Saint of the Day – Blessed Giovanni Marinoni CR (1490-1562)

Saint of the Day – Blessed Giovanni Marinoni CR (1490-1562) Priest of the Theatines of St Cajetan (1480-1547) (The Congregation of the Clerics Regular of the Divine Providence), renowned Preacher and spiritual director.   Also known as John and Francesco Marinoni – born as Francesco Marinoni on 25 December 1490 at Venice, Italy and died on 13 December 1562, aged 71, at Naples, Italy of natural causes.    Patronage – of Preachers.

Blessed Giovanni was the third and youngest son of a noble family, originally of Bergamo but was born at Venice, in 1490.   From his infancy it was his chief delight to be on his knees at the foot of the altar and to hear as many masses everyday as his employments permitted him.

He usually studied before a crucifix and sanctified his studies by most frequent fervent acts of divine love.   To beg of God the grace never to sully his baptismal innocence, he spent forty days in prayer and a rigorous fast in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God.

Having embraced an ecclesiastical state, he served among the clergy of St Pantaleon’s church and, when he was ordained priest, became chaplain and afterwards superior of the hospital of incurables, in which charitable employ he was a comforting angel to all who were under his care.

He was called to be the Canon in the celebrated church of St Mark, where his life was the edification of his colleagues and of the whole city.   Out of a desire of serving God in a more perfect disengagement from earthly things, he decided to take the habit of the regular clerks called Theatines and made his profession in 1530, then taking the name “Giovanni”, on 29 May, at the age of 40.   He was received into the Order by the Founders, St Cajetan and Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa – the future Pope Paul IV, the Bishop of Chieti or Theate, who had instituted this order six years before.

In August 1533 he left Venice for Naples at the request of Pope Clement VII and remained there to direct the faithful.   He also made an attempt to strengthen the faith and to prevent unorthodox views from taking root.   He was appointed as the Superior of the House of San Paolo Maggiore in April 1540 and served as the spiritual director of a Dominican convent.   He also served as a spiritual adviser to Saint Andrew Avellino (1521-1608).   Avellino made reference to Marinoni as a great saint.

Pope Paul IV wanted to bestow upon him the Archbishopric of Naples but he refused it.

Both by his prayers and sacrifices and by his exhortations in the pulpit and confessional, he was an instrument of salvation to many.

His age and disease undermined him as he continued to work for others in Naples and the cholera epidemic that spread there, overcame him in 1562 which led to his death on 13 December 1562.

He was Beatified by a bull of Clement XIII on 5 December 1764, who granted to his order, an office in his honour to be celebrated on 13 December.   On 27 June 2011 Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree of heroic virtues and approved a miracle attributed to Blessed Giovanni’s intercession and thus cleared the way for his Canonisation cause.

Read about St Cajetan here:
https://anastpaul.com/2017/08/07/saint-of-the-day-7-august-st-cajetan-founder-of-the-theatine-order-the-father-of-providence/

And St Andrew Avellino here:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/10/saint-of-the-day-10-november-st-andrew-avellino-cr-1521-1608/