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Biography

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Antoninus of Florence, often called Antonine in older English and French hagiographical writing, was born Antonio Pierozzi in Florence in 1389, the son of the notary Niccolò Pierozzi. Small of stature and frail in health from childhood, he sought to enter the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella but was at first refused on account of his constitution. He was later received into the Observant branch of the Order of Preachers at Fiesole, under the influence of the reformer Giovanni Dominici, and made religious profession in the early fifteenth century. Ordained a priest, he became known for austerity of life, skill as a confessor and canonist, and a combination of learning with pastoral practicality that marked the Dominican Observance in Tuscany.

As a young friar he served as prior of several Italian houses of the Observance, including Cortona and Naples, before becoming prior of the rebuilt convent of San Marco in Florence. There he worked in close association with Cosimo de’ Medici, who financed the convent, and with the painter Fra Angelico, whose frescoes still decorate the cells. Antoninus produced a substantial body of writings. The most influential is his Summa moralis (Summa theologica moralis), a systematic work of moral theology that also treats commercial ethics, the just price, and usury, and which later historians of economic thought have studied as a major late-medieval scholastic witness on markets and money. He also composed historical chronicles and practical manuals for confessors, which circulated widely in manuscript and, after his death, in print.

In 1446 Pope Eugene IV appointed him archbishop of Florence, an office he accepted only under obedience. As archbishop he lived with notable simplicity, visited parishes, sought the reform of clergy and religious houses, and organized charitable work. He is associated with the Buonomini di San Martino, a Florentine confraternity devoted to the discreet relief of people in hidden poverty. He advised popes and secular rulers and remained a central figure in Florentine religious life in the mid-fifteenth century, on generally cooperative though not uncritical terms with the Medici. Contemporary and near-contemporary observers, including Pope Pius II, praised his prudence and holiness.

Antoninus died in Florence on 2 May 1459. A cult grew rapidly around his tomb. Pope Leo X advanced the cause; Pope Adrian VI canonized him on 31 May 1523. His relics are venerated in the church of San Marco in Florence. The Catholic Church keeps his optional memorial on 10 May. He is invoked as a patron of the city and archdiocese of Florence. His moral-theological writings, especially the Summa moralis, remained a standard reference for confessors and canonists well into the early modern period.

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