Bartholomew of Rome
BARTHOLOMEW OF ROME
Religious reformer, eminent preacher; b. Campo de' Fiori, Rome; d. monastery of San Benedetto Po, Mantua, 1430. He promoted religious reform in the territory of Venice and was among the principal members of the group that reformed the monastery of Santa Maria di Fregionaia near Lucca. Out of this movement emerged the Congregation of Canons Regular of St. John Lateran (see canons regular of st. augustine). He was elected prior by his companions in 1403 and held the office again from August 1407 to 1408. He seems not to have held any office permanently, but rather to have continued to carry on his preaching career. At his death he had a reputation for sanctity. He was not, as some historians have believed, a member of the Colonna family, nor was he the founder of the Congregation of St. George in Alga near Venice, established later by Pope Clement IX in 1668.
Bibliography: n. widloecher, La congregazione dei canonici regolari Lateranensi (Gubbio 1929). k. egger, Für Gottes Haus und Herde (Bolzano 1952) 17–22.
[r. h. trame]