Giovenale Ancina
Encyclopedia
Giovanni Giovenale Ancina (October 19, 1545 – August 30, 1604) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 priest, scholar and music composer, known also as an orator. He was beatified in the late nineteenth century.

Ancina was born into a wealthy family of Fossano
Fossano
Fossano is a town and comune of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo. It is the fourth largest town of the Province of Cuneo, after Cuneo, Alba and Bra....

, in what is now the province of Cuneo
Province of Cuneo
ayr is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ....

 in the Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

 region of northern Italy. He received a university education in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and during his youth also became an accomplished man of letters and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

.

Given his talents, interests and connections, he had a wide variety of career options. Initially he became a physician and then after he had met Saint Philip Neri in Rome, he decided to become a priest. He worked with Neri in Naples at the Congregation of the Oratory. Then he moved to Saluzzo
Saluzzo
Saluzzo is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont region, Italy.The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc...

 in the Piedmont region, where he introduced the use of the Catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...

. In 1596, Pope Clement VIII made him Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of the town. Ancina died of a suspected poisoning in 1604 and was buried in Saluzzo Cathedral.

On 9 February 1890 he was beatified by Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

. His cannonization is still pending.

He is the patron saint of Fossano, his town of birth.

Music

In Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Ancina, who was also a musician and composer, published the Tempio Armonico della Beatissima Vergine, a collection of spiritual songs.

See also

  • Congregation of the Oratory
  • Diocese of Saluzzo
    Roman Catholic Diocese of Saluzzo
    The Diocese of Saluzzo is a Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, centered in the comune of Saluzzo. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Turin, and the current bishop is Giuseppe Guerrini. In 2004 it counted c. 89,000 baptized.It was created in 1511...


External links

A brief biography from an Oratorian site
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