GIOVANNI (BURALLI) da PARMA, blessed. — Sixth minister general of the Franciscan Order, born in Parma ca. 1208, died at Camerino on 19 March 1289. Having become a Friar Minor around 1233, he was a lecturer in theology at Bologna, Naples, and Paris (1245); he was elected general of the Order at the Chapter of Lyon in 1247.
A man of holy life and inclined to austerity, during his office (1247–57) he favored the zealous friars, increasingly fervent supporters of the Joachimite doctrines, to which G. himself also personally adhered. During the first university struggles with the Mendicants at Paris, the minister general worked for reconciliation, which was appreciated by his opponents. As the accusations against the Joachimite friars grew more acute, G.’s position (to whom many also attributed the Introductorix in Evangelium aeternum of Gherardo da Borgo di S. Donnino, 1254) became untenable; s. Bonaventura succeeded him as minister general and had to institute proceedings against his predecessor (Città della Pieve, more probably 1263). G. withdrew to the small convent at Greccio, from which he emerged after thirty years to go to the East on behalf of the union of the Churches, but he died on the journey. He had taken part in the First Council of Lyon (1245) and had already been the legate of Innocent IV in Greece in 1249–50. His cult was confirmed in 1777 by Pius VI; feast day, 20 March.
He left various theological and scriptural works (unpublished); the attribution subsequently made to him (the contemporaries, Salimbene and others who knew him, being silent on the matter) of the celebrated Sacrum commercium b. Francisci cum domina paupertate is highly doubtful. G.’s name was always invoked with veneration and for polemical purposes by the Spirituals.