BERNARDINO da Portogruaro. — Minister General of the Friars Minor (Giuseppe Dal Vago), b. 11 Sept. 1822 at Portogruaro, d. at Quaracchi on 7 May 1895. Educated at the college of S. Caterina in Venice, he entered the Franciscan Reformed in Nov. 1839, was ordained priest in 1844, and became a much-applauded preacher. In 1862 he was elected in Rome procurator general for the Reformed Franciscans; on 9 March 1869 Pius IX named him Minister General of the entire Franciscan Order. During his generalship he founded the institute of S. Bonaventura at Quaracchi for the critical edition of the works of St Bonaventure and other celebrated Franciscan scholastics, and the international college of S. Antonio in Rome, and succeeded in giving new expansion to the Order, which had been disturbed by suppressions. He began the Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (1882). He personally visited the Minorite provinces, assisted in the rise and prosperity of monasteries of Poor Clares and of female Third Order congregations, and gave fresh impetus to the missions of the Order. Weighed down by years and labours, he resigned the generalship in 1889 and retired to Quaracchi. On 4 Aug. 1892 Leo XIII created him titular Archbishop of Sardica. The process for his beatification has been introduced.
BERNARDINO DA PORTOGRUARO
BIBL.: I. Beschin, Vita del Servo di Dio p. B. Dal Vago da P., Ministro Generale dei Frati Minori, Arcivescovo di Sardica (1822-95), 2 voll., Treviso 1927.