St Andrew Avellino

Saint Andrew Avellino
Andrew Avellino Statue in Milan (Italy).
Confessor
Born	1521 Castronuovo, Basilicata
Died	(1608-11-10)10 November 1608
Beatified	1624 by Urban VIII
Canonized	1712 by Clement XI
Major shrine	Church of St. Paul, Naples
Feast	10 November
Patronage	Naples, Sicily; invoked against sudden death

Saint Andrew (Andrea) Avellino (1521 – 10 November 1608) was an Italian saint. Born at Castronuovo (today Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea), a small town in the province of Potenza Basilicata, his baptismal name was Lancelotto, which out of love for the cross he changed into Andrew when he entered the Order of Theatines.

After receiving his elementary training in the school of Castronuovo, he was sent to Venice to pursue a course in the humanities and in philosophy. Being a handsome youth, his chastity was often exposed to danger from female admirers, and to escape their importunities he took ecclesiastical tonsure.

Hereupon he went to Naples to study canon and civil law, obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws and was ordained priest at the age of twenty-six. For some time he held the office of lawyer at the ecclesiastical court of Naples.

The Archbishop of Naples now commissioned him to reform a convent at Naples, which by the laxity of its discipline had become a source of great scandal. By his own example and his untiring zeal he restored the religious discipline of the convent but not without many and great difficulties. Certain wicked men who were accustomed to have clandestine meetings with the nuns became exasperated at the saint's interference, and one night he was assaulted and severely wounded. He was brought to the monastery of the Theatines to recuperate. Here, however, he resolved to devote himself entirely to God and he entered the Order of Theatines, which had but recently been founded by St. Cajetan. On the vigil of the Assumption he was invested, being then thirty-five years of age.