CATALANI (Catalano), Giordano. — Born in Sévéras-le-Château at an unknown date, he entered the Order of St. Dominic and served as a missionary in Persia. From there, joining the four Franciscans who were martyred at Tana, he set out on a journey to the Far East; forced, along with his companions, to land on the island of Balsette, he traveled north to evangelize and thus escaped the massacre. He continued his apostolate in India until, in 1329, upon the establishment of the see of Quilon, he was elected its first bishop. He wrote two accounts of the martyrdom of the four Franciscans, in 1331 and 1333, and *Mirabilia descripta per fratrem Jordanum, Ord. Praedicatorum, oriundum de Severaco, in India maiori episcopum Columbem*, a work rich in data on the state of the apostolate in India.
CATALANI (CATALANO), GIORDANO
BIBL.: A. Balme, *Le ven. p. Jourdan*, Lyon 1886; L. Lemmens, *Die Heidemissionen des Spätmittelalters*, Münster in Br. 1919, pp. 88-91; Streit, *Bibl.*, IV, pp. 50-51, 57-69. Giovanni B. Travaglia.