CAJETAN (GAETANO DA THIENE), ST.

The leading founder of the theatines; b. Vicenza, near Venice, Italy, October 1480; d. Naples, Aug. 7,1547. He was the son of Count Gaspare da Thiene. He studied law in Padua and in 1505 became prothonotary apostolic to Julius II; he was ordained on Sept. 30, 1516, and joined the Oratory of Divine Love in Rome, a group devoted to piety and charity. In 1518 he returned to Vicenza and continued his charitable activities, going to Venice in 1520 and founding a hospital for incurables (1522). He returned to Rome in 1523 and on Sept. 14, 1524, with three companions, Gianpietro Caraffa (later Pope paul iv), Bonifacio da Colle, and Paolo Consiglieri, founded the Clerici regulares, priests who took religious vows but lived in the world working for a truly Christian reform of society. By example and by exhortation they were to inspire the rest of the clergy. They were called Theatines after Chieti (Teate), the episcopal see of their first superior, Caraffa. Cajetan and the Theatines escaped from Rome in the sack of 1527 and found refuge in Venice, continuing their work. In 1533 Cajetan was made superior of a new foundation in Naples, where he labored till his death, except for a term (1540–43) as superior in Venice. In Naples he opposed the heretics Juan valdes and Bernardino ochino and founded a monte di pietá (see montes pietatis) that has become the Bank of Naples. He is buried in S. Paolo Maggiore, where he resided in Naples. He was beatified on Oct. 8, 1629, by Pope Urban VIII, and canonized on April 12, 1671, by Pope Clement X.

Feast: Aug. 7.

Bibliography: b. braun, Ontische Metaphysik: zur Aktuälitat der Thomasdeutung Cajetans (Würzburg 1995). p. chiminelli, San Gaetano Thiene, cuore della Reforma Cattolica (Vicenza 1948). a. veny ballester, San Cayetano de Thiene (Barcelona 1950). b. a. r. felmberg, Die Ablasstheologie Kardinal Cajetans (Leiden 1998). g. hennig, Cajetan und Luther (Stuttgart 1966). m. nieden, Organum deitatis: die Christologie des Thomas de Vio Cajetan (Leiden 1997). f. riva, Analogia e univocità in Tommaso de Vio 'Gaetano' (Milan 1995). p. h. hallett, Catholic Reformer (Westminster, Md. 1959). g. jacquemet, Catholicisme 4:1694–95.

[a. sagrera]