#theatines

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT CAJETAN Founder of the Theatine Fathers and Patron of Gamers Feast Day: August 7

"If you want Christ to love you and help you, you must love Him, and always make every endeavour to please Him. Do not waver in your purpose, because even if all the saints and every single creature were to abandon you, He will always be near you, no matter what your needs may be."

Are you losing your job during the pandemic? Are you always wasting your money because you're bad at banking? Are you losing some stuff due to pulling a better gacha? This priest and founder is the one who solve all of your problems. This is Cajetan, nicknamed the 'Hunter of Souls', and is well-known as the patron saint of the unemployed, bankers, and gamers.

He was born Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene, in Vicenza, Veneto, Republic of Venice (now in Italy) on October 1, 1480, and is the son of Gaspar, lord of Thiene, and Mary Porta, persons of the first rank among the nobility of the territory of Vicenza in the Veneto region. When Cajetan was two, his father died. Quiet and retiring in nature, he was predisposed to piety by his mother.

Having obtained a doctorate in law and receiving a degree as doctor utriusque juris (both civil and canon law) from the University of Padua at the age of 24, and he spent two years as a senator in his hometown. In 1506, he worked as a diplomat for Pope Julius II, with whom he helped reconcile the Republic of Venice. But he was not ordained a priest until 1516. With the death of Pope Julius II in 1513, Cajetan withdrew from the papal court. Unsatisfied by that kind of life, he pursued his vocation in Rome, where he was ordained in 1516. Recalled to Vicenza by the death of his mother he founded in 1522 a hospital for incurables there. His interests were as much or more devoted to spiritual healing than the physical kind, and he joined a confraternity in Rome called the 'Oratory of Divine Love'.

A new congregation was canonically erected by Pope Clement VII in the year 1524. One of his four companions was Giovanni Pietro Carafa, the bishop of Chieti, elected first superior of the order, who later became pope as Paul IV. From the name of the city of Chieti (Theate in Latin), arose the name by which the order is known, the 'Theatines', commonly known as the Congregation of Clerics Regular.

They were committed to teach catechism, to assist the poor, and reform the clergy. They were known as Theatines in honor of the bishop of Chieti who joined them.

The order grew at a fairly slow pace: there were only twelve Theatines during the sack of Rome in 1527, during which Cajetan was tortured by the Spanish soldiers of Charles V who had mutinied, and they managed to escape to Venice, where they opened new houses. There Cajetan met Jerome Emiliani, whom he assisted in the establishment of his Congregation of Clerks Regular (Somascan Fathers). In 1533, he founded a house in Naples. The year 1540, found him in Venice again and from there he extended his work to Verona. He founded a bank to help the poor and offer an alternative to usurers (who charged high interest rates), and it later became the Banco di Napoli.

The reason why Cajetan is the patron of gamblers is this story. His connection to gambling is obscure. Popular lore says the people would ask him for a favor, and bet him a rosary that he couldn't come through. Since he always came through, he was able to get people to pray more.

Worn out by his restless apostolate, St. Cajetan died peacefully on August 7, 1547 at the age of 66. Advised by his physician not to lie in a hardboard but on a mattress, he replied: 'My Savior died on a cross, allow me at least to die on wood.'

Saint Cajetan was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation, remaining loyal to the Church regardless of the corruptions and excesses that led many others to betray Her.

He was born on 1 October 1480 to a noble family and received a rigorous education guided by his mother, following the death of his father when he was just two.

His studies of canon and civil law led him to work as a jurist in the court of Pope Julius II, which he abandoned upon the Pope's death, in order to study for the priesthood.

He was ordained at the age of 36 and founded a community of priests, who lived a monastic form of poverty and prayer.

He lived and worked closely with the poor in order to combat the political and spiritual corruption of the times.

His order, the Congregation of Clerks Regular, were popularly called the Theatines, after the title of one of his companions, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, the Bishop of Chieti (Theate in Latin), who later was elected Pope Paul IV.

His concern for the poor always had a strong presence in his life. He practised charity constantly, whether in personal encounters or in the founding institutions such as a hospital for those with incurable diseases.

He even founded a bank for the poor in order to lend money to them without the usual high interest charged by other money lenders.

In 1533, he founded one of his order's houses in Naples where he battled against the growth of the Lutheran heresy. 

He died on 6 August 1547, the feast of the Transfiguration. This occurred in Naples when the city was still in serious spiritual, political and social trouble.

