BERNARDINO da PORTOGRUARO. - Minister General of the Friars Minor (Giuseppe Dal Vago), born on 15 Jan. 1822 at Portogruaro, died at Quaracchi on 7 May 1895. Educated at the college of S. Caterina in Venezia, he entered the Reformed Franciscans in Nov. 1839, was ordained priest in 1844, and became a highly acclaimed preacher. In 1862 he was elected Procurator General in Roma for the Reformed; on 9 March 1869 Pio IX appointed him general of the entire Franciscan Order. During his generalate he founded the institute of S. Bonaventura at Quaracchi for the critical edition of s. Bonaventura and other celebrated Franciscan scholastics, as well as the international college of S. Antonio in Roma, and succeeded in giving new expansion to the Order, troubled by the suppressions. He began the Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (1882). He personally visited the provinces of the Friars Minor, attended
the founding and flourishing of monasteries of Poor Clares and of women’s Congregations of tertiaries, and gave fresh impetus to the missions of the Order. Burdened by age and labours, he left the generalate in 1889 and retired to Quaracchi. On 4 Aug. 1892 Leone XIII created him titular archbishop of Sardica. The process of beatification has been introduced.