Bartholomew of Vicenza, Bl.

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BARTHOLOMEW OF VICENZA, BL.

Bishop, preacher, spiritual writer; b. c. 1200; d. 1270 at Vicenza (Breganze), Italy. Bartholomew was an active Dominican preacher, a disputant with heretics, and a civil peacemaker. In 1233 he founded the Militia of Jesus Christ for knights. He served as regent of the theological faculty at the papal Curia before becoming bishop of Limassol, Cyprus, in 1252. He was transferred to Vicenza in 1255. While serving as papal envoy to England and France, he received from louis ix a thorn from the reputed crown of thorns. "An Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles" and "The Search for Divine Love" are his principal works, though none of his writings are published. His theology is affective rather than speculative, having been derived from richard of st. victor and pseudo-dionysius. His cult was approved in 1793.

Feast: Oct. 23.

Bibliography: Année Dominicaine. Oct. 2 (1902) 671676. t. kÄppeli, "Der literarische Nachlass des sel. Bartholomäus von Vicenza," Mélanges Auguste Pelzer (Louvain 1947) 275301. f. stegsmÜller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi 7 v. (Madrid 194961) 2:1576.

[j. f. hinnebusch]

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