BONSIGNORI, BENEDETTO. – Benedictine abbot and biblical exegete, born around 1510 and died in Florence in 1567. Already in secular life he distinguished himself by his keen intellect and his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. In the Order he held various important positions in the Cassinese Congregation of S. Giustina, «laudandus ob integritatem, amandus ob humanitatem, imitandus ob rectam simplicemque naturam» (R. Castrucci, Vita).
Among his works, mention should be made of 30 homilies on the three canticles of the New Testament, and 31 homilies or treatises on the Gospels and Psalms, and on many passages selected from Isaiah and s. Paolo. He followed the patristic method, assimilating especially the spirit of s. Giovanni Crisostomo and the gentleness of s. Bernardo. Raffaele Castrucci, one of his monks, published his homilies in Florence in 1568 in a large volume (pp. 624): Orationes variae ad fratres in Capitulo.