Fidentius of Padua
Fidentius of Padua (Italian: Fidenzio da Padova) was a Franciscan administrator and writer active in the Holy Land between 1266 and 1291. He wrote a tract on the Christian recovery and retention of the Holy Land.
This article is about the historical figure. For the legendary saint, see Fidentius Armenus.Biography[edit]
Fidentius may have been a native of Padua or its region, or else was attached to a convent there. He was born before 1226. In June 1266, he was made vicar provincial of the Holy Land, an office restricted by the Franciscan rule to those at least forty years old.[1] That same year, acting on the request of the Templar grand master Thomas Bérard, he sent two friars to the besieged castle of Safad to serve as chaplains.[1][2]
In 1268, Fidentius was in Tripoli when he received a copy of the Liber Clementis, probably in Arabic, from a Syrian Christian.[1][3] On learning of the fall of Antioch (18 May 1268), he left Tripoli to visit the Christians captured by Sultan Baybars I to provide for their spiritual needs.[1][4] He shadowed Baybars' army on horseback for several days, possibly also acting as an ambassador of the Crusader states. The firmans issued by Baybars favouring the Franciscans may be the product of his work.[4]
By 1274, he was back in Europe. He attended the Second Council of Lyon and at the first session on 7 May was commissioned by Pope Gregory X to write a report on recovering lost territory in the Holy Land.[1][4] It is probable that he had met the future pope on his mission to the Holy Land in 1271.[4] Fidentius appears to have visited the convent of Saint Anthony in Padua in 1283. He was back in the Holy Land again in 1289, when he visited the prisoners-of-war after the fall of Tripoli on 26 April. It was only in 1290 or 1291, shortly before the fall of Acre, that he delivered his report, Liber recuperationis Terre Sancte, to Pope Nicholas IV.[1] The report was probably written in the Holy Land, mainly in Acre.[5] He was still there in February 1290, since he refers to the invasion of Cilician Armenia that took place that month in his Liber.[4]
A Fidentius who undertook some missions in Italy is mentioned in the records of the convent of Saint Anthony in Padua in 1294, although it may have been a different person.[1] The Blessed Fidentius mentioned in some sources must be a different person, since he was clearly dead before 1249. The Franciscan vicar must have died after 1291, probably in Padua.[4]