John of Vercelli, Blessed

JOHN OF VERCELLI, Blessed. - Born at the beginning of the 13th century at Mosso S. Maria (province of Vercelli), died at Montpellier on 30 November 1283. He was a master of canon law at Paris, where he had studied, and later at Vercelli. In 1229, moved by the preaching of the blessed Jordan of Saxony, he entered the Dominican Order.

In the convent of Vercelli, of which he was the founder, he taught theology for several years and from 1245 to 1257 was its superior; then, elected provincial minister of Lombardy, he began to be known to the popes themselves, who repeatedly appointed him as inquisitor against the heresies creeping through those regions. At the General Chapter of Paris in 1264, G. was elected master general of his Order, an office he held until his death. From this moment his whole life was absorbed by the cares of the Order, for whose increase he labored indefatigably, personally visiting almost all the convents, especially in France, Italy and Hungary. He knew and deeply venerated St. Thomas Aquinas, whose doctrine he upheld at the Chapter of Paris (1279) against the oppositions that had arisen within and outside the Order. Nicholas III appointed him patriarch of Jerusalem in 1298, but G. refused that honor. His cult was approved in 1903.