Biography
Andrea Dotti
About Andrea Dotti
Andrea Dotti was a Servite friar remembered for prayer, penance and guiding other hermits. The order’s proper recalls that a sermon by Philip Benizi at Borgo Sansepolcro in 1278 moved him to leave his possessions and join the community. His religious name recalled the apostle Andrew’s response to Christ.
He spent periods of retreat at Cella Vallucola near the town. The Servite reading remembers him as generous to others and austere with himself, with other hermits coming under his guidance. It places his death around 1315 and recalls the transfer of his body to the Servite church at Borgo Sansepolcro.
Historian Aristide Maria Serra warns that the fullest early biography was written by Michele Poccianti in 1567, long after Andrea’s life. Earlier traditions and documents underlie it, but separating history from familiar sacred storytelling is difficult. Serra distinguishes this friar from Andrea Balducci, the contemporary prior general, and regards identification with Andrea Omodei as uncertain. The connection with the noble Dotti family appears only in the late eighteenth century.
Serra also describes administrative evidence for the hermitage: its prior named Andrea his procurator in January 1295, and a convent act of August 1304 lists an absent friar Andrea of the hermitage. These records give a firmer outline of his responsibilities than the later family genealogy. His role in governing the hermitage is considered probable.
The Servite account reports that Pius VII confirmed his longstanding cult in 1806. The order now remembers him on 31 August; the earlier account explains that the celebration was initially assigned to 3 September because another feast occupied his death anniversary.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.