Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
VENTURINO DA BERGAMO. – Famous Dominican preacher, b. in Bergamo on 19 April 1304, d. in Smyrna on 23 March 1346.
He entered religious life in his native city (1319), was first master of novices in Genoa, and then devoted himself entirely and successfully to preaching. In order to bring about the pacification of the Italians divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines, and to induce sinners more easily to do penance and reconcile the numerous excommunicated persons of Bergamo with the Church, in 1335 he organized a great penitential pilgrimage to Rome. But, having fallen under suspicion as an agitator at the Roman Curia, he went to Avignon to offer himself to Benedict XII for the Crusade. Benedict XII, poorly informed about him, received him harshly; condemned in a trial, he was deprived of the office of preaching and hearing confessions, with a prohibition against returning to Italy. He humbly accepted
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
VENTURINO DA BERGAMO - Letter of Benedict XII to the bishop of Anagni, Giovanni Pagnotta, concerning the pilgrimage of Fra' V. (8 April 1335) - Vatican Secret Archives, Epistolae secretar, ar. I, Reg. 130, no. 142, f. 29.
VERA CRUZ, ARCHDIOCESE OF - Church with bell tower (19th century). Vera Cruz. (from W. Staub, Mexico, Berlin 1925, pl. 5)He accepted the unjust sentence and spent the time of his exile writing books and spiritual letters. In 1343, Clement V restored to him the faculty of preaching and hearing confessions, and on 4 January 1344 sent him back to Italy to preach the Crusade against the Turks. An extraordinary popular enthusiasm for V. soon arose again; many set out for the Crusade, and he himself went to Smyrna (1 March 1346), which was besieged from land, in order to support and encourage the Crusaders; but shortly thereafter he died, exhausted by his apostolic labors and penance.
He wrote various letters and spiritual treatises, among which the following should be mentioned: De Spiritu Sancto; In psalterio decachordo; De humilitate (fragment); De profecta spirituali; De remediis contra tentationes spirituales, published together with various letters by Clementi.
BIBL.: G. Clementi, Il b. V. da B., Rome 1904 (in the appendix, the writings and the legend of a contemporary anonymous author); E. Hocedez, La légende latine du b. V. d. B., in An. Boll., 25 (1906), pp. 298–303; A. Sorbelli, La «legenda» del b. V. da B., Bologna 1925. Alfonso D'Amato
Cite this article
“VENTURINO DA BERGAMO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII (1954), p. 795. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/venturino-da-bergamo.
