BCCCAP00000000000000000001718

BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA CAPUCHIN GENERAL MINISTER PACIFICUS CARLETTI OF SEGGIANO: ON PROGRAMMED MANDATE (1908-1914) The occurrence of the first centenary of the death of Fr Pacificus Carletti of Seggiano on 22 October 1914 renders opportune a revisiting of his life, above all his six-year term as the general Minister of the Capuchin Order. He did not live to a ripe old age but his life as a Capuchin friar was intense, highly prolific and richly eventful. He was preacher, lector, definitor and Minister ofhis religious province of Tuscany in Italy, apostolic visitor, apostolic preacher, general definitor and general Minister of the Order, and bishop. And when he died he had just turned 55 and was, in point offact, on the threshold oflaunching himselfheart and soul into a new pastoral field as bishop ofAlbenga, in the province of Savona in Northern Italy. In particular it is his stint as Capuchin general Minister that is the focal point of the present investigation. He left behind his footprints on the sands of time precisely because of the long-term and stabilising effects his policies and actions have had on the institutional identity, internal life and history ofhis Order. 1. Capuchin Order's 6?h general Chapter and its Agenda The Capuchin general Chapter of 1908 was significant for more reasons than one 1 • The outgoing general Minister Bernard Christen ofAndermatt was then end- 1 Archives of the Capuchin Province ofTuscany, Florence ( = APCapTusc), G. Carlini, La morte di mons. Pacifico Carletti. Ex-Ministrogenerale dei Cappuccini, is a 9-page report, chronicling the principal events surrounding the death ofMgr Pacifl.cus Carletti ofSeggiano. On p. 1 he writes: "Nella storia dei cappuccini la sua personalita conserva una posizione di alto prestigio per i ruoli svolti, per gli uffici ricoperti, per le opere compiute... II generalato di p. Pacifico, pertanto, e da studiare e da interpretare, soprattutto alla luce del periodo storico-ecclesiastico, in cui si esplico''. Collectaneafranciscana 84 (2014) 503-546