Annibale Francesco Gonzaga

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Bishop Francesco Gonzaga, OFM

Francesco Gonzaga OFM (baptized name Annibale Gonzaga ; * July 31, 1546 in Gazzuolo , † March 11, 1620 in Mantua ) was the son of Marchese Carlo Gonzaga of San Martino and an Italian Roman Catholic bishop .

Life

Origin and early years

He came from the noble Mantuan family of the Gonzaga . Annibale was one of ten children of Carlo Gonzaga and his wife Emilia Cauzzi-Gonzaga Boschetti (* 1517 - April 3, 1573), daughter of Federico II Gonzaga and Isabella Boschetti . Among his brothers was the future Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga . After the death of their father in 1555, Annibale and Scipione came into the care of their uncle, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga , and his brother, Marchese Ferrante Gonzaga . At the age of eleven, Annibale was introduced to the court of Philip II in Flanders by his uncle, the cardinal , together with Alessandro Farnese, who was one year older . He lived in Brussels from February 1558 and followed in 1559, together with Farnese, Philip II to Spain. After two years in Toledo, where he listened to the famous Franciscan preacher Alonso Lobo de Medina Sidonia and attended the school of the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes , he moved with the court to Madrid in May 1561. In October the health of Philip II's son Don Carlos deteriorated . Gonzaga and Farnese accompanied the Infante to Alcalá de Henares , where Gonzaga visited the Franciscans of the local monastery and finally asked to be accepted into the order. On May 17, 1562, the fifteen-year-old was dressed in the religious robes of the Franciscans in Alcalà and took the religious name Francesco. Against the resistance of his family, he took the religious vows on the day of Pentecost, May 29, 1563, in the presence of the princes Don Juan de Austria and Don Carlos as well as Alessandro Farnese and numerous other nobles .

Church career

He studied theology at the University of Alcalá and was subsequently appointed preacher, reader and confessor. The then general minister called him back to Italy and he settled in Mantua to teach there. In San Martino , Francesco Gonzaga, with the help of his brothers, built a monastery on his family's lands. In 1577 he was appointed Minister Provincial of Veneto , and in 1579 the General Chapter of the Order in Paris elected him Minister General, which he remained until 1587.

In 1587 Francesco Gonzaga became Bishop of Cefalù . He received his episcopal ordination on November 15, 1587, the Bishop of Mantua Alessandro Andreasi ; Co- consecrators were Giacomo Rovello (Roveglio), Bishop of Feltre , and Bishop Matteo Brumani CRSA . Francesco Gonzaga moved to the bishopric in Pavia in 1593 . On April 30, 1593 he was finally appointed Bishop of Mantua and remained so until his death. He was buried in the cathedral of Mantua.

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predecessor Office successor
Alessandro Andreasi Bishop of Mantua
1593–1620
Vincenzo Agnelli-Suardi
Alexander Sauli Bishop of Pavia
1593
Guglielmo Bastone
Ottaviano Preconio Bishop of Cefalù
1587–1593
Nicolò Stizzia