Dante Alighieri
February 23 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
SAN FRANCESCO
The church erected between the 9th and 10th centuries, rises on the place where there used to be a more ancient religious building built in the 5th century for the wish of the Bishop Neone (Basilica Apostolorum). Since 1261 the church has been dedicated to St.
Francis of Assisi. In 1321 the funeral of Dante Alighieri was celebrated and still today it belongs to the so called "Dantesque part of town". The church was restored several times both inside and outside and an important restorng took place in 1793 by Petro Zumaglinı.
The underground crypt is what remains of the medieval basilica.
Tear entice en roof tenorates
him by issuing an Encyclical Letter, and by the restoration of the Church of Saint Peter Major in Ravenna, popularly known as San Francesco, where Dante's funeral was celebrated. Benedict XV added that: "Alighieri is our own...
Indeed, who can deny that our Dante nurtured and fanned the flame of his genius and poetic gifts by drawing inspiration from the Catholic faith, to such an extent that he celebrated the sublime mysteries of religion in a poem almost divine?"
In 1302 he was exiled from Florence. He thus became an exile, a "pensive pilgrim" reduced to a state of "grievous poverty" (Convivio, I, III, 5). His final place of exile was Ravenna, where he was hospitably received by Guido Novello da Polenta. There he died on the night between 13 and 14 September 1321.
In exile, Dante's love for Florence, betrayed by the "iniquitous Florentines" (Ep. VI, 1), was transformed into bittersweet nostalgia. Dante, pondering his life of exile, radical uncertainty, fragility, and constant moving from place to place, sublimated and transformed his personal experience, making itaparadigm of the human condition, viewed as a journey - spiritual and physical.
Dante's journey, especially as it appears in the Divine Comedy, was truly a journey of desire, ofa deep interiorresolve to change his life, to discover happiness and to show the way to others who, like him, find themselves in a "forest dark" after losing "the right way".
Dante champions the dignity and freedom of each human being as the basis for decisions in life and for faith itself. Freedom, Dante reminds us, is not an end unto itself; it is a condition for rising constantly higher.
Dante today - if we can presume to speak for him - does not wish merely to be read, commented on, studied and analyzed. Rather, he asks to be heard and even imitated; he invites us to become his companions on the journey. Today, too, he wants to show us the route to happiness, the right path to live a fully human life, emerging from the dark forest in which we lose our bearings and the sense of our true worth.
At this particular moment in history, overclouded by situations of profound inhumanity and a lack of confidence and prospects for the future, the figure of Dante, prophet of hope and witness to the human desire for happiness, can still provide us with words and examples that encourage us on our journey. Dante can help us to advance with serenity and courage on the pilgrimage of life and faith that each of us is called to make, until our hearts find true peace and true joy, until we arrive at the ultimate goal of all humanity: "The Love which moves the sun and the other stars"Read more