GUIDO LOMBARDO, blessed. — Founder of the Humiliati, born in Milan and living in the first half of the 11th century. Few and unreliable accounts of his life have survived, handed down by Girolamo Terocchio, who lived in the 15th century and drew them from the lessons of an old Breviary. Having been deported to Germany by the emperor Henry II, together with other Milanese gentlemen, he succeeded in persuading his companions to change their way of life and to live under a religious discipline, which gave rise Humiliati (v.).
But another historian, Puricelli, after recounting the origins of the Order in the manner described, adds: “I was mistaken: this b. G. in the year 1134 received from s. Bernard certain Rules for the said Order, which he had confirmed by Innocent III in the year 1199, and for this reason he was called its founder.” Besides placing the blessed man’s life a century later, this statement says that the Rules received by G. in 1134 were submitted by him for approval in 1199, that is, 65 years later: something that seems quite unlikely.
But the historical existence of b. G. does not seem open to doubt. The Order of the Humiliati, which survived until 1570, paid him public homage as its founder, and Milan counts him among the glories of its city.