Giacomo Bianconi

Giacomo Bianconi, also known as Giacomo da Bevagna and in English as James of Bevagna, was a thirteenth-century Italian priest of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He was born in 1220 in Bevagna, a town in Umbria in central Italy, then within the Papal States. Traditional accounts describe him as belonging to a noble local family of that name. In 1236, while still a youth, he entered the Dominican convent at Spoleto. He made his profession in the order and was later ordained a priest. His life thereafter was spent in the Dominican houses of Umbria rather than in high ecclesiastical office.

Bianconi became known among the friars of the region for austerity, preaching, and works of charity. He held positions of responsibility, including that of prior in Dominican communities, and is credited with establishing or consolidating a Dominican foundation in his native Bevagna, with which the later church of San Domenico is associated. Central Italy in his lifetime saw the activity of various heterodox groups. Dominican and later hagiographical sources present him as a preacher against sectaries identified as Nicolaites, working for their conversion by sermon and example rather than by inquisitorial office. Precise reconstruction of those controversies depends largely on later pious narratives and should be treated with caution.

Hagiographical tradition already in the later Middle Ages attributed to him a reputation for holiness during his lifetime, including a penitential manner of life, devotion to the Passion of Christ, and reported mystical experiences or visions. Contemporary documentary evidence for many of these episodes is thin; they belong to the conventional portrait of a Dominican blessed of the period. He spent his later years connected with the Bevagna house.

He died in Bevagna on 22 August 1301. A local cult formed around his memory and relics. Pope Clement X confirmed that cult on 18 August 1672, which in the practice of the time constituted beatification. He was never canonized and is venerated in the Catholic Church as Blessed. His liturgical commemoration is kept on 23 August. He is regarded as a patron of Bevagna, and his remains have been venerated in the church of San Domenico in that town.