Bonaventure da Barcelona, Blessed

BONAVENTURA DA BARCELLONA, blessed. – Before entering the Order of Friars Minor (1640), he was called Michele Battista Gran; born in Riudoms, in the province and diocese of Tarragona, on 24 November 1620. When he came to Italy in 1658, he added the appellation « da Barcellona » to his name. Following the example of his homeland and also of other regions of Italy, he established austere Franciscan houses of retreat in Latium; thus, in 1662, he founded a convent of retreat at Ponticelli Sabina, with statutes approved by Pope Alessandro VII. Shortly thereafter, two others followed, at Montorio Romano and Vicovaro, and finally that of S. Bonaventura on the Palatine Hill (Rome), where he died on 11 September 1684. His reform, called the « Riformella », to which s. Leonardo da Porto Maurizio belonged, lasted until the union of 1897. He was beatified by Pius X in 1906.