CLEMENTE DA S

BLESSED CLEMENT OF SAINT ELPIDIO (CLEMENTE da S. ELPIDIO) — The biographers also call him C. of Osimo, but he was born in the village of Saint Elpidio near that city. In 1274 he was Prior General of the Hermits of Saint Augustine, as is evident from the records of the ancient Chapters of the Order. At Pentecost in 1284 he was re-elected Superior General at the Chapter of Orvieto and governed his institute with skill and firmness. The Augustinian family, formally established as an Order in 1256, had encountered difficulties in its development due to the heterogeneous elements that had formed II. Gradually, however, the Order consolidated, and Clement gave it the unity it needed through appropriate constitutions, which were definitively approved at the General Chapter of Regensburg. Clement also concerned himself with the Crusades and, in response to the wishes of Nicholas IV, commissioned many of his religious to preach them. Under his leadership the Province of the Holy Land was founded. This active and intelligent General of the Augustinians died in a reputation for holiness on 8 April 1291. Clement XII approved his cult on 16 September 1762. Feast day: 8 April.