Bertrando di Saint-Geniès (Diocese of Cahors), Blessed

BERTRANDO DI SAINT-GENIÈS (Diocese of Cahors), Blessed. - A doctor of law at Toulouse and an auditor of the Rota, he was appointed patriarch of Aquileia by John XXII on 8 July 1334 and reached his see on 28 October. B.'s constant concern was to reclaim for the patriarchate the lands and castles that belonged to his principality, and he did not fear to enter into conflict with Rizzardo da Camino. He prevented the dukes of Austria, who had also become lords of Carinthia, from making themselves masters of Venzone and arbiters of communications between Friuli and Germany; he opposed the claims of the counts of Gorizia. He held two provincial councils, in 1335 and 1339, and diocesan synods to restore ecclesiastical discipline, founded monasteries, and reorganized the Chapter of Udine. When jealousies arose again between Udine and Cividale, the latter community regarded the patriarch as its enemy, allied itself with the counts of Gorizia and with certain Friulian lords, and defied the excommunications of the patriarch, who was aided by the Udinese and by other communities. From this a war arose; B., attacked by his enemies in the plains of the Richinvelda on the right bank of the Tagliamento, was killed on 6 June 1350. The Udinese carried his body to the cathedral of their city, where B. was venerated as blessed.

The history of his cult is quite interesting: Clement VIII permitted the celebration of his anniversary (6 June) with a Mass pro gratiarum actione (cf. the decree of 27 Apr. 1599 of the patriarch Francesco Barbaro in Acta SS. Iunii, I, p. 779); Benedict XIV, by a brief of 18 June 1756, granted to Udine the annual celebration of a solemn Mass on 6 June (cf. Florio, op. cit., p. 257); Clement XIII, finally, on 24 Aug. 1758 and 7 Apr. 1759, granted the Mass and Office of a confessor pontiff to the dioceses of Udine and Gorizia (archive of the S. Congr. of Rites, Registrum Servorum Dei, 1757-60, ff. 119, 182).

Pio Paschini