio worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors, he ran tests in a chemical laboratory. In the only known health crisis of his youth, at the age of 21 he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts, he had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards. Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club. Bergoglio is a fan of the films of Tita Merello and tango dancing, with a fondness for the traditional music of Argentina and Uruguay known as the milonga. Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood, he passed by a church to go to confession, was inspired by the priest. Bergoglio studied at the archdiocesan seminary, Inmaculada Concepción Seminary, in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, after three years, entered the Society of Jesus as a novice on 11 March 1958. Bergoglio has said that, as a young seminarian, he had a crush on a girl he met and doubted about continuing the religious career; as a Jesuit novice he studied humanities in Chile.
At the conclusion of his novitiate in the Society of Jesus, Bergoglio became a Jesuit on 12 March 1960, when he made the religious profession of the initial, perpetual vows of poverty and obedience of a member of the order. In 1960, Bergoglio obtained a licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio Máximo de San José in San Miguel, Buenos Aires Province, he taught literature and psychology at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción, a high school in Santa Fe, from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, he taught the same courses at the Colegio del Salvador in Buenos Aires. In 1967, Bergoglio finished his theological studies and was ordained to the priesthood on 13 December 1969, by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano, he attended a seminary in San Miguel. He became a professor of theology. Bergoglio completed his final stage of spiritual training as a Jesuit, tertianship, at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, he took the final fourth vow
Ludovico Donato
Ludovico Donato was an Italian Franciscan. He became Minister General of his order, of the Rome obedience during the Western Schism, in 1379. In 1383 he was created a Cardinal, the first from Venice, he was arrested with four other cardinals in 1385, suspected of conspiring against Pope Urban VI. They were imprisoned and tortured. Donato is believed to have been executed around January 1386. Biography Franaut page
Prosdocimus
Saint Prosdocimus of Padua is venerated as the first bishop of Padua. Tradition holds, he is thus depicted in art with this Apostle. The cathedral at Feltre is dedicated to him and Saint Peter the Apostle, the artist Il Pordenone created a work depicting Prosdocimus with Peter, he is said to have founded the parish church at Isola Vicentina. His tomb is situated at the basilica of Santa Giustina at Padua; the chapel dedicated to him there was built over his tomb outside the walls of Padua. The church once contained the relics of Prosdocimus's deacon, Saint Daniel, though these were moved to the Paduan church of Santa Sofia in the 11th century. Prosdocimus is depicted in an altarpiece by Romanino, now in the Musei Civici di Padua, he holds the jug a water. Saints of November 7: Prosdocimus of Padua
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Hermagoras of Aquileia
Saint Hermagoras of Aquileia is considered the first bishop of Aquileia, northern Italy. Christian tradition states that he was chosen by Saint Mark to serve as the leader of the nascent Christian community in Aquileia, that he was consecrated bishop by Saint Peter. Hermagoras and his deacon Fortunatus evangelized the area but were arrested by Sebastius, a representative of Nero, they were beheaded. "Hermagoras" was listed as the name of the first bishop of Aquileia. He was a bishop or lector living in the second half of the 3rd century or at the beginning of the fourth. However, because the name or origins of the first bishop was unknown, Aquileian traditions arising in the 8th century made Hermagoras a bishop of the apostolic age, consecrated by Saint Peter himself; as Hippolyte Delehaye writes, "To have lived among the Savoir's immediate following was...honorable...and accordingly old patrons of churches were identified with certain persons in the gospels or who were supposed to have had some part of Christ's life on earth."
Thus, false apostolic origins were ascribed to the church at Aquileia. The tradition that Fortunatus was Hermagoras' deacon is probably apocryphal, but a Christian named Fortunatus may have been a separate martyr at Aquileia. Hermagoras and Fortunatus may have been martyrs killed in Singidunum. There, around 304 during the religious persecutions led by Emperor Diocletian, Hermagoras, or Hermogenes, was a lector and Fortunatus a deacon, their relics may have been brought to Aquileia a century and that city became the center of their cult as it was at Aquileia that the belief in their apostolic origin arose. Aquileia was one of the first cities, their feast day was recorded as July 12, further recorded in the Roman Martyrology, the Church of Aquileia, in various other Churches. However, Venantius Fortunatus did not mention Hermagoras in his works, but mentioned the name of Fortunatus twice: once in a life of Saint Martin: Ac Fortunati benedictam urnam, the second time in his Miscellanea: Et Fortunatum fert Aquileiam suum.
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum mentions Hermagoras, but in a corrupted form: Armageri, Armigeri. There is some confusion, as the Martyrologium Hieronymianum lists "sanctorum Fortunate Hermogenis" under August 22 or 23; the Bollandists considered this a repetition of the same saints. However, the cult of Saint Felix and Saint Fortunatus of Aquileia was mentioned in calendars for August 14. Hermagoras' name survives in the modern state of Austria, his cult was popular in Udine and Gurk. The basilica of Aquileia today contains 12th-century frescoes, one of which depicts Hermagoras and Saint Peter. Hermagoras and Fortunatus have been venerated among the Slovenes because they were Christianised by missionaries from Aquileia. Since 1961, St. Hermagoras and St. Fortunatus have been the secondary patrons of the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, re-established that year. In Slovenia, there are altogether seven parish churches and 25 branch churches dedicated to St. Hermagoras and/or St. Fortunatus; the oldest Slovene publishing house, established in 1851, is named the Hermagoras Society.
The village of Šmohor in eastern Slovenia is named after St. Hermagoras. Media related to Hermagoras of Aquileia at Wikimedia Commons
Italy
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
