MONTANARI, GIACOMO. — Minister General of the Friars Minor Conventual, b. at Bagnacavallo (Romagna) in 1570, d. at Venice on 4 November 1631. Master of students and bachelor at Bologna (1593–96), doctor of the College of S. Bonaventura in Rome (1596–99), he taught metaphysics at the University of Bologna (1600–1603), but was soon appointed to the various offices of the Order: provincial minister of Hungary (titular, 1607–16), procurator general (August 1611), apostolic vicar (15 September 1612–17), and 65th minister general (May 1617–23).
He visited the provinces of the Order, mostly on foot, promoting discipline, for which purpose he had a special Manual of formation and history and the Costituzioni urbane compiled (approved in 1628), and encouraging studies with his famous Reformatio studiorum, which he promulgated at Cologne after solemnly examining and transferring the bones of b. Duns Scotus (13–15 January 1619). During his generalate, in 1619, the Friars Minor Capuchin obtained full autonomy from Paul V, with their own minister general. After 1623, M. retired to Venice, where he was also theologian to the Serenissima and where he was buried in the basilica of the Frari.
Learned and most devout, M. left numerous theological and ascetical writings, among which are remembered: De divinae sapientiae triumpho (Rome 1599); De S. R. Ecclesiae principata et monarchia, dedicated to Paul V (ibid. 1608); Reformatio studiorum Ord. FF. MM. Conv. S. Francisci (Perugia 1620; later codified in the Costit. urbane); Modo di far l'Oratione mentale (Mondovì 1619); Exercitiorum spiritualium liber, qui etiam mystica theologia nuncupari potest... (Terni 1620; compiled from the writings of s. Bonaventura); manuals of formation and piety.
Lorenzo Di Fonzo