Jesuati
Italian religious order (1360–1668)
The Jesuati (or Jesuates) were a religious order founded by Giovanni Colombini of Siena in 1360. The order was initially called Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymi (from Latin: Apostolic Clerics of Saint Jerome) because of a special veneration for St. Jerome and the apostolic life the founders led. The order was abolished by Pope Clement IX on 6 December 1668.
History
Colombini had been a prosperous merchant and a senator in his native city, but, coming under ecstatic religious influences, abandoned secular affairs and his wife and daughter (after making provision for them), and with a friend of like temperament, Francesco Miani, gave himself to a life of apostolic poverty, penitential discipline, hospital service and public preaching.
The name Jesuati was given to Colombini and his disciples from the habit of calling loudly on the name of Jesus at the beginning and end of their ecstatic sermons. The senate banished Colombini from Siena for "imparting foolish ideas to the young men of the city", and he continued his mission in Arezzo and other places, only to be honourably recalled home on the outbreak of the bubonic plague. Howard Eves writes that the order was then "dedicated to nursing and burying the victims of the rampant bubonic plague."
Colombini went out to meet Urban V on his return from Avignon to Rome in 1367, and implored his approval for the new order and a distinctive habit. Before this was granted, Colombini was required to clear the movement of a suspicion that it was connected with the heretical sect of Fraticelli. He died on 31 July 1367, soon after papal approval had been given.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q769314. The first chronological checks are 1360, 1668 and 1367.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jesuati” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.