Essential Chronology of the Life of

ST. Anthony Mary ZACCARIA

Source: Fr. Franco Maria Chilardotti, CRSP, 2009 Antonio Maia Zaccaria 1502-1539 : Una meteora del ciquecento nella scia di Paolo Apostolo.)

February 2, 1501 (Cremona). Lazzaro Zaccaria marries Antonia Pescaroli.

December 1-15, 1502 (Cremona). Anthony Mary Zaccaria is born in the home of the Zaccaria family (Premoli, Storia I, pp. 399-403). - (Probable date is December 8, 1502, Thursday) On the same day, Anthony Mary is baptized in the octagonal baptistery of the Cathedral [of Cremona] probably by his uncle Don Tommaso Zaccaria, canon of the Cathedral and a holy priest ( 1503). Don Tommaso's successor, Don Gabriele Zaccaria, introduces Anthony Mary to the devotion of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Marian chapel built by the Zaccaria family in St. George.

March 15, 1507 (Cremona). The young Anthony Mary, accompanied by his guardian, Pietro Fellini, dispenses a sum of 100 imperial lire to the Archpriest of the Cathedral, Don Giacomo Schizzi, discharging an inheritance left to him by his uncle Don Tommaso (March 15, 1502), in honor of Our Lady of the Pillar.

1514-1518 (Cremona).The young Anthony Mary attends the Episcopal School annexed to the Cathedral, under the guidance of Gaspare Mariani for the Trivium and Cesare Mozzi for the Quadrivium.

1518-1519 (Pavia). Anthony Mary finishes his education on liberal arts at the University of Pavia, where he is presumed to have met the young Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1575) who will become his schoolmate at Padua.

October 5, 1520 (Cremona). Anthony Mary makes his last will and testament, appointing his

cousin, Bernardo, administrator of their common heritage and giving his mother, Antonia, the interest of such goods for the duration of her natural lifetime.

October 16, 1520 (Cremona). Anthony Mary leaves all his inheritance to his mother, reserving only 100 imperial lire for his college expenses. On the same day, he leaves for Padua where he enrolls as "artium et medicinae scholaris" at the famous University of Padua.

October 18, 1520 (Padua). On the feast of St. Luke, Anthony Mary begins the academic year as a student of the Faculty of Arts in the Department of Medicine.

1520-1521 (Padua). The student Zaccaria attends the lectures on "On the Soul" of Aristotle and "The Sentences" of Peter Lombard "in Thomistic way" by the Spanish professor, Juan de Montesdoch.

After Easter of 1521 (Padua). The student Zaccaria collaborates briefly with the doctor and philosopher Marcantonio Zimara in drawing up the "Table" (Glossary of AristotelianAverroes Judgments).

November 4, 1521 (Padua). Anthony Mary Zaccaria, together with his friend, Serafino Aceti, participates in the meeting of the "Arts students" for the election of the physician, Andrea da Cividale, "to translate some Arab writers into Latin."

August 15, 1524 (Padua). According to tradition, on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the student Zaccaria completes his course of study at the University of Padua and returns to Cremona.

October 7, 1524 (Cremona). The new doctor, Zaccaria, returns to Cremona. Together with his cousin, Bernardo, he sells one-third of the shop, "Le Drapperie," to Gianfrancesco Fiocchi at the price of 800 imperial lire, and then at the same time leases to him the remaining two-thirds.

June 16, 1526 (Cremona). Anthony Mary, together with his cousin, Bernardo, (both had a previous agreement with Gianfrancesco Fiocchi to sell (with right of redemption) the shop which has now become a grocery and pharmacy) sells to Antonia Spighi, called the "Marascha," a third of the shop "with interest" at the price of 800 imperial lire, with an agreement to redeem it within seven years, at the same price.

March 13, 1528 (Cremona). Anthony Mary, together with his cousin, Bernardo, and on behalf of the entire Zaccaria family, presents to the Vicar General of Cremona the new Chaplain of the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Don Marco Zaccaria. The chaplaincy has remained vacant due to the death of Don Gabriele Zaccaria.

April 10, 1528 (Solarolo Rainerio). Anthony Mary and Bernardo, in private writing, proceed to divide their assets.

June 6, 1528 (Cremona). The doctor Zaccaria receives the tonsure and the minor orders.

