Abbot of Santissima Trinità di Cava de' Tirreni
Abbot Michele Petruzzelli, O.S.B., Abbot of Santissima Trinità di Cava de' Tirreni, was born on August 1, 1961, in Bari. After his upper secondary school diploma and a brief period of work, at the age of twenty-four he entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria della Scala at Noci. Having completed the postulancy and the novitiate, he made his simple monastic profession on November 21, 1987, and his solemn profession three years later. He attended first the monastic school at the Subiaco monastery of Praglia and then the Santa Fara Theological Institute in Bari, and at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo he obtained a licentiate in monastic theology. He was ordained a deacon on August 5, 1997, and a priest on August 5, 1998. Within his monastery at Noci he served as penitentiary, guestmaster and cellarer, and subsequently as master of novices and claustral prior. On December 14, 2013, he was appointed Abbot of Santissima Trinità di Cava de' Tirreni.