Born in Sicily and christened Lancelot, after studying law, Andrew Avellino was ordained and henceforth only accepted pleas in the ecclesiastical courts. But he soon gave up his career at the bar and joined the Theatine Clerks Regular. His great love of the cross caused him to be given the name of Andrew. Having become superior of his Congregation he devoted all the time that he could spare from his office to prayer and the care of souls. He died at Naples, at the age of eighty-seven in 1608, of an apoplectic seizure at the foot of the altar as he was beginning Mass.