SECUSIO, BONAVENTURA. – Franciscan friar, Patriarch of Constantinople, and nuncio, b. at Caltagirone c. 1558, d. at Catania on 29 March 1618.
Admired for his learning and eloquence, he served as visitor of the diocese of Palermo (1586). Elected Minister General at Valladolid (5 June 1593), he governed the Order for seven years; he promoted studies, enforced discipline, promulgated the Vallisoleana Constitutions, and fostered reform everywhere, especially in France and Belgium. He rendered great service to the cause of peace between Spain and France. Clement VIII sent him to the courts of Madrid and Paris, and with Cardinal A. de’ Medici he worked indefatigably for concord between the two kingdoms until the Treaty of Vervins was signed (2 May 1598). Elected Patriarch of Constantinople (10 March 1599), he was appointed extraordinary nuncio to France to settle disputes over the Marquisate of Saluzzo between France and Savoy. The negotiations conducted through him, signed in Paris on 27 February 1600, were broken off due to subsequent difficulties but were finally concluded with Cardinal P. Aldobrandini, the legate, in the Peace of Lyon on 17 January 1601. Through the intervention of Philip III of Spain, he was created Bishop of Patti (30 April 1601), then transferred to Messina (17 August 1605) and finally to Catania (10 June 1609), where he died.
He wrote: *Pacis inter Philippum II Hispaniarum et Henricum IV Galliarum reges historiae* and *Constitutiones synodales ecclesiae Catanensis*.