BONO, GIOVANNI, BEATO

BONO, GIOVANNI, beato. - N. da nobile famiglia a Mantova nel 1168. Dopo una gioventù dissipata, illuminato dalla grazia divina, in seguito ad una malattia, ritornò a Dio.
BONO, GIOVANNI, beato. - N. da nobile famiglia a Mantova nel 1168. Dopo una gioventù dissipata, illuminato dalla grazia divina, in seguito ad una malattia, ritornò a Dio.

He retired at the foot of the Apennines, near Cesena, and led a life devoted to prayer and penance. He founded a congregation of hermits, known as the Giannobini (v. EREMITANI DI SANT'AGOSTINO. AGOSTINO), which soon spread through Lombardy, Romagna, and Veneto. Papal bulls of Gregory IX from 1230 and 1240 attest that it adopted the so-called Rule of St. Augustine.

The Blessed died on 23 October 1249, and two years later, by order of Innocent IV, the bishop of Modena instituted proceedings there (1251–53) and at Cesena (1253–54) regarding his life and virtues. However, no further action was taken, except for the translation of his body in 1251. The Giambonites, together with other Augustinian hermit congregations, formed the "Unica magna," which was organized by Alexander IV with the bull *Licet Ecclesiae Catholicae* of 4 May of the same year, from which the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine subsequently originated, with Lanfranco Settale as its first prior general. Feast day: 23 October.

BIBL.: I. Lanteri, *Postrema saecula sex religionis augustinianae*, I, Tolentino 1858, pp. 126–30; *Acta SS. Octobris*, IX, ed. Bruxelles 1869, pp. 693–886 (texts of the processes); M. Heimbucher, *Die Orden und Kongregationen der Kath. Kirche*, I, Paderborn 1935, p. 540; U. Mariani, *Il Petrarca e gli Agostiniani*, Roma 1946, p. 4.