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| Blessed John Sordi, Pray for us ! |
⛪ Other Names :
• John Cacciafronte • Giovanni de Surdis Cacciafronte • John de Surdis
⛪ Memorial :
16 March
9 July (Mantua)
⛪ Born : c.1125 at Cremona, Italy as John Sordi
⛪ Died : Murdered on 16 March 1183 at Vicenza, Italy
Blessed John Sordi lived at the time of the struggle undertaken by the emperor Federico Barbarossa (1125-1190), against the Italian papacy and municipalities.
Giovanni was born in Cremona around 1125 by Evangelista Sordi and Berta Persico, both of very noble origins; still at an early age Giovanni Sordi lost his father, his mother remarried with the nobleman Adamo Cacciafronte, who loved him as a son of his own, giving him his name; he was educated in an excellent way by the two parents, receiving a religious and cultural formation.
At the age of sixteen he entered as a Benedictine monk in the Abbey of S. Lorenzo in Cremona; over the years his qualities and virtues were increasingly evident, winning the sympathies of superiors and confreres.
He was first appointed prior of the small monastery of S. Vittore, dependent on the abbey of S. Lorenzo and then abbot of the same great Abbey of Cremona.
In those years the schism broke out in the Church, with the election of the antipope Vittore IV (1159-1164), supported by Federico Barbarossa, against the legitimate Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), who opposed imperial power, supporting the Lombard League of Municipalities, which contrasted the invasion of the troops of Barbarossa.
Abbot Cacciafronte with his influence managed to keep Cremona in obedience to Pope Alexander III, but the emperor had him exiled; later the Pope commissioned him from the government of the diocese of Mantua, it is not specified whether as Apostolic Administrator or as a bishop, instead of Bishop Graziadoro who had joined the schism of the antipope Victor IV and his successors Pasquale III (1164-1168) and Callisto III (1168-1179).
After the famous battle of Legnano (29 May 1176) lost by the emperor by the Lega Lombarda, whose head had been elected Pope Alexander III (it is from that time the foundation of a new city, named in honor of the pope, Alexandria ); there was peace dealt with in Venice in 1179, the antipope in office Callistus III was deposed.
In the episcopal see of Mantua the repentant bishop Garziadoro returned and again in 1179, mgr. Giovanni Cacciafronte de Sordi, was transferred to the bishopric of Vicenza, at that time without a bishop.
Just two years later, on 16 March 1181, Bishop Cacciafronte was killed by a certain Pietro, feudatory in concession of the property of the Vicentine Church, who wanted revenge because the bishop had excommunicated and deprived him of the property, because of his frequent violations of the rights of the Church.
The assassination of the bishop is mentioned in the 'decretals' of Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241), in the text of a letter dated March 21, 1198, sent by Pope Innocent III, to the Bishop of Vicenza, Msgr. Pistore, forbidding him to give in fief the goods of the Church to the murderers of the bishop Giovanni and to their heirs.
The body of the holy bishop and martyr was buried in the cathedral of Vicenza and moved to the same cathedral in 1441, in a more worthy marble tomb.
The cult of the blessed Giovanni Cacciafronte de Sordi, bishop and martyr, for centuries tributatogli, was confirmed by Pope Gregory XVI on March 30, 1824.
His liturgical feast is scheduled for March 16 while in the diocese of Mantua his memory is celebrated on July 9 .