The Oratory of Divine Love was a reform movement that originated in Genoa at the end of the 15th century. It was founded by a lawyer, Ettore Vernazza (father of the mystic nun, Battistina Vernazza), along with three other Genoese citizens, Giovanni Battista Salvago, Nicolo Grimaldi, and Benedetto Lomellino, and with the advice and inspiration of St. Catherine of Genoa.

In 1499, Vernazza founded a hospital for incurables (Societas reductus incurabilium), the first of its kind in Italy. It was approved by the Genoese Senate on 27 November 1500, and privileged by Popes Julius II and Leo X. Similar oratories were subsequently founded around the same time at Milan, Florence, Verona, Lucca, Vicenza (Oratory of San Girolamo, 1494), Brescia, Faenza, Padua, Rome, and Naples.[1]

Pope Leo X formally approved the rule on 24 March 1514, which meant membership was restricted to 36 laymen and four priests. The rule prescribed a fixed program of prayers, a weekly fast, monthly confession, and Communion four times a year. Members of the Oratory cared for orphans, helped the poor, consoled imprisoned criminals, and attended the sick in hospital. To facilitate their work throughout all classes of society, the names of the members of the oratory and its program were kept secret from others. [2][3][4][5]

Though the Roman oratory, established in the Trastevere district before 1515, was disbanded at the Sack of Rome in 1527, its spirit survived in the hospital for incurables of S. Giacomo in Augusta and in the reform measures championed by its members, such as Gian Matteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona, Gaetano da Thiene and Gian Pietro Carafa, as well as Jacopo Sadoleto, Luigi Lippomano, and Gasparo Contarini.

Notes

  1. ^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 (Allen Lane, 2003).
  2. ^ P. Paschini, La beneficenza in Italia e le compagnie del divino amore (Rome 1925)
  3. ^ Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 1:531–533, 2:316–325.
  4. ^ Tacchi-Venturi, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia, 2 v. in 4 (2d ed. Rome 1930–51) 1.2:25–42
  5. ^ A Cistellini, Figure della riforma pretridentina (Brescia 1948)
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