1528 (Bologna). Zaccaria completes, in a short time, his studies in theology in Bologna, in preparation for the priesthood, staying as a guest of his friend, Serafino Aceti, at the Convent of San Giovanni in Monte.

September, 19, 1528 (Cremona). Anthony Mary Zaccaria is ordained subdeacon by Bishop Luca di Seriate (Bergamo), titular bishop of Duvno in Herzegovina (suffragan diocese of Split [Ital. Spalato]) and suffragan of Cardinal Benedetto Accolti, Archbishop of Ravenna and Bishop of Cremona, in the Chapel of St. Joseph. Anthony Mary is second in the list of candidates for ordination to the subdiaconate.

December 19, 1528 (Cremona). Zaccaria is ordained a deacon by the suffragan bishop, Bishop Luca di Seriate.

January 23-27, 1529 (Solarolo Rainerio). Zaccaria signs some purchase agreements for his properties in Solarolo.

January 28, 1529 (Dovarese Island). Also on behalf of his cousin, Bernardo, Zaccaria makes another purchase of livestock for his farm in Solarolo.

February 13, 1529 (Cremona). Zaccaria sells to the jewelry shop of Ettore Covo, located under the portico of Palazzo del Capitano, a gold necklace, weighing 96 gold scudi, at a price of 547 imperial lire. With this act of detachment, he makes himself ready for priestly ordination.

February 20, 1529 (Cremona). Anthony Mary Zaccaria is ordained a priest in the Chapel of St. Joseph by Bishop Luca di Seriate, titular bishop of Duvno and suffragan of Cardinal Benedetto Accolti. Anthony Mary is third in the list of 21 candidates for ordination to priesthood.

April 4, 1529 (Cremona). Zaccaria makes another act of renunciation with the sale of the former Falcone Hotel.

August 11, 1529 (Cremona). Zaccaria purchases from Master Fabrizio Benci a parcel of land with a house located at Recorfano in Cremona.

October 11, 1529 (Cremona). Zaccaria sells (with right of redemption) the house which he bought two months earlier to Master Fabrizio Benci, a resident of Padua.

End of 1529 (Guastalla). Don Pietro Orsi, Chaplain of the Countess of Guastalla, Ludovica Torelli, dies. Countess Ludovica Torelli, who previously met Zaccaria with his mother when she married Lodovico Stanga, appoints Zaccaria as her new Chaplain, perhaps at the suggestion of Fra Battista da Crema. Since then, Zaccaria has become an itinerant pilgrim of God, like Paul.

May 31, 1530 (Cremona). Milan.

Zaccaria writes from home to Fra Battista da Crema who is in

July 23, 1530 (Cremona). Zaccaria ratifies through a notarial instrument the private division of assets with his cousin Bernardo, which they both had agreed upon previously on April 10, 1528 in Solarolo Rainerio.

Fall of 1530 (Milan). Zaccaria joins the Oratory of Eternal Wisdom where he meets Bartolomeo Ferrari and Giacomo Antonio Morigia.

January 4, 1531 (Cremona). Zaccaria writes to Ferrari and Morigia who are in Milan.

Spring of 1531 (Guastalla). Sometime in Spring Zaccaria meets Ferrante Gonzaga who is making a stop in the city with his troops to pay homage, as tradition demanded, to Our Lady of the Rock.

July 28, 1531 (Milan). From the house of Torelli, Zaccaria writes to Carlo Magni, the head of the group of "Amicizia" (Friendship) in Cremona.

August 30, 1531 (Milan). Zaccaria introduces the ringing of bells at 3 oclock in the afternoon every Friday to commemorate the passion and death of our Lord (Burigozzo, Cronaca, III, 509).

December 14, 1531 (Cremona). Zaccaria makes his last will and testament, leaving his inheritance to his mother, Antonia Pescaroli, who already expects every good by virtue of the irrevocable donation he made for her in 1520.

December 14, 1531 (Cremona). In the same last will and testament, Zaccaria stipulates the construction of a chapel in honor of the Conversion of St. Paul in his parish, St. Donato, and to give also a legal basis of his devotion to St. Paul. For us, it is the first official Pauline center in the Duchy of Milan, after the end of the Circle of Meaux in France (1525); this also being influenced by the study of Paul. Zaccaria then appoints Don Giovanni Maria Gaffuri the first Chaplain of the center.

