Matteo Orsini

In 1311 he attended the Capitulum Generale in Naples as socius ('companion') of the definitor (elected delegate) of the Roman Province, the provincial Lapus Cerli.

[6] After teaching in Paris in 1316, Orsini is held to have taught at the Dominican studium generale at the Convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

[9] In 1323, during a meeting of the chapter of the Roman Province at Città di Castello (Tiferno), he and the definitores were attacked by a deranged novice, Jacobus Dombellinghi, who injured Orsini with his sword.

[11] In 1326, Orsini was relieved of his duty as provincial of the Roman Province and succeeded by Bertramus Monaldeschi, who was elected by the General Chapter meeting in Paris.

On 20 October 1326, the pope named Orsini Bishop of Girgenti (Agrigento), in Sicily, and then, six months later (15 June 1327), transferred him to the archiepiscopal see of Siponto, (Manfredonia, Southern Italy).

[20] In answer to Orsini's addresses, the Pope replied to the Romans again in a letter of 8 June 1327, emphasizing the danger that Louis the Bavarian represented, and the impossibility of travelling to Rome just at that time.

[22] Pope John XXII made Orsini a cardinal along with nine others at the Consistory of 18 December 1327,[23] and assigned him the titular Church of SS.

After the death of Cardinal Pierre des Chappes on 24 March 1336, Orsini became prior presbyterorum (protopriest), as a matter of strict seniority and precedence.

Orsini continued, in various ways, to promote the welfare of the Dominican Order, richly endowing the Convent of St. Dominic in Bologna.

[29] He had built a chapel in honor of Saint Catherine of Siena in that church;[30] Orsini's remains now lie beneath the High Altar of S. Maria sopra Minerva.