BIANCO (of Santi) of Siena. - Mystical poet, a Jesuit, one of the most notable figures of the movement begun by the Blessed Colombini and the finest religious lyricist of the second half of the 14th century. Born at Lanciolina (or Ancilonia) in the upper Valdarno, he was also called the Blessed of Lanciolina. Little is known of his life. In his youth, he worked as a wool weaver in Siena, and in 1367 he was received into the Jesuits by their founder, Giovanni Colombini (q.v.). For many years he wandered through central Italy, publicly reciting his verses. He was endowed with extraordinary graces and died a holy death in Venice at the beginning of the 15th century. A Laudario survives from him, first published by T. Bini in 1851 and by F. Ageno in 1939.
By overly admiring followers he was equated with Jacopone da Todi. While his lauds are artistically inferior, they are not lacking in linguistic vigor or originality of content; after Jacopone, he is the greatest Italian mystical poet. Singing of the love of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the mysteries of the soul—especially the renunciation of all worldly vanities—he often employs paraphrases of liturgical prayers or psalms. Unlike the lyric poets of the 14th and 15th centuries, he does not limit himself to the play of images but evokes vivid spiritual experiences. His lyric thus assumes a singular interest not only literary but theological. Particularly significant for their similarities with the poetic themes of St. John of the Cross are Laude XVIII, “Ottima tenebria privami della luce,” and Laude XX, “Ferito m’ha l’Amore di saetta di fuoco.”
Bianconi, Giacomo, Blessed. - Born on 7 March 1220 at Bevagna, where he died on 22 August 1301; a Dominican from 1236 in Spoleto, he studied in Perugia. He founded the convent in his native town, of which he was prior; through the most rigorous penance he prepared himself for an apostolate exercised especially against the Nicolaitans, whose leader he converted in a public debate at Bevagna. He was also prior at Spoleto and at Pisa. He was endowed with prophetic spirit and acclaimed as a wonderworker even in his lifetime. His body, after three translations (1401, 1555, 1589), was placed beneath the high altar of the Dominican church (S. Giorgio) in Bevagna. His cult from time immemorial was confirmed by Clement X on 18 May 1672. He wrote: Speculum humilitatis Christi and Speculum peccatorum, in which he treats of the life of Our Lord and of the final judgment.
Biard, Pierre. - French Jesuit, one of the initiators of the Company’s missions in New France. Born at Grenoble in 1567 and admitted to the order in 1583, he had been teaching theology for seven years when Father Coton chose him, together with Father Ennemond Massé, to found a mission in Acadia (Nova Scotia), where the Calvinist Jean de Poutrincourt was to establish a French colony. A wealthy benefactress, the Marquise de Guercheville, purchased for the fathers a share in the colonists’ association to overcome Protestant opposition; when the mission, begun in 1611 at Port-Royal in Acadia (Annapolis), encountered fresh difficulties, the Marquise had the fathers transferred to the opposite coast, where in 1613 they founded St-Sauveur (now Bar Harbor, in the State of Maine, U.S.A.). Before long, however, the English pirate Samuel Argall destroyed St-Sauveur after a month and Port-Royal the following year. Taken to England and then returning to France in 1614, Biard died at Avignon on 17 November 1617.
The letters in which he recounts events in America to his superiors were published by A. Carayon, Documents inédits concernant la Compagnie de Jésus, XII (Poitiers 1864), and reprinted in R. G. Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, I-III (Cleveland 1896-97).
Attacked by Protestants as the cause of the colony’s failure and the ruin of Port-Royal, Biard defended himself by writing his Relation de la Nouvelle France, de ses terres, naturel du pays et de ses habitants, item du voyage des pères jésuites audictes contrées et de ce qu'ils y ont fait jusqu'à leur prime par les Anglais (Lyons 1616, reprinted in Thwaites, III, pp. 21-23; IV, pp. 7-117), which already heralds the series of the famous Relations de la Nouvelle France begun in 1627.
BIBAUX (BIBAUT, BIBANCE, better BIEBUYCK), GUILLAUME: see BIEBUYCK, GUILLAUME.