Antonio Carletti was born in 1411 to a noble family of Chivasso, Italy, near Turin. He attended the
University of Bologna, where he received the degree of Doctor of Civil and
Canon Law, and served as a magistrate in the Court of Chiavasso. He was appointed to the Senate by the Marquis of Monferrato Gian Giacomo. It was probably at the age of thirty that he entered the
Order of Friars Minor at Santa Maria del Monte in Genoa, taking the name
Angelo. There he met Francesco della Rovere, who was later to become
Pope Sixtus IV. In 1467 he accompanied Fra Pietro da Napoli, who had been charged by the Vicar General to reorder the Franciscan province of Austria. In 1472 he was chosen to fill the office of Vicar-General of that branch of the Order then known as the Cismontane Observance, founded by
Bernadine of Siena. He held that office again in 1478, in 1485 and in 1490. He founded the monasteries of
Saluzzo,
Mondovì and
Pinerolo; and preached in
Mantua,
Genoa,
Cuneo,
Susa,
Monferrato and
Turin at the court of
Charles I, Duke of Savoy. He also served as a spiritual counselor for
Catherine of Genoa and
Paola Gambara.
Apostolic Nuncio In 1480 the
Ottoman Empire under
Mehmed II took possession of
Otranto, and threatened to overrun and lay waste the area. Angelo was appointed
Apostolic Nuncio by Pope
Sixtus IV, and commissioned to preach a
crusade against the invaders. While the residents of Otranto held out under siege, Mehmed II died and the Turkish forces retired from the Italian peninsula. Again, in 1491, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio and Commissary by
Innocent VIII, conjointly with the
Bishop of Mauriana, and reached a peaceful agreement between Catholics and
Waldensians. Angelo Carletti di Chivasso died on April 11, 1495, at the convent of St. Anthony at Cuneo. ==Writings==