Pontius Carbonell

Born at Barcelona, c. 1250; died c. 1320. Pontius and Carbonell are names frequently met with in Spain, especially in Catalonia. Hence it is difficult to distinguish between the different persons bearing this name in the same century. Pontius entered the Franciscan Order and resided principally in the convent at Barcelona, where he was teacher and confessor to St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, during his seven years' captivity. He was also confessor to the Infant Juan of Aragon, Archbishop of Saragossa, to whom he dedicated some of his works. Probably Pontius was superior in 1314. On 25 Sept. of that year he was sent by King James II to his brother, Frederic II, King of Sicily, to entreat him not to give protection to the Fraticelli. On 12 Jan., 1316, and again on 25 Feb., Pontius wrote concerning the result of his mission. Finke has published several of these documents. In a calendar of Franciscan saints drawn up about 1335 at Assisi, Pontius is mentioned as "master and confessor of our holy brother Louis, Archbishop of Toulouse"; and Fr. Antony Vincente, O.P., registers him among the saints of Catalonia. He wrote commentaries on the Old and New Testament, and quotes largely from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Several writers hold that he composed the "Catena Aurea Evang.", usually published among the writings of St. Thomas. In defence of this opinion Fr. Martin Perez de Guevara wrote in 1663 a book entitled "Juizio de Salomon etc.", but which was placed on the Index two years later. Not all his works have been published. Nine large folio volumes in Manuscript are preserved in the library of S. Juan de los Reyes at Toledo.

WADDING, Annales, I, V (Rome, 1733); WADDING-SBARALEA (Rome, 1806); JOANNES A S. ANTONIO, Bibliotheca Universa Franciscana (Madrid, 1732); PISANUS, Liber Conformitatum (ed. Quaracchi, 1907); DE ALVA Y ASTORGA, Indiculus Bullarii Seraph. (Rome, 1655); FABRICIUS, Bibliotheca Med. Ævi. (Florence, 1734); COLL, Chronicon Calaloniœ; SIXTUS SENENSIS, Bibliotheca (Naples, 1742); ANTONIO, Bibliotheca, Hisp. Vet. (1798); AMAT, Escrit Catal. (1836); Annalecta Bollandiana, IX (Brussels, 1890); Catalogus Sanctorum Fratrum, ed. LEMMENS (Rome, 1903); FINKE, Quellen (Berlin, 1908).

GREGORY CLEARY