Blessed Gaspar de Bono

Gaspar de Bono i Montsó, O.M., (5 January 1530 – 14 July 1604) was a Valencian friar of the Order of Minims and Catholic priest. He is venerated as blessed by the Catholic Church. De Bono was born on 5 January 1530 in Valencia, the second of the four children of Joan de Bonome (or Bonhóm), who had emigrated from Gascony, and his wife, Isabel Joana Montsó (or Monzó), originally from Villa de Cervera in the current Province of Lleida (Spanish: Lérida). Upon his birth, he was baptized at the nearby Church of San Nicolás. Having been born on the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany, he was named for one of the Biblical Magi. Although Gaspar's parents were very pious, the family was poor. His father was a linen weaver by trade, but when his mother was blinded three years after his birth and became unable to help in the family trade, the father was forced to sell their home and his tools and took work as a grinder and reseller. As a child, he developed a noticeable stammer, a problem from which he suffered his whole life. At the age of ten, De Bono began working with a silk merchant, but soon realized that his vocation was religious and began to study Latin while continuing to work to support his family. About 1545, he was admitted as a candidate to the Dominican Order, but, just as he was about to enter their novitiate, he was talked out of this by a brother-in-law, after which he returned home. At age twenty, De Bono joined the army of the Emperor Charles V, in search of fortune. He served as a soldier for about ten years, but continued to try and live a devout and religious life, by praying, saying the rosary daily, donating to charity and frequenting places of worship. He fought in Lombardy where he was seriously wounded in the head. Left for dead, De Bono made a promise to enter the Minim friars, founded by Francis of Paola, if he survived.