BARTOLOMEO DA ROMA

BARTOLOMEO of ROME. - Augustinian canon, famous preacher, born in the second half of the 14th century in Rome, in the rione of Campo de' Fiori, died in 1430 in the Benedictine monastery of S. Benedetto Po, near Mantua. Various historians have mistakenly considered him a member of the princely Colonna family. He was the principal promoter of the reform initiated among the Augustinian canons in 1401 at S. Maria di Fregonia, near Lucca: this reform later gave rise to the Congregation of the Lateran Canons Regular. He himself joined the first reformers, who in 1403 elected him prior of the aforementioned canonry; he held the same office from August 1407 to 1408. Perhaps subsequently he no longer held permanent offices, but continued to devote himself to preaching. He was venerated as a saint both in life and after death.