Guadagni, Bernardo Gaetano
GUADAGNI, BERNARDO GAETANO
Cardinal bishop; b. Florence, Sept. 14, 1674; d. Rome, Jan. 15, 1759. He received his doctorate in civil and Canon Law in Pisa in 1694 and was a canon in the cathedral at Florence when he entered the Discalced Carmelite Order in 1700, taking the name John Anthony of St. Bernard. After serving as provincial of the Tuscan Province, he was named bishop of Arezzo in 1724. When Clement XII was elected pope, Guadagni, his nephew, was summoned to Rome, created a cardinal in 1731, and appointed to the Curia. During three pontificates he served as secretary to the Consistory, counselor to many other congregations, and vicar of Rome, from 1732 to 1759. He was made bishop of Frascati in 1750 and of Porto and S. Rufina in 1756. He was a man of eminent virtue, devoted to the reform of morals and the care of the poor; his cause for beatification was introduced in 1761 and 1763. He was the first cardinal of the Discalced Carmelites. (see carmelites, discalced)
Bibliography: Bibliotheca Carmelitana, ed. p. wessels (Rome 1927). a. mercati and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiastico 2:280. v. a. s. maria, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 4: 1256–57.
[p. t. rohrbach]