GENTILE da MATELICA, blessed. - Franciscan. He flourished in the first half of the 14th century and was in all probability minister of the province of the Marches. Having gone as a missionary to Cairo, Egypt, and finding difficulty in learning Arabic, he intended to return to his homeland, but was supernaturally dissuaded from doing so and at the same time received the gift of tongues.
He later went to the Eastern Vicariate—a vast Franciscan mission which then included all of Asia
Minor, Persia, and Armenia—where he died, at Trebizond, at an unknown date.
He performed miracles in life and in death, and had some connection with Marco Cornaro, the future doge, who had his remains transferred to the church of the Frari in Venice. In 1795 Pius VI granted permission for his feast to be celebrated on 5 September. Liturgically, the Office of Martyrs is celebrated, but none of the earliest and most authoritative sources attests to his martyrdom.