Niccolò Paccanari

The Reverend Niccolò Paccanari
Born	1773 Borgo Valsugana, Trentino, Holy Roman Empire
Died	c. 1811 (aged 37–38) Rome, Papal States
Known for	Founding the Society of the Faith of Jesus
Orders
Ordination	1800

Niccolò Paccanari (1773 – c. 1811) was an Italian Catholic priest and the founder of the Society of the Faith of Jesus.

Early life

Paccanari was born in 1773 in Borgo Valsugana, Trentino. In his youth, he had little formal education; he became a soldier and was engaged in business.

Religious life

In 1795, he became gravely ill and spent 14 months in prayer and recuperation with a confraternity at the Oratory of San Francesco Saverio del Caravita in Rome. At the end of this period, Paccanari established a religious congregation called the Society of the Faith of Jesus on 15 August 1797, whose purpose was to continue as the successor of the Society of Jesus, which had been suppressed by the pope. His four confrères elected him as the first superior of the new congregation. In 1798, Paccanari founded a novitiate for the congregation in Spoleto, Umbria.

Paccanari was jailed three times in Castel Sant'Angelo during the short-lived Roman Republic. In 1800, he was ordained a priest. As the congregation grew to more than 100 individuals across Europe, the members became dissatisfied with Paccanari, who they accused of being ambitious and materialistic.

Prison life

As internal strife grew, Paccanari was investigated by the Roman Inquisition, which found him guilty and sentenced him to 10 years in prison in August 1808. However, Paccanari was released from prison in 1809 by the French occupiers of Rome. The following year, he again spent time in prison for another offense.

Death

It is not certain when or how Paccanari died. In 1811, a decapitated body was found in the Tiber River in Rome, which was identified as his.

References

Sources

• Dudon, Paul (November 1952). "The Resurrection of the Society of Jesus" (PDF). Woodstock Letters. 81 (4): 311–360. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021 – via Jesuit Archives.
• "Paccanari, Niccolò". Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (in Italian). Treccani. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.

Further reading

• Fontana Castelli, Eva (2007). La "Compagnia di Gesù sotto altro nome": Niccolò Paccanari e la Compagnia della fede di Gesù (1797–1814) [The "Society of Jesus Under Another Name": Niccolò Paccanari and the Society of the Faith of Jesus (1797–1814)]. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici Societatis Iesu (in Italian). Vol. 62. Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu. ISBN 9788870413625.