CALDEIRA, BONIFACIO. - Friar Minor, called Bonifacio Indiano, b. at Meliapore in 1586, d. at Como on 1 March 1661. He was of royal lineage and, once his parents had been converted, received Baptism. At the appropriate age he joined the clergy of the Cathedral. He was ordained a priest in 1610. Shortly afterwards 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. He was several times appointed superior of various convents, and, in 1625, of that of Rome. When the Reform, to which he belonged, was suppressed in 1626, he joined the Reformed Observant Roman province. He asked and obtained never to be promoted to honorary offices and to be placed in the most solitary convents. He was assigned to the convent of Greccio. The continual meditation of the passion of Christ fostered in him the desire to visit the Holy Places. Having embarked in 1639 at Venice and reached Syria, he was appointed chaplain of the Venetian merchants of Alexandretta. After two years of service he began the visit to the sanctuaries of Palestine. Subsequently he also visited S. Giacomo di Compostella and all the famous sanctuaries of Spain, France and Italy. Having returned to the province, he associated himself with the so-called Riformella with a more austere life. By the visitor general Father Bernardino d'Artò he was transferred to the convent of S. Francesco a Ripa. The vicar general Daniele da Dongo placed him in the convent of his own town. He died in the convent of the S.ma Croce of Como. Among his confreres and the people his memory remained alive.
Bibliography
Pancrazio Maarschalkerweerd