At one time, when a young Jesuit finished his novitiate and started his studies of philosophy and theology, he was entrusted with the Spiritual Exercisesof St. Ignatius to be used as a rule of life. It came with a booklet in Latin: Industriae pro superioribus ad curandos animae morbos,[1] written by Fr. Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615). Pope Francis donated a copy of a recent edition of that volume, Remedies for Curing the Illnesses of the Soul,[2] to each of his collaborators in the Roman Curia at their meeting for Christmas greetings on December 22, 2016.
Claudio Acquaviva d’Aragona was born in Atri, Abruzzo, on September 14, 1543, the younger son of Giannantonio Donato, the Ninth Duke of Atri, and Isabella Spinelli. Being the younger son he was guided toward religious life, and he studied law and Church history in Perugia, where he began reading the works of the Church Fathers, a lifelong undertaking. In his 20s, he became a papal servant of Popes Pius IV and Pius V, and as a member of the papal antechamber, he met Fr. Francis Borgia, the third superior general of the Society, as well as Fr. Juan Alfonso de Polanco, the former secretary of St. Ignatius. They inspired him to love the Society of Jesus, which he entered on July 22, 1567, welcomed by St. Francis Borgia. During his novitiate, he was together with his cousin, Blessed Rodolfo Acquaviva, a martyr in India, and St. Stanislaus Kostka.
This article is reserved for paid subscribers. Please subscribe to continue reading this article Subscribe
Welcome to La Civiltà Cattolica !
This article is reserved for paid subscribers
Please login or subscribe to continue reading this article
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
Cookie Policy
More information about our Cookie Policy is available in clauses 6,7,8,9 & 10 of our Privacy Policy