Blessed John of Parma
Minister General of the Friars Minor (1247-1257), b. at Parma about 1209; d. at Camerino 19 Mar., 1289. His family name was probably Buralli. Educated by an uncle, chaplain of the church of St. Lazarus at Parma, his progress in learning was such that he quickly became a teacher of philosophy (magister logicæ). When and where he entered the Order of Friars Minor, the old sources do not say. Affò (Vita, p. 18, see below) assigns 1233 as the year, and Parma as the probable place. Ordained priest he taught theology at Bologna and at Naples, and finally read the “Sentences” at Paris, after having assisted at the First Council of Lyons, 1245. Through his great learning and sanctity, John gained many admirers, and at the general chapter of the order at Lyons in July, 1247, was elected minister general, which office he held till 2 Feb., 1257. We may judge of the spirit that animated the new general, and of his purposes for the full observance of the rule, from the joy felt (as recorded by Angelus Clarenus) by the survivors of St. Francis’s first companions at his election, though Brother Giles’s words sound somewhat pessimistic: “Welcome, Father, but you come late” (Archiv. Litt., 11, 263). John set to work immediately. Wishing to know personally the state of the order, he began visiting the different provinces. His first visit was to England, with which he was extremely satisfied, and where he was received by Henry III (Anal. Franc., I, 252). At Sens in France St. Louis IX honoured with his presence the provincial chapter held by John. Having visited the provinces of Burgundy and of Provence, he set out in Sept., 1248, for Spain, whence Innocent IV recalled him to entrust him with an embassy to the East. Before departing, John appears to have held the General Chapter of Metz in 1249 (others put it after the embassy, 1251). It was at this chapter that John refused to draw up new statutes to avoid overburdening the friars (Salimbene, “Mon. Germ. Hist. Script.”, XXXII, 300). Only some new rubrics were promulgated, which in a later chapter (Genoa, 1254) were included in the official ceremonial of the order, beginning: Ad omnes horas canonicas (last published by Golubovich in “Archivum Franc. Hist.”, III, Quaracchi, 1910). The object of John’s embassy to the East was the reunion of the Greek Church, whose representatives he met at Nice, and who saluted him as “angel of peace”. John’s mission bore no immediate fruit, though it may have prepared the way for the union decreed at the Council of Lyons in 1274.