January 8, 1532 (Cremona). At the Zaccaria home, Anthony Mary appoints his close friend, Don Giovanni Maria Gaffuri of Fontanella (Cremona), as his legal representative.

February 25, 1532 (Milan). An onslaught on the apostolate in the city occurs. A Lenten preacher in the Cathedral of Milan (a certain "Carmelite Brother") incites the crowd against the Paulines, but later he repents.

March 9, 1532 (Venice). Fra Battista da Crema (and with him his disciples, including Anthony Mary Zaccaria) is harshly criticized for having opened in Milan "a shop ...to the disgrace of the Christian religion." Burigozzo who speaks of "synagogues... near St. Ambrose" (Burigozzo, Cronaca, III, 510) confirms the existence of the said shop.

February 18, 1533 (Bologna). Zaccaria receives, with unexpected celerity, from Pope Clement VII, the Bull of approval for his group, still without an official name and residence.

May 29, 1533 (Cremona). With a copy of a notarial instrument, Zaccaria concludes peace between Don Marco Zaccaria and Benedetto Prasi, who is represented by his father, Vincenzo, following a challenging argument over the dowry of the Marian chapel owned by the Zaccaria family in St. George.

September 27, 1533 (Milan). Zaccaria signs the purchase agreement for the house near the church of St. Catherine, by the Fabbri bridge, in Milan as the first residence of his group, and the following Monday, September 29, he comes to reside there with Bartolomeo Ferrari.

November 10, 1533 (Guastalla). As the legal representative of Ludovica (Paola) Torelli, Zaccaria leaves for Curtatone (Mantua) to defend the innocent Fra Battista da Crema from the unjust accusations of his superiors, warning that he will carry out the execution and offer as evidence a new Papal Brief. He is accompanied by Ludovico Negri, the Vicar General of Guastalla. Zaccaria returns to Guastalla on November 13, 1533.

December 31, 1533 (Guastalla). On Wednesday, in the house of the Countess of Guastalla, Zaccaria assists the dying Fra Battista da Crema. Battista dies in the night between December 31 and January 1, 1534.

January 16, 1534 (Guastalla). From the house of the Countess of Guastalla, Zaccaria writes to his "beloved brother in Christ," Giovan Giacomo Piccinini, who is in Milan.

October 4, 1534 (Milan). To his companions gathered in St. Catherine, and fearful for a lawsuit against all "the house of Paul," Zaccaria addresses a passionate exhortation, urging them to imitate Christ Crucified under the banner of Paul and reduce the cause of the persecution to a simple game of passion. They embrace each other, crying and expressing their loyalty.

October 5, 1534 (Milan). The case is filed, and so Zaccaria and his companions can continue their apostolate in relative serenity.

November 24, 1534 (Milan). Zaccaria solves with charity the case involving the young Maddalena Comi, owner of an apartment near the monastery of the monks of St. Ambrose, personally paying all arrears in cash at the office of the banker, Giovanni Barbavara, who in turn needs to repay them to Comi on the eve of her wedding.

January 15, 1535 (Milan). Pope Paul III approves the Angelic Sisters with the Bull, Debitum pastoralis officii.

July 25, 1535 (Rome). Pope Paul III, with a Bull of approbation, confirms the devotion to St. Paul for Zaccaria and his group.

October 5, 1535 (Milan). Zaccaria and his companions move into the house near St. Ambrose given by the Countess Ludovica (Paola) Torelli, since the house at St. Catherine became too small for the arrival of new postulants. There they form a small Oratory dedicated to St. Paul Decapitated. And there Morigia and the others also come to live.

October 18, 1535 (Milan). Zaccaria, Ferrari, and Morigia accept the offer from Torelli to become her beneficiaries. December 25, 1535 (Milan). On Christmas Day, Anthony Mary Zaccaria celebrates the Mass for the first time at the Oratory of the Monastery of St. Paul of the Angelic Sisters.

January 25, 1536 (Milan). Zaccaria officially inaugurates the new Monastery of St. Paul.

February 27, 1536 (Milan). Zaccaria confers the habit to the six postulants of the Angelic Sisters; among them is Paola Antonia Negri.