Source of picture: https://anastpaul.com

Life of St. Sixtus II. and Companions

The sixth pope was named the “Sixth” or, in Latin, “Sixtus.” He reigned from 115–125 A.D. The next Sixtus was today’s martyr, who reigned from one August to the next in 257–258. Sixtus II (or Sixth, the Second) is listed in the Roman Canon’s select roll call of sainted popes: “Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Lawrence, Cyprian…”  The preservation of his name in the liturgy is compelling proof of the lasting impact of his bloody witness.

Sixtus II succeeded to the chair of Saint Peter at a difficult time. The on-again, off-again persecutions of the early Church were on-again in the 250s. The Roman Emperors Decius and Valerian sought the blood of Christians not only to try to decapitate the surging Church but also to confiscate the wealth and property of Christians. The tensions in Church-State relations were no less serious than internal Church tensions tearing at its unity. The persecution of Decius from 250–251 was wicked. Decius’ edict required everyone in the empire to sacrifice to a Roman god in the presence of a state official, with a signed libellus, or certificate, being issued afterward as proof that the sacrifice had been offered. Many Christians were weak and afraid and so sacrificed to gods they knew didn’t exist. Some Christians purchased a libellus, some fled to the safety of the countryside, and some refused to sacrifice and were cruelly martyred.

Christians’ divergent responses to the persecution—some heroic, some weak, some uncertain—were traumatic for the Church. Many in the African and Asiatic Church said that those who sacrificed (the lapsi) must be re-baptized. Pope Stephen I, Sixtus II’s predecessor, said that the lapsi must only repent to be reconciled with the Church. The theological positions of the two camps were each sincere, and hardened over time. There was no easy answer.

Source of picture: SeekFirstCommunity on Pinterest

Sixtus II had to be consecrated as Pope in secret because of the times. In 257, the formerly peaceable Emperor Valerian issued an anti-Christian edict which forbade Christians from assembling in cemeteries. Sixtus avoided persecution for many months. But in early August 258, Valerian got serious. A new edict focused on essential targets. Bishops, priests, and deacons could be put to death without a trial. On August 6, 258, Pope Sixtus II was with his flock, seated and preaching the word of God, probably at Mass, in the catacombs. A small troop of soldiers was on the hunt. The Pope must die. With torches lighting the way, the soldiers scurried through the warren of dark and narrow passageways toward the underground chapel. Perhaps they heard some singing. They acquired their prize soon enough, and the deed was done.

Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, North Africa, received the news shortly afterward and, before being martyred himself, wrote a letter to his flock: “Valerian has issued an edict to the Senate to the effect that bishops, presbyters, and deacons shall suffer the death penalty without delay…I must also inform you that Sixtus was put to death in a catacomb on the sixth of August, and four deacons with him…Let all our people fix their minds not on death but rather on immortality…knowing that in this contest the soldiers of God and Christ are not slain but rather win their crowns.” An inscription placed on Sixtus II’s tomb over a hundred years after his death by Pope Saint Damasus, rediscovered in the 1800’s, verifies the drama of Sixtus II’s last moments. It notes that the shepherd gave his life for his flock. The faithful with Sixtus that fateful day walked up the steps of the catacomb into the daylight totally unharmed, while their pastor lay dead. The companions martyred with Sixtus were the deacons Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, Stephanus, Felicissimus and Agapitus.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/august-7-saint-sixtus-ii-pope-and-companions-martyrs/

 Memorial of St. Sixtus II.

Source of picture: www.sandrobotticelli.net

At the time when the sword pierced the bowels of the Mother, I, buried here, taught as Pastor the Word of God; when suddenly the soldiers rushed in and dragged me from the chair. The faithful offered their necks to the sword, but as soon as the Pastor saw the ones who wished to rob him of the palm (of martyrdom) he was the first to offer himself and his own head, not tolerating that the (pagan) frenzy should harm the others. Christ, who gives recompense, made manifest the Pastor’s merit, preserving unharmed the flock.

 Life of St. Cajetan

Source of picture: https://americaneedsfatima.org

Like most of us, Cajetan seemed headed for an “ordinary” life—first as a lawyer, then as a priest engaged in the work of the Roman Curia.

His life took a characteristic turn when he joined the Oratory of Divine Love in Rome, a group devoted to piety and charity, shortly after his ordination at 36. When he was 42 he founded a hospital for incurables at Venice. At Vicenza, he joined a “disreputable” religious community that consisted only of men of the lowest stations of life—and was roundly censured by his friends, who thought his action was a reflection on his family. He sought out the sick and poor of the town and served them.

