Francis Xavier Patrizi

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Jesuit exegete, b. at Rome, 19 June, 1797; d. there 23 April, 1881. He was the eldest son and heir of the Roman Count Patrizi, entered the Society of Jesus, 12 November, 1814, was ordained priest in 1824, and soon became professor of Sacred Scripture and Hebrew in the Roman College. The revolution of 1848 caused Patrizi and his fellow professor Perrone to take refuge in England. Here, and afterwards at Louvain, Patrizi taught Scriptures to the Jesuit scholastics. When peace was restored at Rome, he again began to lecture in the Roman College. The revolution of 1870 ended his career as a teacher, and he found a home in the German-Hungarian College of Rome, remaining there till death.

He wrote twenty-one biblical and ascetical works. Of the former the most important are: "De interpretatione scriptararum sacrarum" (2 vols., Rome, 1844); "De concensu utriusque libri Machabæorum" (Rome, 1856); "De Evangeliis" (3 vols., Freiburg im Breisgau, 1853); "In Joannem commentarium" (Rome, 1857); "In Marcum commentarium" (Rome, 1862); "In Actus Apostolorum commentarium" (Rome, 1867); "Cento salmi tradotti litteralmente dal testo ebraico e commentati" (Rome, 1875); "De interpretatione oraculorum ad Christum pertinentium" (Rome, 1853); "De immaculata Mariæ origine" (Rome, 1853); "Delle parole di San Paolo: In quo omnes peccaverunt" (Rome, 1876). His Latin is classic, but only the earnest biblical student appreciates the immense erudition of his heavily burdened sentences. No one has better stated the rules of sane interpretation and illustrated those rules in practice. His master-work on interpretation has gone through many editions. The Gospel commentaries are meant especially to refute the rationalistic errors of the time.

HURTER in Kirchenlexicon, s. v.; SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliothèque de la C. de J., VI, 366-69; Cività Cattolica, 11th series, VI, 491.

WALTER DRUM