CAJETAN, CONSTANTINO

benedictine writer of the Cassinese Congregation, also known as Cajetani, Gaetani, Gaetano; b. Syracuse, Italy, 1560; d. Rome, Sept. 17, 1650. He was of noble birth and made his profession in the Monastery of San Nicolò d'Arena at Catania, Oct. 29, 1586. Constantino devoted his life to scholarship and secured a prominent position in the Vatican Archives. He was named abbot of San Baronzio in the Diocese of Pistoia and prior of Santa Maria Latina in Sicily. The Gregorian College of St. Benedict, the first Benedictine college in Rome, was founded by him. It was a hostel for Benedictine travelers in Rome and a study center for young clergy. gregory xv issued the bull of establishment on May 18, 1621, naming Cardinal Peretti Montalto as protector and Dom Constantino as president. When other sources failed him, Constantino requested assistance for this college from richelieu and mazarin. Its magnificent library was eventually dispersed, and enriched, among others, the libraries of Propaganda, the Sapienza, and the Biblioteca Alessandrina. Constantino is credited with writing 26 books and about 60 manuscripts. He glorified in the achievements of the Benedictines and listed among their number St. Columbanus, St. Isidore, and even Jean Gerson, to whom the Imitation of Christ was often attributed. He also questioned the authorship of St. Ignatius's Spriritual Exercises. The writings of St. Peter Damian, edited by Constantino, were published in Rome in 1606, and in Paris in 1642. It is his finest contribution to scholarship and was reproduced by Migne. Constantino was buried in the Church of San Benedetto in Piscinula in Trastevere, Rome.

Bibliography: p. schmitz, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 11:146–147. m. viller, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique 2.1:15–16. m. armellini, Bibliotheca Benedictino-Casinensis, 2 pts. (Assisi 1731–32) 1:123–136. j. m. besse, "Une Question d'histoire littéraire au XVI^e siècle: L'Exercice de Garcia de Cisneros et les Exercices de S. Ignace," Revue des questions historiques 61 (1897) 22–51.

[b. egan]