The greatest need of the time was the reformation of a Church that was “sick in head and members.” Cajetan and three friends decided that the best road to reformation lay in reviving the spirit and zeal of the clergy. Together they founded a congregation known as the Theatines—from Teate [Chieti] where their first superior-bishop had his see. One of the friends later became Pope Paul IV.

They managed to escape to Venice after their house in Rome was wrecked when Emperor Charles V’s troops sacked Rome in 1527. The Theatines were outstanding among the Catholic reform movements that took shape before the Protestant Reformation. Cajetan founded a monte de pieta—“mountain or fund of piety”—in Naples, one of many charitable, nonprofit credit organizations that lent money on the security of pawned objects. The purpose was to help the poor and protect them against usurers. Cajetan’s little organization ultimately became the Bank of Naples, with great changes in policy.

Source: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-cajetan

 Quote from St. Cajetan

Source of picture: https://anastpaul.com

Blessed Memorial of  St Cajetan, 7 August – Founder of the Theatine Order – Priest, Confessor, Reformer, Doctor of Civil and Canon Law, Diplomat, Mystic, Miracle Worker, apostle of the sick and the poor.   Known as the “Father of Providence” and the “Huntsman of Souls” – (October 1480 at Vicenza, Italy as Gaetano dei Conti di Tiene – 1547 at Naples, Italy of natural causes) – Beatified on 8 October 1629 by Pope Urban VIII and Canonised on 12 April 1671 by Pope Clement X. Patronages –  bankers; gamblers; unemployed people; workers; non-gamblers; document controllers; job seekers;  Albania; Italy; Ħamrun (Malta); Argentina; Brazil; El Salvador; Guatemala. (images above - Founder Statue at St Peter’s Rome and  Cajetan and Luther| photo by Francesco de’ Rossi).

St Cajetan was born of a noble family in Vicenza, Italy. He was the youngest of three sons born to Don Gaspar di Thiene and Dona Maria di Porto.

He studied civil and Canon Law at the University of Padua and moved to Rome where he worked in the Court of Julian II.   He assisted at the fifth Council of the Lateran.   He was ordained a priest and became part of the “company of Divine Love.”   In 1518 he returned to Vicenza.   After the death of his mother, he dedicated himself to the founding and directing of hospitals to treat the syphiletics in Vicenza, Verona and Venice.  With his own hands he cared for the sick.   Such zeal did he show for the salvation of his fellowmen that he was surnamed the “huntsman for souls.”

In 1524, with Juan Pedro Carrafa, Bishop of Chieti, he founded the Clerics Regular who later would be called the Theatines.   One of the four men who joined him in his new order, Juan Pedro mentioned above, went on to become the pope (Pope Paul IV).  The Theatines, as they were later to become, were to be a community of priests who were to lead an apostolic life.   They were to look with disdain all earthly belongings, to accept no salaries from the faithful;  only from that which was freely donated were they allowed to retain the means of livelihood.   St Cajetan was tortured during the plunder of Rome in 1527 (the torturers hoping to obtain his inheritance which had long before been spent on the poor and sick), Cajetan later returned to Venice where for three years he directed the Religious Institute he had founded.   In 1533, where he established a centre for opposing the spread of Lutheranism in Naples.   He eventually extended that mission to the city of Verona where he would die fourteen years later in 1547.   It was in this city that he planted the yeast of reform that made him worthy of the devotion with which the Neopolitans have always awarded him.   He founded a bank to help the poor and offer an alternative to usurers (loan sharks).   It later became the Bank of Naples.   His concern for the unemployed, giving them the necessary financial help in their time of need, made him their patron.    Later in his life, Saint Cajetan would introduce the Forty Hours’ Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as an antidote to the heresy of Calvin.   In 1629, Urban VIII authorised public worship to Cajetan and on April 12, 1671, Clement X inscribed him in the catalogue of Saints.

St Cajetan often prayed eight hours daily.   On Christmas Eve at the Church of Saint Mary Major he was greeted with his first vision of Our Blessed mother.   When he entered the church he saw the Mary, radiant with light, who came to him and placed Her divine Infant in his arms.   These are the words he used to describe his vision: “….I boldly found myself, at the time of the Holy Nativity, in this crib; to give me courage I had with me Saint Jerome my father, who had the crib so close to his heart and whose remains were placed at the entrance of the same crib;  and with a little bit of encouragement from the old man (St. Joseph), from the hands of the Virgin Mary, I took into my arms that little Baby:  the Eternal Word Who became flesh.   My heart was really hard, you must believe me, because if it were not as hard as a diamond, it was sure to liquefy at that moment… patience…”  

St Cajetan is the “Heart” of the Catholic reformation, the founder of the Clerics Regular (Theatines) and the “Great Man and Great Saint” that Christians acclaim as “The Father of Providence” for he aids those who invoke him in their needs with great miracles.

