CALDEIRA, BONIFACIO

CALDEIRA, BONIFACIO. – Friar Minor, known as Bonifacio Indiano, born at Meliapore in 1586, died at Como on 1 March 1661. He was of royal lineage and, after his parents’ conversion, was baptized. At the appropriate age he joined the cathedral clergy. He was ordained a priest in 1610. Shortly thereafter he renounced all the rights and offices that belonged to him as head of the family and came to Rome, where he spent long hours in the church of S. Antonio in Piazza Barberini. He took the religious habit in the adjoining convent of the Reformed Conventuals. Several times he was appointed superior of various convents and, in 1625, of the one in Rome. When the Reform to which he belonged was suppressed in 1626, he joined the Roman province of the Reformed Observants. He requested and obtained that he never be promoted to honorary offices and that he be assigned to the most solitary convents. He was sent to the convent of Greccio. Constant meditation on the Passion of Christ fostered in him the desire to visit the Holy Places. Having embarked at Venice in 1639 and arrived in Syria, he was appointed chaplain to the Venetian merchants of Alexandretta. After two years of service, he began his visitation of the sanctuaries of Palestine. Later he also visited S. Giacomo di Compostella and all the celebrated sanctuaries of Spain, France, and Italy. Upon returning to the province, he joined the so-called Riformella, adopting a more austere life. He was transferred by the general visitor, Fr. Bernardino d’Artò, to the convent of S. Francesco a Ripa. The vicar general, Daniele da Dongo, assigned him to the convent in his native town. He died in the convent of the Most Holy Cross at Como. His memory remained alive among his confrères and the people.