{"id":31789,"date":"2021-02-08T19:31:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T18:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofmconv.net\/i-le-ragioni-per-celebrare-un-centenario\/"},"modified":"2021-02-12T11:16:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T10:16:41","slug":"i-le-ragioni-per-celebrare-un-centenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/i-le-ragioni-per-celebrare-un-centenario\/","title":{"rendered":"I. The reasons for celebrating a Centenary"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

The portico of the Sacred Convent of Assisi overlooks Perugia and the entire Valley of Spoleto. It is a place so dear to us friars that it feels like home. There is a plaque mounted there, inscribed with the following stanzas:<\/p>\n

Between Topino\u2019s stream and that which flows
\ndown from the hill the blessed Ubaldo chose,
\nfrom a high peak there hangs a fertile slope;<\/p>\n

from there Perugia feels both heat and cold
\nat Porta Sole, while behind it sorrow
\nNocera and Gualdo under their hard yoke.<\/p>\n

From this hillside, where it abates its rise,
\na sun was born into the world, much like
\nthis sun when it is climbing from the Ganges<\/p>\n

Therefore let him who names this site not say
\nAscesi, which would be to say too little,
\nbut Orient, if he would name it rightly.<\/p>\n

There is no telling how many times those words have been seen by people who have had the good fortune to come and go there. They are verses 43-54 from Canto XI of Dante\u2019s Paradiso<\/em> [Heaven], the third cantica<\/em> of what tradition calls the Divine Comedy,<\/em> because it contains\u2014as the author himself declares\u2014\u201cthis work so shared by heaven and by earth\u201d (Par<\/em>. XXV 2). Canto XI is entirely dedicated to the Poverello, whose praises are sung by St. Thomas Aquinas. Whereas, in the next canto, our St. Bonaventure sings the praises of St. Dominic, the spiritual father of Aquinas. Both author and protagonist, Dante Alighieri is considered the father of the Italian language and Christianity\u2019s greatest poet. This year marks the 700th<\/sup> anniversary of his death. A commemorative program was launched on September 4, 2020, in Ravenna, Italy, the city where Dante completed his poem, as well as his life, and the place where he was buried.
\nIn a series of articles to come, we will be focusing on various aspects of the life and work of this character. He was a man whose fortunes went beyond the borders of his own homeland, the place he called, \u201cthat fair land where s\u00ec is heard\u201d (Inf<\/em>. XXXIII 80). We will also take a little pride in talking about Dante\u2019s relationship with St. Francis and with the Franciscans of his day. In addition, we will discuss how Franciscans over the centuries have been drawn to Dante and his poem.
\nWe invite you, and ourselves as well, to let this series inspire you to read or reread the Divine Comedy<\/em>, perhaps from the beginning or starting up with one of the better known cantos. This should not be too difficult for anyone because the work is widely distributed and has been translated into several European, South American, Asian and African languages.
\nWe are sure you will find it pleasant reading, and even more, a useful guide for your daily journey from \u201cthe little patch of earth that makes us here so fierce\u201d (Par<\/em>. XXII 151) to the goal that everyone desires and dreams of, \u201cthe Love that moves the sun and all the other stars \u201c(Par<\/em>. XXXIII 145).<\/p>\n

To the praise of Jesus Christ and of his servant Francis<\/em>…
\nand to the honor of Dante Alighieri, \u201cour\u201d poet!<\/p>\n

