NEVOLONE (NOVELLONE) da FAENZA, blessed. – A shoemaker, who from a man of pleasure became a penitent, Franciscan tertiary, pilgrim, and later hermit with the Camaldolese of Faenza, where he died on 27 July 1280. At his death the people of Faenza, in a crowd, solemnly carried his body to the Cathedral, where they had it buried in the presence of the city magistrates.
He was venerated as blessed, certainly before 1331, as is shown by well-known Faentine documents. Pius VII confirmed his cult on 4 June 1817. In the cathedral of Faenza a chapel of particular artistic value is dedicated to N. He is venerated on 27 July. The most reliable information on N. is provided by the chronicler P. Cantinelli (Chronicon, Città di Castello 1902); an anonymous life written between 1415 and 1475 is of little value. Of some interest as a document in the vernacular, composed in Faenza perhaps before 1426, and as a biographical document, is the Lauda beati Noveloni de Favencia, which speaks of N.’s travels and pilgrimages in Puglia and Campania.