Simon of Cascia, Blessed

Simon of Cascia (SIMEONE FIDATI), BLESSED, Italian preacher and ascetical writer, b. at Cascia, Italy; d. at Florence, February 2, 1348. At an early age he entered the Order of Augustinian Hermits, where he became distinguished for learning and as a model of every monastic virtue. He displayed great ability as a preacher, and his sermons at Perugia, Bologna, Siena, and Florence bore much fruit. He was especially successful in his work among fallen women, making many conversions and founding for them a house of penance. He also established at Florence a convent of women under the Augustinian rule. He was beatified by Gregory XVI in 1833. He wrote “De gestis Christi”, a history of the Gospels in fifteen books wherein the mystical sense of the sacred narrative is simply but learnedly set forth. The work was published at Basle (1517), Cologne (1533, 1540), and Ratisbon (1733). He is likewise the author of an “Expositio super evangelia” (Venice, 1486; Florence, 1496), of a work in Italian on the evils existing among the clergy (Milan, 1521; Turin, 1779), and a treatise “De beata Virgine” (Basle, 1517). Unpublished works of his are “De doctrina christiana”; “De vita christiana”; “De cognitione peccati”; “Expositio symboli”; “De speculo crucis”; “De conflictu christiano”.

BLANCHE M. KELLY