Christopher Numar of Forli

Minister general of the Friars Minor and cardinal, date of birth uncertain; d. at Ancona, 23 Mar., 1528. In his youth he studied at Bologna and, after joining the Friars Minor, was sent to complete his studies at Paris. In 1507 he was elected vicar provincial of his order at Bologna, in 1514 vicar general of the Cismontane Franciscan families, and in 1517 he became minister general of the whole order of Friars Minor. Less than a month later he was raised, in spite of his protests, to the cardinalate by Leo X, who in presence of the Sacred College paid a splendid tribute to Christopher's great learning and prudence and to his still greater holiness of life. In 1520 he became Bishop of Alatri and Isernia in Italy, and in 1526 of Riez in Provence. He subsequently fulfilled with eminent success the office of Apostolic legate to the King of France, and later became Apostolic nuncio and commissary for the construction of the Vatican Basilica, being then invested with the temporal dominion of Bertinoro. During the siege of Rome by the soldiers of the Duke of Bourbon in 1527 Christopher suffered many hardships and insults, on account of which he received letters of condolence from Clement VII, Francis I of France, and Henry VIII of England. His remains were transferred from Ancona, where he had taken refuge, to Rome, and placed in the Church of Ara Coeli. Besides an "Exhortatio ad Galliarum regem Franciscum I in Turcas" and a number of letters addressed to that king and the other rulers concerning the liberation of Clement VII, Christopher is said by Wadding and others to have written several treatises on theological and ascetical questions, all of which appear to have perished during the sacking of Rome.

WADDING, Annales Minorum ad annum 1517, XVI, nn. xxiv and xxxv; SBARALEA, Supplementum, Pt. I (1908), 207; PICCONI, Cenni biografice sugli uomini illustri della francescana provincia di Bologna, I (1894), 380.

PASCHAL ROBINSON