Blessed Bonaventure Tornielli

Bonaventura Tornielli (1411 - 31 March 1491) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed friar from the Servite Order. Tornielli was born into a noble household and was a noted preacher in which he visited numerous Italian cities such as Florence and Perugia - Pope Sixtus IV held him in high esteem and even named him the "Apostolic Preacher". He also held various positions of leadership within his order. His beatification was approved under Pope Pius X on 6 September 1911. Bonaventura Tornielli was born in 1411 in Forlì to the nobleman Giacomo Tornielli. Tornielli enlisted into the Servite Order in 1448 where he became noted as a biblical expert and was later ordained as a priest. He completed his studies in Venice in 1454 after having started in 1448 and earned his master's degree in his theological studies - even at this stage he was reported to be small and thin and haggard in appearance. He became noted for his love of contemplative silence in which to meditate on the Gospel while also preaching sermons and missions in the Papal States and in other Italian cities all on the subject of repentance. His fame for personal holiness spread at a rapid pace even to the ears of Pope Sixtus IV who named him as the "Apostolic Preacher". Tornielli served for an unknown duration as his order's vicar-general in addition to having also served as its prior and provincial. In 1468 he led a sermon before the senate of the Republic of Venice (also to them in 1482) and in 1488 at the San Marco Basilica. He also led sermons in Florence at the cathedral at the request of their senate and also at the SS. Annunziata in 1481. Tornielli also preached during a period of plague in 1476 in both Bologna and Perugia. In 1483 he served as prior of the San Marcello convent in Rome and there decided to retire with six others to a hermitage after receiving papal permission to do so; he might have spent time in Monte Senario.