San Paolo Maggiore (Tomb of St. Cajetan)

The Story

The Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore stands on Piazza San Gaetano in the ancient heart of Naples, built over the remains of a Roman temple of the Dioscuri, two of whose Corinthian columns still frame its facade. It is the burial place of St. Cajetan of Thiene, one of the great reforming saints of the sixteenth century. Cajetan was born in Vicenza in 1480. A priest of deep Eucharistic devotion and a reformer at a troubled moment in the Church's history, in 1524 he co-founded the Theatines, the first of the sixteenth-century orders of clerks regular, committed to restoring apostolic simplicity of life among the clergy and to trusting radically in Divine Providence. The ancient church of San Paolo Maggiore was entrusted to Cajetan and his Theatines in 1538, and they rebuilt it magnificently in the decades that followed. Cajetan spent his final years in Naples serving the poor and the sick, and died there in 1547; he was buried in the crypt of the basilica, where his tomb is venerated today. He was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Popular devotion invokes St. Cajetan as a patron of providence, of workers, and of those seeking employment — a devotion especially strong in southern Italy and Latin America — and his feast on August 7 is kept with affection by the Neapolitans, who honor him as a protector of their city.

Church Recognition

St. Cajetan was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671; the basilica of San Paolo Maggiore, rebuilt by his Theatine order, holds his tomb in its crypt and remains a recognized place of his veneration.

Catholic Teaching

The basilica recalls the Church's teaching on trust in Divine Providence (CCC 302–314), which St. Cajetan made the hallmark of his order, and the communion of saints by which the faithful honor and seek the intercession of those who lived that trust heroically (CCC 946–962).

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Practical

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Pilgrims visit the basilica on Piazza San Gaetano along the ancient decumanus of Naples and descend to the crypt chapel where St. Cajetan is buried; his feast on August 7 is marked with special devotion in the city.

Go Deeper

For further reading, see accounts of the founding of the Theatines in standard histories of the Catholic Reformation, Butler's Lives of the Saints for August 7, and the Catechism on Divine Providence (CCC 302–314).