Venerable Giovanni de Surdis Cacciafronte

Giovanni de Surdis Cacciafronte (1125 - 16 March 1184) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and bishop from the Order of Saint Benedict. He served as the Bishop of Mantua from 1174 until his resignation in 1177 and held the position of Bishop of Vicenza from 1179 until his murder. The schism that Antipope Victor IV caused enabled him to proclaim his support for Pope Alexander III though leading to his removal from a position at the behest of Frederick Barbarossa. The beatification cause commenced in 1222 under Pope Honorius III and culminated on 30 March 1824 when his beatification received formal ratification from Pope Leo XII upon the confirmation of the late bishop's enduring local 'cultus' - or popular devotion. Giovanni de Surdis Cacciafronte was born in 1125 in Cremona to the nobles Evangelista Sordi and Berta Persico. He lost his father as a child and his mother soon remarried the nobleman Adamo Cacciafronte who allowed his stepson to assume his surname and as such treated him as if he were his own child. He was well-educated as a child and his desire to pursue the ecclesiastical life was well received at home. Cacciafronte entered the Order of Saint Benedict in 1141 at their convent of San Lorenzo in Cremona and was later ordained to the priesthood before being appointed as the prior of San Vittore - connected to San Lorenzo - and later being made as the abbot of San Lorenzo itself from 1155 until 1159. The schism that Antipope Victor IV caused - with the support of Frederick Barbarossa - caused the priest to affirm his ardent support of Pope Alexander III. He was banished from his convent after Barbarossa learned that he had supported the pope. The pontiff did not fail to notice the priest's support and so appointed him as the Bishop of Mantua after his predecessor sided with the antipope. But his predecessor later returned repentant and requested to be Mantua's bishop once more.