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Blessed Baptist Spagnoli of Mantua
Religious
April 17: Celebrated as a Memorial with proper texts or from
the Common of Men Saints (Religious).
 Baptist was born on 17th April 1447 to a family of civil
servants to the Dukes of Mantua. He entered the Carmelites of the Congregation
of Mantua at Ferrara as a young man and had a stellar rise in academics and
administration of his order. While not a poet of genius, he was a superb Latin
stylist, imitating Virgil. His eclogues were used in European schools for a
century and a half after his death as a model of style and he was quoted by
Shakespeare, Boswell, and Nashe. He was friends with many of the leading
Renaissance humanists, including the two Pico della Mirandolas, with whom some
correspondence survives. He made his religious profession in 1464 and served in
many positions of responsibility in the community in addition to his literary
work. Baptist performed a number of diplomatic missions for the popes; he was
vicar general of his congregation six times and in 1513 he was elected Prior
General of the whole Order. He was a renowned humanist who brought his richly
varied poetry into the service of Christ. He is the only Carmelite quoted in the
works of William Shakespeare. (Love's Labor Lost, Act IV, scene 2, line 95ff.)
He used his friendship with scholars as an opportunity of encouraging them to
live a Christian life. He died in Mantua on 20th March 1516.
Prayer
Lord God,
you made Our Lady's faithful servant,
Bl. Baptist Spagnoli,
a preacher of your Gospel by word and example.
Through his prayers may we ponder your word in Mary's
company,
and praise you with her by the way we live.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Scripture Readings
Wisdom:7:7-10, 15-16; Gospel - Matthew 5:13-16.
Texts taken from the “Carmelite
Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours,”
Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome: 1993.
Image courtesy of the
Carmelnet webmaster, USA.
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