Quaresmio, Francesco
QUARESMIO, FRANCESCO
Missionary and Orientalist; b. Lodi, Italy, April 4, 1583; d. Milan, Oct. 25, 1656. Having become a Franciscan (c. 1598), he taught philosophy and theology for several years and held successively the offices of local superior and provincial. In 1616 he went to Palestine, where he became superior of all the Franciscan houses in the Holy Land (1618–19). During the following years he was, in turn, vice commissary apostolic of Aleppo, commissary apostolic of the East, papal commissary, and vice patriarch for the Chaldeans and Maronites of Syria and Mesopotamia. Best known of his numerous works are his Historica … terrae sanctae elucidatio (Antwerp 1634–39), an account of his travels in the Holy Land, and his Jerosolymae afflictae … (Milan 1631), in which he appealed to Philip IV of Spain to organize a campaign to reconquer the Holy Land.
Bibliography: a. teetaert, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 vol. (Paris 1903–50) 13.2:1442–44. g. fussenegger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 vol. (2nd ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 8:923. g. golubovich, The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. c. g. herbermann et al, 16 vol. (New York 1907–14) 12:593.
[d. a. mcguckin]