Agostino Gemelli OFM (18 January 1878 – 15 July 1959) was an Italian Capuchin friar,[1] physician and psychologist,[2] who was also the founder and first rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) of Milan.

As members of religious orders were barred by the Catholic Church from practising medicine then, he continued his medical research, moving into the field of neuropsychology, where he was dissatisfied with many of the theories regarding the central nervous system held at the time.

At the same time, Gemelli undertook many spiritual activities, helping to found the secular institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, established by Armida Barelli, a Christian social activist.

At that point, the university became a laboratory for Catholic social policies through which the church might bring the Fascist state in line with canon law and papal teachings.

Agostino Gemelli was a harsh critic of Padre Pio, calling him "an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people's credulity" with his stigmata.

Gemelli's criticism is believed to have been instrumental in moving the Vatican to take various measures in censuring Padre Pio, including a prohibition on celebrating Mass in public.