The collective Catholic sites are untouchable. This is the real estates Christianity which only a few pilgrims inspired by the Gospel can venture out and grasp the profound mystery.
Woe to question the Christian origins of these sanctuaries, woe to insinuate that these places were of no man's land before the lambisse Christianity. Woe, above all, to be reminded of strange ideas of pagan priests and druids, at least, there are silent about atheism and to insinuate that your thoughts be mold satanic.
But we, maybe we are not all believers, but most of all, we who are sick of being defined tout cour followers of the devil, ears Venice tourists never see us and we go on our way.
... I said, there are shrines in the Catholic world of the untouchables. Well, La Verna is definitely one of them. Most know it as the mountain beloved by Francis the top uninhabited, immersed in contemplation and silence, on which the saint of Assisi took the stigmata after his retirement in meditation. Let us now
; to us, we have thoroughly investigated the background of witchcraft life of Francis, the strange story of La Verna does not convince us at all. So many questions come to mind, but the first and the strongest that we feel we should give an immediate answer is: because Frank chose this place for a ritual intended to make it part of history of the faith? What had so special about the mountain of La Verna much to be preferred to the findings Umbria and Rieti, where instead the brother he used to stand?
What we are going to take a trip to the sources, but also in the oral memory of the peoples who inhabited those lands and most of all, certainly most of the sacred writers and of the friars, they have given us clues to reconstruct precisely the succulent other magical story of La Verna.
Everything starts from a suspect. We are around May of 1213. Francis is back on the success of Narni, where he founded a number of monasteries including the mysterious cave shrine of bathtub, which we will examine in a future article.
seek support around Umbria and the surrounding area to build consensus around them and come back again from Pope to be confirmed with a Rule written his fraternitas. Arriving at the castle of San Leo in Casentino during the investiture of a noble family Catani, Francis hopes to make arrangements with someone high in the area. A man, Count Orlando of Chiusi, the note, it seems to be a big shot in the act of giving official La Verna signed between the brothers and their descendants 9 July 1274, it describes it as "one of the bravest among the warriors of the Emperor. " Impressed by the fervor of his preaching, Count Orlando asks the aspirant to take possession of the holy mountain citing 'seraphic'.
Waves, made to the sermon, he drew St Francis aside and told him [...] "I have a mountain in Tuscany, which is called the most devoted of Mount Alvernia, which is the wild and lonely place is too good for people who want to do penance, in place removed from the people, or who want to solitary life. If he liked you, I will give you the pleasure you and 'your soul mates for my health. See Fioretti, the First view of the holy stigmata, 1898-1899 ff.
Francis, of course, if he does not repeat twice and accepts the proposal of the Count of rent that crown for his retreats. But the most unusual detail, one that fuels our suspicions, comes a little later, when Francis sent two emissaries to the count to search the site ...
And he wanted to show them [the two brothers were sent by Francis in reconnaissance, nda] the mountain of Alvernia, send them by fifty men well armed, so that they difendessimo by wild beasts.
That way, the justification of the Fioretti dall'agiografo seems more than obvious. It is understandable that the count did accompany the guests who were to forward in the forest by an armed militia, but in reality, the 50 men of a certain effect that soldiers do if you think that the brothers were already accustomed to walk alone tens of mountain trails inhabited by wolves and wild beasts.
cases, therefore, are two, or La Verna at the time was much more wild and inhospitable mountains of all other hitherto visited by monks (which, of course, highly unlikely), or the wood was not as solitary as they want us to understand the sources, but hid in the forest Indians and bandits that could endanger the safety of the monks. So why send Francis?
To understand this we make a visit to La Verna, the first of a series ...
The pitch of the Verna, which is located on the mountain itself, known as Pen, is bundled in the Miocene rocks covered with a lush forest made of oak and beech trees, the pilgrims who, unlike us vile sinners, choosing to take the steep walk, you come through two paths from the polar opposite names, but amazing. The first path is known as Blessed John Bosco, and refers to the episode that saw the hermit John of La Verna, who one morning in 1518 saw the Virgin Mary perched on a beech tree while she cradled the baby Jesus so that beech was sacro-knew it! - while at the same site was built a chapel to celebrate the happy event.
The other path, which has strangely relevant episodes have been handed down by the Franciscan tradition, is called-and I know how it is difficult to believe-the Fairy Wood. The dotted with towering trees that dominate their trunks, evidence of a past that perhaps the end of our research we can partly reveal.
But back to the initial question, in fact, is it possible that you can not understand why Francis-putting aside the amenity of the landscape he loved so much-La Verna?
At first glance, to give an answer to this question is becoming increasingly difficult, despite what La Verna is a crucial chapter in human experience of Francis, the shrine is dedicated sources in just a dozen pages, partly because of the destruction of Franciscan hagiography desired by the Council of Pisa in 1263, decreed that the disappearance of all el'insabbiamento Francis' life than the Legenda Maior of Bonaventure, including therefore the tales preserved in the monasteries. Our doubts, therefore, seem destined to remain unsolved, when we encounter a book ...
Go to this page to read the article complete with pictures ...
For all fans of Celtic, the article was also published on the website of the Cultural Bibrax
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