The friars of the Dante Center of Ravenna<\/p>\n

Sequence of articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Introduction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I.<\/td>\nThe reasons for celebrating a Centenary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
II.<\/td>\nThe person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
III.<\/td>\nThe work<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IV.<\/td>\nThe Divine Comedy<\/em><\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Inferno <\/em>(Hell)<\/li>\n
  2. Purgatorio <\/em>(Purgatory)<\/li>\n
  3. Paradiso <\/em>(Heaven)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
V.<\/td>\nDante, St. Francis and the Franciscans<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VI.<\/td>\nThe Franciscans and Dante<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Custody of the bones<\/li>\n
  2. Readers and commentators<\/li>\n
  3. The Dante Center of Ravenna<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
    \"Ravenna\"<\/a>
    The \u201cDante Cloister\u201d is part of the Old Franciscan Cloisters complex in Ravenna run by the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna [Savings Bank of Ravenna Foundation] where the Dante Center is headquartered.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    I
    \n<\/strong>THE REASONS FOR CELEBRATING A CENTENARY<\/strong><\/p>\n

    On September 4, 2020, with the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, attending, the seventh centenary of Dante Alighieri\u2019s death was launched in Ravenna, Italy. Dante\u2019s death took place in that city between September 13 and 14, 1321, \u201con the day\u201d as Giovanni Boccaccio wrote in his Trattatello in laude di Dante<\/em>, \u201cthat the exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated by the Church\u201d (XIV). Boccaccio himself remembers that the body of the great poet was brought \u201cto the place of the Friars Minor,\u201d (XV) the Church of San Pietro Maggiore, popularly called then, as today, the Church of San Francesco. Dante\u2019s funeral was celebrated there and finally, his body was buried in the adjacent cemetery.<\/p>\n

    This anniversary can be an occasion\u2014as Pope Francis hopes\u2014to \u201cmake the figure of Alighieri and his work understood and appreciated again, to accompany us on our personal and community journey. In fact, the Comedy can be read as a great itinerary, rather as a true pilgrimage, both personal and interior, as well as communal, ecclesial, social and historic. It represents the paradigm of every authentic voyage in which humanity is called to leave behind what Dante calls \u2018the little patch of earth that makes us here so fierce\u2019 (Par<\/em>. XXII, 151) in order to reach a new condition, marked by harmony, peace and happiness\u201d[1]<\/a>. Moreover, this is not the first time that a Pontiff has pointed to the figure and work of the great poet.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Pope Benedict XV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In the last century\u2014and we will stop there\u2014Benedict XV did the same on Dante\u2019s centenary in 1921. He affirmed that the particular reason why the Church, too, should celebrate that \u201csolemn anniversary with grateful memory and great crowds of people\u201d lay in the fact that \u201cAlighieri is ours\u201d[2]<\/a>. Moreover, the Pontiff himself dedicated an encyclical to Dante in 1921, which concluded as follows: \u201cHeaven grant that this may be the fruit of the Dante Centenary: that wherever literary instruction is given, the great poet may be held in due honor and that he himself may be for the pupils, the teacher of Christian doctrine, he whose one purpose in his poem was \u2018to raise mortals from the state of misery,\u2019 that is from the state of sin, \u2018and lead them to the state of happiness,\u2019 that is of divine grace\u201d (Dante Alighieri Epistle <\/em>XIII, 15)[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    St. Paul VI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The same idea was then taken up by St. Pope Paul VI, who in 1965, for the seventh centenary of the birth of the one he defined as \u201cthe lord of the highest song\u201d wrote: \u201cPerhaps some would want to ask why the Catholic Church wishes, by its visible Head, to take to heart cultivating the memory and celebrating the glory of the Florentine Poet. Our response is easy: by direct claim\u2014Dante is ours! Ours, by which we mean to say, of the Catholic Faith; ours, because breathing the love of Christ he very much loved the Church and sang Her glories; and ours, because he acknowledged and venerated in the Roman Pontiff the Vicar of Christ on earth.\u201d Certainly, the Pontiff did not remain silent at the time about the fact that the Poet\u2019s voice \u201clashed out severely against more than one Roman Pontiff, and had harsh reproofs for ecclesiastical institutions and for persons who were representatives and ministers of the Church.\u201d However, he recognized that this criticism never shook \u201chis firm Catholic faith and his filial affection for Holy Mother Church\u201d[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    This \u201cours,\u201d then, is someone who challenges us as children of that Mother and as Franciscans, too. If it is uncertain\u2014as a particular tradition claims\u2014that Dante was ever really a Franciscan tertiary or even a novice of the Order, what is certain is that he loved our father St. Francis\u2014the only person to whom Dante dedicated an entire canto of his Divine Comedy. Moreover, he also loved the Franciscan family, and for precisely that reason, he did not spare them his harsh reproaches for having distanced themselves from the evangelical ideal of the Poverello. Therefore, we too can say that \u201cDante is ours,\u201d and we affirm this\u2014as Paul VI invited us to do in his aforementioned apostolic letter\u2014not out of egoistic pretense, but rather so that we assume the responsibility of listening to his voice and making it resound again, convinced, along with St. Pope John Paul II, that his \u201cart evokes lofty emotions and the greatest convictions, and still proves capable of instilling courage and hope, guiding contemporary man\u2019s difficult existential quest for the Truth which knows no setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"Papa<\/a>
    Pope Francis blesses the golden cross, donated by St. Paul VI, which was remounted inside Dante\u2019s tomb after the 2020 renovations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    On October 10, 2020, Pope Francis received the Ravenna delegation at the Vatican carrying the golden cross that Saint Paul VI had donated for the blessing of Dante\u2019s tomb. At the end of the tomb\u2019s recent restorations, that cross \u201csuch a sign of religion and hope\u201d was put back where it had been originally mounted on September 19, 1965, when thirty-five Franciscan archbishops and bishops, participating in the Second Vatican Council, looked on. On that occasion, the Pontiff announced his intention to offer during the centenary year\u2014in continuity with his predecessors\u2014a more extensive, and by then, imminent reflection on \u201cour\u201d Dante.<\/p>\n

