João Mendes de Silva

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Blessed João Mendes de Silva (1420 – 1482), better known as Amadeus of Portugal, was the founder of a former Franciscan branch named after him.

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[edit] Biography

He was born in 1420 and began his religious life in the Hieronymite monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, where he spent about ten years. Desirous of joining the Franciscans, he went to Italy, where after some delay he was received into the order and, living in various convents, chiefly at Milan, attracted attention by his virtue and purported miracles. Under the protection of the Archbishop of Milan, he established the convent of Notre-Dame de la Paix (1469) which became the centre of a Franciscan reform. The minister general of the order, Francesco della Rovere, later Pope Sixtus IV, extended his protection to him. Other foundations were made in Italy, among one at Rome. He died at Milan in 1482.

[edit] Legacy and veneration

Supernatural favours obtained through his intercession aided in the spread of his cult, and the Bollandists testify to the authenticity of the title "Blessed" bestowed on him.

The convents he founded continued after his death to form a distinct branch of the Franciscans, the friars were called the Amadeans or Amadists, and they had twenty-eight houses in Italy, the chief one, Saint Peter de Montorio, in Rome. Pope Innocent VIII gave them the convent of Saint Genesto near Cartagena in Spain (1493). The successors of Blessed João, Georges de Val-Camonique, Gilles de Montferrat, Jean Allemand, Bonaventura de Cremona, preserved his foundation in its original spirit until Saint Pius V suppressed it along with similar branches of the Franciscan Order uniting them into one great family of Friars Minor Observants (1568).

[edit] Works

He composed a yet published treatise entitled "De revelationibus et prophetiis", two copies of which are mentioned by Nicholas Antonio. The work of another Amadeus, "Homilies on the Blessed Virgin", has been erroneously attributed to him.

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