VIVALD (UBALD), BL.

Franciscan tertiary; d. Boscotondo, Italy, May 1, 1320. Vivald was a pious and charitable man, converted by Bl. Bartolus Bompedoni, a leprous priest. He became, like Bartolus, a Franciscan tertiary and renounced all worldly possessions. After the latter's death in December 1300, Vivald withdrew to a forest near Camporena, eight miles from San Gimignano to devote himself to prayer and fasting. He died in a humble cell at Boscotondo and immediately the bells of Montaione, almost five miles to the northeast, began to chime. A huntsman discovered the hermit's body and sounded the alarm. Crowds of people came, miracles occurred, and a small church to Our Lady as built on the spot. Over a period of 13 years in the early 16th century Cherubim Conzi of Florence directed the erection of the church and convent of San Vivaldo. Vivald was beatified in 1908.

Feast: May 21 (formerly May 1).

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum May 1:163–167. c. palaeotus and f. ghilardi, Archivum Franciscanum historicum (Quaracchi-Florence 1909–) 1 (1908) 521–535. m. de florentia, ibid. d (1909) 627. f. ghilardi, "San Vivaldo e la sua iconografia," ibid. 9 (1916) 42–50; San Vivaldo in Toscana (Florence 1895). j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56); v. 13, suppl. and table générale (1959) 5:8.

[j. cambell]