BERNARDINO da Colpetrazzo. — Capuchin friar, historian, and preacher of the Umbrian province, born on 25 November 1514, he passed from the Observant Friars Minor to the Capuchins on 11 January 1534; died on 7 February 1594.
Master of novices, provincial vicar of Umbria, and advisor to various ministers general, from 1580 to 1594 he composed three accounts of the early years of the Order, recently edited by Fr. Melehiore da Pobladura under the title *Historia Ordinis Minorum Cappuccinorum*: 1. I, *Praecipui nascentis Ordinis eventus* (Assisi 1939); 1. II, *Biographiae selectae* (ibid. 1940); 1. III, *Ratio vivendi fratrum. Ministri et Vicarii generales, Cardinales protectores* (Monumenta historica Ordinis Minorum Cappuccinorum, 2, 3, 4), Rome 1941.
The author, an authoritative witness to the events, describes with simplicity and for the purpose of edification the virtues of the first Capuchins, whose reform he extols as a faithful restoration of the ancient Franciscan life. Writing from memory, he falls into chronological errors; following the hagiographic form, he uncritically embraces the supernatural element. As an evangelical preacher, he drafted the statutes of the Monte Frumentario or dell’Abbondanza, established in Colpetrazzo and Torre Lorenzana.