CONRAD OF OFFIDA, BL.

Franciscan; b. Offida, Italy, c. 1237; d. Bastia, near assisi, Italy, Dec. 12, 1306. After becoming a friar in 1251, he spent ten years in hermitages in the Marches of ancona and Fermo. As a priest he ministered in Ancona, where he directed a saintly tertiary housewife, Bl. Benvenuta (d. 1291; feast: October 30). While assigned to Alvernia (La Verna), he was acquainted with St. margaret of cortona, Brother leo of assisi, and the Franciscan Spiritual leaders ubertino of casale and peter john olivi. In 1294 he favored the foundation of a separate eremitical order under Pope St. celestine v, but was persuaded to remain a Franciscan by a decisive letter from Olivi [text in Archivum franciscanum historicum 11 (1918) 366–373]. When accused of separatism, Conrad won the confidence of the Minister General John of Murro. With his close friend Bl. Peter of Treia (d. 1304; feast: February 20), he was one of the heroes of the fioretti (ch. 42–44). He wrote a one-page letter of ascetical advice, but is not the author of the spiritual polemical Liber de Flore; his Verba contain prophecies of St. francis about the future of the order, as reported by Brother Leo. Conrad's cult was approved in 1817.

Feast: Dec. 14.

Bibliography: Analecta Franciscana 3 (1897) 422–430. p. sabatier, "Verba fratris Conradi," Opuscules de critique historique 1 (1903) 370–392. a. macdonnell, Sons of Francis (London 1903) 303–315, 422. b. bartolomasi, "Memorie storiche del B. C. da O.," Miscellanea Francescana 15 (1914) 14–21, 54–57, 73–79, 114–121, 152–157; 16 (1915) 22–25, 175–179; 17 (1916) 159–164. h. grundmann, "Liber de Flore," Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 49 (1929) 33–91, esp. 77–79.

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