( c. 1380/5 – 1450) Matteo d’Agrigento was one of the supporters of the Observant reform in the Dominican order and funded several convents mainly in Sicily. He appears preaching in northern Italy between 1418 and 1425, following Bernardino de Siena and Giovanni di Capestrano. He then went to Southern Italy (Naples, Nocera, Amantea, Cosenza) and Sicily.
He was then called to preach in Catalonia, preaching at least in Valencia (Lent 1426 and 1427), Barcelona (1427 and 1428), Girona, Vic and Huesca (1427). He was very appreciated by Queen Mary.
In his teaching, he spread devotion to the Name of Jesus (following Bernardino of Siena) and fiercely attacked credit in medieval society (In Catalonia known as “censals”).
After an stay in Sicily (1428-1430), Mathew of Girgento went back to Catalonia, preaching in Tortosa in 1430. Back in Sicily, he was named bishop of Agrigento (Girgenti) (1443-45), but he resigned the positon. Not much is known about his last years of life.
Manuscripts:
- Capestrano, Convento di San Francesco, ms. XXXII, f. 25r.-74v.
- Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, ms. V H 57, f. 268r.-274v.
- Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, ms. V H 270, f. 219r.-235v.
- Nocera Umbra, Biblioteca vescovile, ms. 18 II 13
Published sermons:
- AMORE, Agostino (ed.), Matthaei Agrigentini, O.F.M., Sermones varii. Roma, 1960
- DEL POPOLO, Concetto, «Un quaresimale del beato Matteo di Agrigento», Giornale Italiano di Filologia, LVII 1, 15 maggio 2005, pp. 35-69. (Online version) (Online version: sermons).
Bibliography:
- ROTOLO, Filippo, Il beato Matteo d’Agrigento e la provincia francescana di Sicilia nella prima metà del sec. XV. Palermo, Biblioteca francescana / Officina di studi medievali, 2006.
- AMORE, Agostino, «La predicazione del B. Mateo d’Agrigento a Barcelona e Valenza», Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 49 (1956), p. 255-355.
- «Nuovi documenti sull’actività del B. Mateo d’Agrigento nella Spagna ed in Sicilia», Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 52 (1959), p. 12-42.
- RUBIÓ i BALAGUER, Jordi, «El beat fra Mateu d’Agrigento a Catalunya i a València. Notes sobre la vida religiosa en una Cort del Renaixement», La cultura catalana del Renaixement a la Decadència, Barcelona, 1964, pp. 27-47 (repr. a Humanisme i Renaixement. Barcelona, PAM, 1990, p. 45-63).