April 15, 1536 (Milan). In the new residence near St. Ambrose, Anthony Mary Zaccaria agrees with his companions to elect Giacomo Antonio Morigia as Superior. This happens after three votes in which he (Morigia) had always been elected. Finally, the group agrees, and Morigia is made Superior "at the hand of Father Anthony Mary Zaccaria," to whom, as a true charismatic leader, the acceptance and formation of novices are entrusted.

May 7, 1536 (Milan). Zaccaria promotes the exposition of the Holy Shroud from the balcony of Castello Sforzesco. It is the first in history.

June 20, 1536 (Milan). Seeing new signs of persecution emerging, Zaccaria, also on behalf of Torelli, asks that the case in 1534 be re-opened.

June 29, 1536 (Milan). Anthony Mary Zaccaria is unanimously elected confessor of the Angelic Sisters, and keeps this office up to his death on July 5, 1539.

November 30, 1536 (Milan). Zaccaria proposes to Fr. Francis Castellino to establish permanently the School of Christian Doctrine for the youth.

December 13, 1536 (Milan). In the parlor of the Monastery of St. Paul, Anthony Mary Zaccaria appoints Andrea Roberto, future Vicar General of St. Charles, to appear before the judges in his defense (Premoli, Storia I, p. 465-467).

January 25, 1537 (Milan). Zaccaria accepts the profession of vows of Angelica Paola Antonia Negri.

March 4, 1537 (Milan). Zaccaria appoints Negri Mistress of Novices.

April 19, 1537 (Guastalla). With a handwritten letter undersigned by Torelli, Zaccaria appoints Giuseppe Fellini of Cremona Podest (Mayor) of Guastalla.

May 26, 1537 (Cremona). On the eve of Pentecost and before the Mission in Vicenza, Anthony Mary Zaccaria writes to his "Angelics and divine Daughters in Christ."

July 2, 1537 (Milan). On Tuesday, Zaccaria accompanies the first Pauline missionaries (Barnabites, Angelic Sisters, and Laity of St. Paul) and some collaborators (Castellino da Castello and Fra Bono Lizzari) to Vicenza, and builds an altar in honor of St. Paul in the Church of the Converted.

July 9, 1537 (Milan). To prepare himself to make the vows, Zaccaria, upon his arrival from Vicenza, renounces, with a waiver of attorney, in the hands of Morigia all his existing properties in the Duchy of Milan.

March 4, 1537 (Milan). Zaccaria appoints Negri Mistress of Novices.

April 19, 1537 (Guastalla). With a handwritten letter undersigned by Torelli, Zaccaria appoints Giuseppe Fellini of Cremona Podest (Mayor) of Guastalla.

May 26, 1537 (Cremona). On the eve of Pentecost and before the Mission in Vicenza, Anthony Mary Zaccaria writes to his "Angelics and divine Daughters in Christ."

July 2, 1537 (Milan). On Tuesday, Zaccaria accompanies the first Pauline missionaries (Barnabites, Angelic Sisters, and Laity of St. Paul) and some collaborators (Castellino da Castello and Fra Bono Lizzari) to Vicenza, and builds an altar in honor of St. Paul in the Church of the Converted.

July 9, 1537 (Milan). To prepare himself to make the vows, Zaccaria, upon his arrival from Vicenza, renounces, with a waiver of attorney, in the hands of Morigia all his existing properties in the Duchy of Milan.

August 21, 1537 (Milan). The Senate President, Giacomo Filippo Sacchi, issues a full acquittal "ex capite innocentiae" on all the charges of heresy leveled against the Paulines.

Year 1537 (Milan). Anthony Mary Zaccaria promotes the solemn Forty Hours Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral of Milan, and in shifts at the "Quattro Porte" (Four Gates) of the city. .

August 29, 1537 (Milan). At the request of the citizens of Milan, Pope Paul III, with a Papal Brief, Universis Christifidelibus, addressed to the Vicar General, Cardinal Marino Caracciolo, approves and supports the Forty Hours Adoration.

September 2, 1537 (Milan). Zaccaria leaves again for Vicenza and reestablishes the Mission. He stays near the Monastery of the Converted and chooses as "centro di irradiazione" (lit. center of irradiation) the Church of St. Zenone. It is likely that here he meets with St. Ignatius and his companions who are in Vicenza that month.

