BENIGNO VISDOMINI. – Abbot General of the Vallombrosans, born at Montevarchi in Tuscany from a noble family related to St. John Gualbert, died at Vallombrosa in 1236. Having entered the abbey of Vallombrosa, he was later elected visitor of the Congregation and then Abbot General.
During his abbacy he had the abbey church, which until then had been made of wood, completely rebuilt and dedicated to the Madonna and St. Michael; he also oversaw the construction of sacred buildings in the hermitages. He was held in high esteem by the most prominent figures of his time, such as popes and emperors, and was especially close to St. Louis, King of France, to whom he sent notable relics of St. John Gualbert in exchange for a relic of the Holy Cross in a rich reliquary. He resigned his offices almost a centenarian and spent his final days in a hermitage. At his death his reputation for holiness was already widespread, further enhanced by his thaumaturgic virtue.
Of B.’s writings the following are known: a disciplinary decree issued by him in 1216, the treatise Claustrum animae sive Methodus ad recte vivendum; he is also credited with a Historia of the Vallombrosan Order, published in 1500.