Father, Art Vita Dierna was a mason. Earlier accounts used to say a shoemaker, but Pavone convinces me that he was a mason. Note that Odierna himself added the first syllable to his name.
All accounts indicate that the status of the family was humble.
I take this definitely to mean poor. D.D. Odierna was self-taught, at least in science. He does appear to have studied theology, initially, leading to his ordination, at a seminary in Syracuse. There does not appear to have been anything like a university education or a B.A. degree. Apparently in 1644 he earned a doctorate in theology, probably at a monastic school in Palermo.