Prayer of Saint Cajetan before a Crucifix Look down, O Lord, from Your sanctuary, from Your dwelling in heaven on high and behold this sacred Victim which our great High Priest, Your Holy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, offers up to You for the sins of His brethren and be appeased despite the multitude of our sins.   Behold, the voice of the Blood of Jesus, our Brother, cries to You from the cross.   Listen, O Lord.   Be appeased, O Lord.   Hearken and do not delay for Your own sake, O my God;  for Your Name is invoked upon this city and upon Your people and deal with us according to Your mercy. Amen.

St Cajetan “Father of Providence” Pray for us!

Saint Cajetan was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation, remaining loyal to the Church, regardless of the corruptions and excesses that led many others to betray Her.

He was born in October 1480 into a noble family and received a rigorous education guided by his mother, following the death of his father when he was just two.

His studies of canon and civil law led him to work as a jurist in the court of Pope Julius II, which he abandoned upon the Pope's death in order to study for the priesthood.

He was ordained at the age of 36 and founded a community of priests. They lived a monastic form of poverty and prayer.

They lived and worked closely with the poor in order to combat the political and spiritual corruption of the times.

His order, the Congregation of Clerks Regular, were popularly called the Theatines, after the title of one of his companions, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, the Bishop of Chieti (Theate in Latin), who was later elected Pope Paul IV.

His concern for the poor always had a strong presence in his life. He practised charity constantly, whether in personal encounters or in the founding institutions such as a hospital for those with incurable diseases.

He even founded a bank for the poor in order to lend money to them without the usual high interest charged by other money lenders.

In 1533, he founded one of his order's houses in Naples where he battled against the growth of the Lutheran heresy. 

He died on 6 August 1547, the Feast of the Transfiguration. This occurred in Naples when the city was still in serious spiritual, political and social trouble.

He was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on 8 October 1629.

Saint Cajetan was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation, remaining loyal to the Church regardless of the corruptions and excesses that led many others to betray Her.

He was born to a noble family on 6 October 1480. He received a rigorous education guided by his mother, following the death of his father when he was just two.

His studies of canon and civil law led him to work as a jurist in the court of Pope Julius II, which he abandoned upon the Pope's death in order to study for the priesthood.

He was ordained at the age of 36 and founded a community of priests, who lived a monastic form of poverty and prayer.

He lived and worked closely with the poor in order to combat the political and spiritual corruption of the times.

His order, the Congregation of Clerks Regular, were popularly called the Theatines, after the title of one of his companions, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti (Theate in Latin), who later was elected Pope Paul IV.

His concern for the poor always had a strong presence in his life. He practised charity constantly, whether in personal encounters or in the founding institutions such as a hospital for those with incurable diseases.

He even founded a bank for the poor in order to lend money to them without the usual high interest charged by other money lenders.

In 1533, he founded one of his order's houses in Naples where he battled against the growth of the Lutheran heresy. 

He died on 6 August 1547, the Feast of the Transfiguration.

This occurred in Naples when the city was still in serious spiritual, political and social trouble.

Cajetan was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on 8 October 1629 and was canonized by Clement X on 12 April 1671.

Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene CR, known as Saint Cajetan, was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation, remaining loyal to the Church regardless of the corruptions and excesses that led many others to betray Her.

He was born on 6 October 1480 into a noble family and received a rigorous education guided by his mother, following the death of his father when he was just two.

His studies of canon and civil law led him to work as a jurist in the court of Pope Julius II, which he abandoned upon the Pope's death, in order to study for the priesthood.

He was ordained at the age of 36 and founded a community of priests, who lived a monastic form of poverty and prayer.

They lived and worked closely with the poor in order to combat the political and spiritual corruption of the times.

His order, the Congregation of Clerks Regular, were popularly called the Theatines, after the title of one of his companions, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti (Theate in Latin), who later was elected Pope Paul IV.

His concern for the poor always had a strong presence in his life.

He also practised charity constantly, whether in personal encounters or in the founding institutions such as a hospital for those with incurable diseases.

He even founded a bank for the poor in order to lend money to them without the usual high interest charged by other money lenders.

In 1533, he founded one of his order's houses in Naples where he battled against the growth of the Lutheran heresy. 

He died on 6 August 1547, the feast of the Transfiguration.

This occurred in Naples when the city was still in serious spiritual, political and social trouble.

Cajetan was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on 8 October 1629. He was canonized by Pope Clement X on 12 April 1671