GARGIULO, BONAVENTURA DA SORRENTO. - Bishop of S. Severo (Apulia), Capuchin writer of the province of Naples, b. at S. Agnello di Sorrento on 26 March 1843, entered the novitiate of Nocera on 28 June 1839, missionary in England (Nov. 1867 - Aug. 1870), preacher, lecturer and provincial definitor, appointed bishop on 23 Jan. 1895, d. at S. Agnello on 9 May 1904.
Untiring in the works and initiatives of his ministry, he was a versatile popularizer of the ecclesiastical sciences through articles, pamphlets and books. At S. Agnello he founded the printing house of Andrea Festa, later transferred to Naples. Among his monographs are remembered those of local history (Sorrento, S. Agnello 1877; Vita di s. Agnello, Naples 1903; Apulia sacra, 2 vols., ibid. 1900-1904), of Franciscan history (S. Francesco negli Abruzzi, ibid. 1885; S. Francesco nella Custodia di Napoli, Naples-Sorrento 1894) and of Capuchin history (I Cappuccini nella provincia di Napoli, S. Agnello 1879; Il proto-convento di S. Efrem Vecchio, Naples 1889; S. Lorenzo da Brindisi al cospetto di Napoli, S. Agnello 1881). He founded and directed the widely circulated bimonthly review L'eco di s. Francesco (32 vols., 1873-1904). Among his writings of theological exposition should be noted Michoel (2nd ed., Naples-Sorrento 1892) on St. Michael the Archangel; La corporea Assunzione di Maria al cielo: tradizione e scuola francescana (Naples 1902). With the periodical Il III centenario di Torquato Tasso (1894-95), he defended his orthodoxy and his Thomism.
BIBL. F. Sorrentino, Mons. B. G., in L'eco di s. Francesco, 32 (1901), pp. 229-38 (with the catalogue of works); A. Zawert, The history of franciscan preaching and of franciscan preachers (1909-1927), New York 1928, p. 266; Beniamino da Sarno, Mons. B. G., in L'Italia francescana, 8 (1931), pp. 300-307.
Ilarino da Milano