End of October 1537 (Vicenza). Zaccaria returns to Milan where he participates at the closing of the Forty Hours Adoration in Porta Vercellina. He asks to be substituted by Bartolomeo Ferrari.

October 8, 1538 (Cremona). Zaccaria writes to Ferrari and the Angelic Sisters in Vicenza, exhorting them not to lose heart in the difficulty of the mission; He announces the imminent purchase of the Church of St. Barnabas as the ultimate goal of his institutional projects; He urges Ferrari, though he knows he is asking him to make a sacrifice, to send "his divine priest Castellino" so that he may represent him (Ferrari) at the "inaugural benediction." He informs them that he will "go to Guastalla today or tomorrow," to do some work with Basilio Ferrari on behalf of Torelli.

November 3, 1538 (Guastalla). Zaccaria writes a fatherly and heartfelt letter to the "children of Paul the Apostle and ours too" in Milan, near St. Ambrose. He signs, "Priest of the Apostle Paul."

November 13, 1538 (Guastalla). Zaccaria asks and obtains justice, with the intervention of the Podest (Mayor), for Giandomenico Mangalassi, a victim of injustice. Zaccaria writes a note of comfort to "our Battista," his servant in Cremona.

March 26, 1539 (Milan). Torelli nominates Anthony Mary Zaccaria and Pelligrino Cignacchi as her legal representatives to resolve peacefully with Carlo Gonzaga the problem with the switching of the irrigation water in Novellara (ASM, Notarile 10096, G.P. Bezozzi a.d.).

March 28, 1539 (Milan). At the request of the Marquis of Vasto, Alfonso d 'Avalos, Pope Paul III, with a new Papal Brief, renews the indulgences which had been previously granted for the Forty Hours Adoration.

April 12, 1539 (Milan). In the parlor of the Monastery of St. Paul, Zaccaria and Morigia facilitate the donation of the farm in Pizzolano San Martino made by Torelli to the Angelic Sisters; and then also on behalf of Ferrari (who is not present) and the entire Congregation, they accept the donation of the house near St. Ambrose, also from Torelli.

End of May 1539 (Milan). Zaccaria is sent by Torelli to Guastalla for some "important things," that is, to write the Peace Agreement with the nobles of the city, pertinent to the sale of the county to Ferrante Gonzaga.

June 10, 1539 (Guastalla). Zaccaria writes a letter to Angelica Paola Antonia Negri.

June 11, 1539 (Guastalla). Zaccaria writes to his beloved disciple, Battista Soresina.

June 20, 1539 (Guastalla). Zaccaria writes to the couple Omodei in Milan and speaks of a great "weariness of the body." He feels that his end is imminent and wants to be brought back to Cremona through a boat of dealers who have two mandatory stops (in Cremona and Casalmaggiore) of their trade route along the Po River.

July 5, 1539 (Cremona). On Saturday, at 3 oclock in the afternoon, on the eve of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostle, Anthony Mary Zaccaria, dies in his home (in the house where he was born), in the arms of his mother, surrounded by his first companions, and after having a vision of St. Paul. Bonsignor Cacciaguerra who accompanied him from Guastalla exclaims: "O Cremona, if you only knew whose life it is that left today! What a great loss!" The suffragan bishop, Bishop Luca di Seriate, who ordained him a priest, presides over the funeral, surrounded by all the clergy, with the assistance of the whole aristocratic assembly and the people of Cremona and surrounding towns. Serafino Aceti, his friend, a year after his death, writing to the Silvestrine of Vicenza, says of him: "His presence now adorns the sky, as it once adorned the earth."(1540).

September 5, 1543 (Cremona). On Sunday, Bernardo Zaccariato rid himself of the inheritance left by Anthony Mary Zaccaria at the Altar of the Conversion of St. Paul which he had built in St. Donatoallots said altar two pieces of land (the field of Levata and Rotta, with a total of 88 poles) with an agreement to redeem them by permutations. The fact goes to show how important it was for Anthony Mary Zaccaria the foundation he made in St. Donato and his devotion to St. Paul, and how this had remained imprinted in the mind and heart of his cousin, Bernardo