Kajetan from Thiene

Kajetan von Thiene (also: Cajetan von Thiene; Italian: Gaetano di Tiene; Latin: Cajetanus Thienaeus ) (* October 1480 in Vicenza ; † August 7, 1547 in Naples ) was a co-founder of the Theatin order and is a saint of the Catholic Church Church ; not to be confused with Cardinal Thomas Cajetan .

Life

Kajetan from Thiene. 17th century sculpture by Pedro Alonso de los Ríos from the Iglesia de San Cayetano (Church of St. Kajetan), Madrid

Kajetan came from a Venetian count family. He studied law at the University of Padua and received his doctorate there in 1505 as " Doctor iuris utriusque " . He was then appointed Apostolic Protonotary by Pope Julius II .

In 1516 Kajetan was ordained a priest , became a member of the Oratory of Divine Love and campaigned for the reform of the Roman clergy. In 1518 he returned to Vicenza, founded a home for the terminally ill and joined the brotherhood of St. Jerome , which had made it its business to serve the poor and the sick. Until 1521 he worked for the oratorio in Venice and then in Rome.

In Rome he developed the plan to found a new kind of religious community that was supposed to fight the grievances among the clergy. For this he was able to win Bishop Gian Pietro Carafa von Theatinum (today: Chieti ), who later became Pope Paul IV . The two-founded in 1524 the Ordo Clericorum Regularium, vulgo Theatinorum (abbr .: CR ; Order of Clerics Regular , Theatines called ), which until today under the symbol Theatines is known (OTheat), the oldest orders of this type (. See Jesuits ). The foundation was confirmed by Pope Clement VII on June 24, 1524. With his support, the order began its work, but in 1527 during the troubled times of the Sacco di Roma , the order members had to flee. They went to Venice, where the monastery was given to them by St. Nicholas , whose provost Kajetan was. During the plague epidemic in 1528 he was one of the most energetic helpers, who was the role model and focus of the young community; In 1533 he was entrusted with the establishment of a Theatiner branch in Naples. From 1540 he again worked in Venice and returned to Naples in 1543, where he died on August 7, 1547, wearing a penitential robe on the floor.

On October 8, 1629 Kajetan by Pope Urban VIII. Blessed - by on April 12, 1671 Clement X canonized . His relics are now kept in the Church of St. Paul in Naples. His feast day is August 7th.

Out of gratitude for the birth of Crown Prince Maximilian II , Elector Ferdinand Maria von Bayern built the Theatine Church of St. Kajetan in Munich in 1662 . He also appointed Kajetan patron of Old Bavaria in 1672 .

Thanks to his convincing commitment and work, the Theatines developed alongside the similarly structured order of the Jesuits (SJ) and the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri (CO) to become the most important reform force in Italy.

literature

• Giovanni B. Castaldo: Vida ilustrada de San Cayetano ("Vita beati Caietani Thienaei"). Padres Teatinos, Palma de Mallorca 1985, ISBN 84-398-3435-7 (reprint of the Verona 1619 edition).
• Max J. Hufnagel: St. Cajetan, a little known patron saint of Bavaria. Historical contribution to his worship in Bavaria . EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 1992, ISBN 3-88096-647-8 .
• Walther P. Liesching: The holy Kajetan of Tiene in the Lake Constance area. The advocate of divine providence on altars in Neukirch and Überlingen , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 111th year 1993, pp. 157-192 ( digitized version )
• Klaus Obermeier: The holy Kajetan von Thiene. Patron of the Theatinerkirche, state patron of Bavaria . Cathol. Church Foundation St. Kajetan, Munich 1999.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Cajetan from Tiene. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 848-849.

Web links

Commons : Kajetan von Thiene  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the dictionary of saints