Gerard (Gerardino) of Borgo San Donnino

GERARDO (GERARDINO) of BORGO SAN DONNINO. - He was teaching grammar when he took the Franciscan habit. Already a follower of Joachimite theories, he was sent to Paris to study theology (1248).

In 1254 he published without authorization the Concordia Novi et Veteris Testamenti of the Calabrian abbot, together with the Liber introductorius ad Evangelium aeternum. This latter work gives a false conception of the Eternal Gospel, which is no longer the spirit of the two Testaments, but is materialized in Gioacchino’s threefold work: Concordia, Expositio in Apocalypsim e Psalterium decem chordorum.

The work provided an opportunity for a most dangerous offensive against the Mendicants at the University, and was censured by Alessandro IV (1255). G. returned to Sicily; having failed to appear and then being sent back to Paris, he was condemned by the minister general, s. Bonaventura, to perpetual imprisonment, and died 18 years later unrepentant. Angelo di Chiarino states that he was one of the principal companions of the b. Giovanni da Parma.

BIBL.: Sources: Cronica fratris Salimbene de Adam Ordinis Minorum, edited by O. Holder-Egger, in MGH, Scriptores, XXXII, pp. 236-38, 460-62; Angelo da Chiarino, Historia septem tribulorum, edited by F. Ehrle, in Archiv f. Liter. u. Kirchengeschichte, 2 (1886), pp. 283-84. - Studies: F. Ehrle, Das Evangelium aeternum und die Commission zu Anagni, ibid., 1 (1885), pp. 57-70; Gratien de Paris, Histoire de la fondation... des Frères Mineurs, Parigi 1928, p. 210; G. Bondatti, Gioacchino a francescanesimo nel Dugento, S. Maria degli Angeli 1924, pp. 67-85 and passim (v. indice).
Cite this article

“GERARDO (GERARDINO) DI BORGO SAN DONNINO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI (1951), p. 75. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/gerardo-gerardino-di-borgo-san-donnino.