    \n

    [1]<\/a> Messaggio al Presidente del Pontificio Consiglio della Cultura in occasione delle celebrazioni del 750\u00b0 anniversario della nascita di Dante Alighieri<\/em>, May 4, 2015: published online at: http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/it\/messages\/pont-messages\/2015\/documents\/papa-francesco_20150504_messaggio-dante-alighieri.html<\/a> (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and German versions are published on the same website at www.vatican.va).<\/span><\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Epistola <\/em>Nobis, ad catholicam al Reverendo Padre Don Pasquale Morganti, arcivescovo dei ravennati e vescovo dei cervesi, in occasione del VI centenario della morte di Dante Alighieri,<\/em> October 28, 1914, published online at: http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/benedict-xv\/it\/letters\/1914\/documents\/hf_ben-xv_let_19141028_nobis-ad-catholicam.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Lettera enciclica <\/em>In praeclara summorum in occasione del VI Centenario della morte di Dante Alighieri<\/em>, April 30, 1921. The Italian version is published online at: http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/benedict-xv\/it\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_ben-xv_enc_30041921_in-praeclara-summorum.html<\/a> (French and English versions are published on the same website at www.vatican.va).<\/span><\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Litterae apostolicae motu proprio datae<\/em>: ltissimi cantus septimo exeuente saeculo a Dantis Aligherii ortu<\/em>, December 7, 1965; published online at: http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/paul-vi\/la\/motu_proprio\/documents\/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19651207_altissimi-cantus.html<\/a>. An Italian version (unofficial) is published online at: http:\/\/www.gliscritti.it\/approf\/sacchi\/paolo6.htm<\/a>. An English version (unofficial) is published online at: https:\/\/d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net\/2287\/documents\/2016\/12\/PPaulVIMotuPro2.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    INTRODUCTION The portico of the Sacred Convent of Assisi overlooks Perugia and the entire Valley of Spoleto. It is a place so dear to us friars that it feels like home. There is a plaque mounted there, inscribed with the following stanzas: Between Topino\u2019s stream and that which flows down from the hill the blessed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2201,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dante-alighieri-en","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}