St. Cajetan

St. Cajetan prepares to receive the Infant Jesus during a vision on Christmas night.

Today we commemorate St. Cajetan, who with Bishop John Carafa founded the Order of Clerks Regular or Theatines to recall the clergy to an edifying life and the laity to the practice of virtue. The order also zealously defended the Church in Italy from the errors of Martin Luther, established banks, hospitals and oratories, and founded the first papal missions in foreign lands, in places as diverse as Peru, Sumatra, Georgia and Persia.

The Order was most famous for its absolute evangelical poverty, rejecting even the mendicancy of the Dominicans and Franciscans, preferring to wait for aid. This was to give witness to their charitable self-abnegation and commitment to correcting clerical laxity. Even the offer of regular contributions was rejected for fear it might lead to abuses.

The Order also made a contribution to Catholic architecture, one notable example is the Baroque church of Sant' Andrea della Valle in Rome, home to the city's second highest dome and scene of the first act of Tosca.

For an article on the relevance of the Order to "renewal" in the Church see the following:
http://jcrao.freeshell.org/Theatines

"Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on : for even though such things are not idle, but needful to be sought after, yet the seeking for things even needful may divide the heart."

(From the Third Nocturn of Matins for the feast)