AMEDEO MENES DE SYLVA, Blessed. - Franciscan, b. at Ceuta in 1420 to Rodrigo Gomez de Sylva, royal prince of Castile, and Isabella Menez of the noble family of Villa Reale in Portugal; whence he is called now Spanish, now Portuguese. He died in the convent of S. Maria della Pace in Milan on 10 Aug. 1482. He is the brother of the blessed Beatrice de Sylva. Having enlisted under the command of John II against the Moors and been gravely wounded in the arm, in 1442 he withdrew among the Hermits of St. Jerome in Guadalupe, where he remained until 1452, when, by divine inspiration, he went to Assisi and asked the minister general, Fr. Angelo da Perugia, for admission into the Franciscan Order. The request was granted only three years later, when, upon the death of Fr. Angelo, Fr. Giacomo da Mozzanica succeeded him. By the latter, in 1456, A. was sent to the convent of S. Francesco in Milan, where he lived as a solitary in the company of Fra' Giorgio da Valcamonica. From Milan, in 1457, he passed to Moriano Comense, then to Orano, then to Bressanoro. The edifying life of A. aroused the admiration of his superiors, who in 1459 wished him to be a priest, of the duchess Bianca Maria Sforza, who sent him as extraordinary ambassador to Pope Pius II for matters concerning the spiritual good of the State of Milan, and of his confreres. Many of these, with the approval of their superiors, gathered around A., electing him as director and guide for a stricter observance of the Franciscan rule. He thus found himself at the head of that movement of Franciscan reform which was named after him the "Congregation of the Amedeites." Sixtus IV, penitent of the blessed, summoned him to Rome, assigning him as his dwelling the convent of S. Pietro in Montorio. By immemorial cult, not however officially recognized by the Church, he is called blessed.
The Amedeites, who at the death of the founder numbered 21 convents, later risen to 39, were united in 1517 by the bull of Leo X Ite et vos to the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance. But not having been fused into it, they persisted still in part independently, until in 1568 Pius V fully incorporated them into it.
Residing at S. Pietro in Montorio, A. wrote a work of a prophetic nature that remained unpublished, entitled Apocalypsis nova, containing 8 "rapts," to which are added 4 psalms, 4 canticles, 4 sermons on St. John the Baptist and 10 other sermons and exhortations. The original is to be considered lost; the existing manuscripts, replete with puerilities and doctrinal errors, are held to be interpolated.