Guglielmo da Villanova

Guglielmo da Villanova di Francia or di Franchi, O. Min. was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Trieste, Bishop of Sagone, and as an auxiliary bishop of Khanbalik.

Biography

Villeneuve was most likely from Villeneuve-les-Avignon.
On 23 July 1307, he was named by Pope Clement V along with six other Franciscan bishops to travel to China to consecrate John of Montecorvino as Archbishop of Khanbalik. He was consecrated in the same year by Niccolò Alberti, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. He was unable to leave with the others and on 1 May 1308, Pope Clement V, instead ordered him to leave for Tartaria sine dilatione qualibet.
Although in January 1318, he appeared at the court of the Pope in Avignon using the title Episcopus apud Tartaros or "Bishop at Tartary" or "Bishop among Tartars", he remained a suffragan bishop of Montecorvino and did not hold an episcopal jurisdiction. It is uncertain whether he actually travelled to China where Montecorvino was resident or was assigned a geographic area of responsibility with it being most likely that he worked as a missionary bishop traveling throughout the regions occupied by the Mongols.
On 28 Feb 1323, he was appointed by Pope John XXII as Bishop of Sagone. In 1324, he travelled with papal legate Bertrand du Pouget during the Papal Army's intervention in Lombardy.
On September 25, 1327, he was transferred to the diocese of Trieste. He died in Trieste in 1330.