Gerard of Borgo San Donnino () was an Italian

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

of the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...

Biography

Gerardo was born at an unknown date in

Borgo San Donnino Fidenza (Parmigiano: ; locally ) is a town and '' comune ''in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. It has around 27,000 inhabitants. The town was renamed Fidenza in 1927, recalling its Roman name of ''Fidentia''; before, it was ca ...

(now Fidenza), then an independent commune, now part of the

Province of Parma The Province of Parma ( it, Provincia di Parma) is a province in the Emilia–Romagna region of Italy. Its largest town and capital is the city of Parma. It is made up of 47 '' comuni''. It has an area of and a total population of around 450,00 ...

. He went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

to complete his studies. There, in 1248, according to Salimbene di Adam, he attempted to convince King

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the d ...

not to organize the

Sixth Crusade The Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), also known as the Crusade of Frederick II, was a military expedition to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actu ...

. He was a

Joachimite The Joachimites, also known as Joachites, a millenarian group, arose from the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. They based their ideas on the prior works of Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135 – 1202), though rejecting the Church of their day more st ...

, a follower of the

millenarian Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latin , "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarian ...

ideas of

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

Joachim of Fiore (''Gioacchino da Fiore''). Around 1250 Gerardo published in

a book entitled ''Introductorium in Evangelium Aeternum'' (''An Introduction to the Eternal Gospel''), where he identified the "Order of the Just," supposed to rule the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

after the advent of the Age of the Holy Spirit, in the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Order. This text was examined by a commission of cardinals set up by

Pope Alexander IV Pope Alexander IV (1199 or 1185 – 25 May 1261) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 December 1254 to his death in 1261. Early career He was born as Rinaldo di Jenne in Jenne (now in the Province of Rome), he ...

, who was worried about the diffusion of Joachimite theories among the Friars Minor. In 1255, the council ordered the destruction of the book and in 1263 Gerardo was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He remained in prison until his death in 1276, still refusing to recant his beliefs. {{DEFAULTSORT:Donnino, Gerardo Of Borgo San 1276 deaths People from Fidenza Italian Friars Minor Franciscan scholars Year of birth unknown