MONTEINARD, BRUNO. - Mystical theologian and apologist, b. at Bormes (Provence) on 7 Feb. 1752, d. at Rome on 14 March 1838. Having entered the Minims in 1767, he taught theology at Aix and at Avignon, then at Rome in the convent of the Trinità del Monte Pincio. When the convent was suppressed, he returned to France, and after the Concordat he was honorary canon of Notre Dame in Paris and devoted himself to preaching.
In 1817 he had been called to Rome as superior of the Trinità, with the intention of rebuilding the community. Unfortunately it was not possible for him to gather a sufficient number from among the French Minims, scattered by the Revolution; and since the Italian Minims had not been admitted, M. was forced in 1828 to abandon that convent which had been for more than three centuries a cenacle of illustrious religious. From 1823 to 1829 M. was "colleague," that is, assistant general for France. In the meantime he preached the Lenten sermons for six years at St. Louis of the French; then he retired to the convent of his confreres at St. Mary of the Light, in Trastevere.
His principal works: Discours sur la grandeur et la divinité de N. S. J. C., Rome 1818; Le chrétien uni au Sacré Coeur de Jésus, ibid. 1818; Réfutation du principe de la souveraineté du peuple, ibid. 1821; De l'infaillibilité du St-Siège, ibid. 1822; Poème contre le duel, ibid. 1825; Soliloque d'un chrétien zélateur de la ste-Vierge, ibid. 1838.
Bibliography2 works
XIV, Madrid 1862, pp. 357-58; Acta Capitularum generalium Ord. Min., II, Rome 1916, pp. 331, 335, 340, 343, 345, 528; F. Bonnard, Histoire du convent de la Trinité du Mont Pincio, Rome-Paris 1933, pp. 273-78; 286, 293.
Gennaro Moretti