BARTHOLOMEW of Vicenza, also known as of Breganze, Blessed. — Dominican, born on 18 Sept. around the year 1200, died in Vicenza in 1270; renowned preacher, mystical writer, and distinguished for the many offices he held in service to the Church. That he belonged to the family of the Counts of Breganze (a castle near Vicenza) is known only by tradition, not confirmed by any contemporary document.
A student in Padua, he entered the Order of St. Dominic and became a famous preacher. In 1233, he founded in Parma the Militia of Jesus Christ (not to be confused with the later Militia Beatae Mariae Virginis or the Frati Gaudenti). Later, he was appointed papal penitentiary and chaplain, and by Innocent IV he was made reader (later called Master of the Sacred Palace) of the theological school of the Curia. He was then bishop of Limassol in Cyprus (1252–55), from which he was transferred to Vicenza (1255–70). Alexander IV sent him on a diplomatic mission to the courts of London and Paris; on this occasion, Louis IX gave him a relic of the Holy Crown, for which he built the eponymous Gothic church in Vicenza. Pius VI beatified him in 1793, and his feast is celebrated on 23 October.
Of his works, all unpublished, manuscripts are preserved as indicated by Kappeli: *Expositio Cantici Canticorum*; *De venatione divini amoris*; and three cycles of *Sermones*: *De beata Virgine*; *In festis Iesu Christi*; *De epistolis et evangelicis dominicalibus post Trinitatem*. Other works are lost.