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Oat $t-tcl' ry5, 4llg -t Np 7),t'r-l:lrr.*f= -tF [.] i'l {** l:t ,lfirq I 3,'['.H]'[1* i\ l Li !t TuuMooRMAN ConECTroN Sr. Fnlxcts wAsNEVER sENTIMENTAL, BUT RATHER A "TERRIFyING pERsoN" wHo srllt ToDAy"THRowsDowN ACHALLENGEToTHE vALUEs oF A MATERIAtrsrrc soclEry" ACCoRDINGTooNEoFTHE GREATEST scHoLARs or FRlNcrscANHrsroRy lBv Lucv Gononn Library: The Placeto Book Into" waspublished as an "Of Books,Art, and People"essay in ITV ast July, thanksto the generosityof Visit February2006. Britain in New York City, Rail Europe, The purposeof my returnvisit wasto studyin L and the tourist boardfor Ensland'sNorth greaterdepth the MoormanCollection, the Country,as well asthe hospitalityof the warden, largestcollection of memorabilia(2,000 books) the Rev. PeterFrancis, I had the opportunityto concerningSt. Francisof Assisi and early Fran- return to St. Deiniol's Library at Hawardenin ciscanhistory ever to be in privatehands, as well North Wales. asthe life of JohnMoorman, donor to St. Dein- For nearlya decadeI had written extensively iol's Libraryas a bequestin 1989. for a worldwideaudience about this "intellectual "Moormanchose St. Deiniol'sbecause he hospice,"founded at his homeby William Ewart knewour formerwarden, Rev. Peter Jagger, well; Gladstone(1809-1889), four timesprime minis- becausehe wantedhis materialsto be available ter of England,"for the promotionof Divine open-accessto scholarsat a library alreadywell- learning."One of my articles,"St. Deiniol's knownfor its theologicalcontent; and because he INSIDE THE VATICAN February 2007 wantedhis collectionto stayin Britain, but not in a big library wasthe copy; A NewFioretti (1946, a collectionof earlystories with bureaucraticaccess restrictions," Patsy Williams, head of St.Francis previously untranslated); and a biography(1950), librarian.told me. where he describesSt. Francisas "the one perfectChristian" After I sawthe habit worn by St. Franciswhen he received and insiststhat his calling was "not to escapefrom the world, the stigmata(on display in the exhibition "Petros Eni") and but to give oneselfto the world, askingnothing for oneselfand after I heard from ArchpriestAngelo Comastri(who is in readyto sufferand die for the soulsof men." chargeof St. Peter'sBasilica) that St. Franciswas his favorite Moorman'slater works include his A History of the Fran- saintbecause "I relateto him; I find myselfin him, my dreams, ciscanOrder From lts Origins to the Yearl517 (1968),Richest my aspirations,my sensibilities,my ideals,"I thoughtit was of Poor Men (1977),which owesits title to Thomasof Celano time to tell Insidethe Vaticanreaders more aboutMoorman, a who in his Vira Prima calls Francis"ditissimus pauper," and remarkableAnglican cleric, and his life-long devotionto St. MedievalFranciscan Houses (1983), a list of some4,500 Fran- Francisof Assisi(1182-1226) - the patronsaint of animals, ciscanestablishments for friars andPoor Clares, from China in ecology,Italy, and tapestrymakers. the Eastto Cubain the West,up to the year 1517,when the _ FranciscanOrder beganto divide Moonu.lx's Dnvorron E into threemajor groups, which all "I sawSt. Francis,"exclaimed S observethe samerule of life, but JohnMoorman (1905-89) in a $ differ in their interpretation,each 1979interview. "I havespent a 3 branchadopting a different color lot of time duringthe last 50 habitwhich would distineuish yearsreading and thinking about one from the other. St. Francis,and spent some hours in the crypt of Assisi looking at Moonmen rHn Collrcron the stonecoffin in which his In an article abouthis Biblio- body was saidto lie, so it was thecaFranciscana, Moorman very moving to be presentlast mentionsthe PontificalAthen- year when the saint'sbody was aeum'Antonianum,"(Via Meru- exhumedand re-encasedbefore lana124,00185 Rome, tel. 06- being replacedin the sarcopha- 7037357l, librarian:Padre Man- gus.I neverthought that one day cio Portillo OFM, e-mail: por- I would actuallysee and touch [email protected])and the his bones." QuaracchiLibrary in Grottaferra- Moorman'sstudy of St. Fran- ta as the mostextensive sources cis andof the early history of the for Franciscanscholars. FranciscanOrder was inspired by Moormanpoints out that his threeincidents of his youth. personallibrary is concernedonly As a teenager,his mother with the medieval friars. It gavehim a copy of The Little includesthe writings of St. Fran- Flowersof St.Francis. cis; biographiesof St. Francis; Then, as an undergraduateat biographiesof otherearly Fran- Cambridgeafter reading the lives ciscans;the earlyhistory of the of the saintby Paul Sabatier(his Order;the historyof the Poor father's copy and the volume Claresand tertiaries;and the Moormannumbered no. I of his worksof leadingFranciscan writ- collection),by Chesterton,by ers before l5l7: Jacoponeof FatherCuthbert and by St. Bonaventwe(1221-1274), Moor- Todi, St. Bonaventure,Alexander of Hales,Duns Scotus, and manspent three weeks in Assisi.He stayedwith the PoorClares Doctor Mirabilis RogerBacon (who wasmentioned in my arti- at SanQuirico and immersedhimself in the atmosphereof the cle, "Eyeglasses:Made to Magnify God'sWord," April 2006). Franciscanholy places. The collectionalso containsperiodicals dealing exclusively Third, he met a BrotherDouglas SSF, whose ministry with Franciscanhistory. Moorman concedes that his collection, amongvagrants made a deepimpression upon him as a modern although"primarily the working library of a scholar,and not exampleof St. Francis'simplicity. the prideand glory of a bibliophile,"does include "a numberof old, uncommonand curious books." Moonunn rHE ScHoLAR The oldestbooks in the collectionare a handful of manu- Moorman'sfirst writings aboutSt. Franciswerc Sources for scripts.In my earlierarticle about St. Deiniol's I mentionedthe the Life of St.Francis ( 1940),in which he arguedthat theLeg- lSth-centuryItalian Missale Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, of par- enda Trium Sociorumor Legendof the ThreeCompanions (a ticular interestbecause it was"regularly used in a medievalfri- letter written from Greccio by three friars, Leo, Rufino, and ary" as well as the tiny Breviary "easyfor an itinerantfriar to Angelo,on Augustll, 1246,to Crescentiusof Iesi) represent- carry in his pocket."The othersare a collectionof works by St. ed the earliertradition and that Thomasof Celano'sVita Primn Bonaventure:a"Forma investiendifratres tertii ordinisS. Fran- February2007 INSIDE THE VATICAN cisci" writtenfor theThird Orderin Antwerpand containing the saint;De Conformitate oathin German;and a little book of inter alia ("amongother vitae beati Francisciad things"),a tracton casesof conscienceby FriarClarus de Flo- vitamdomini lesu Christi rentia,of whosework very few exampleshave survived. redemtorisnostri ("On the Contemporarywith the manuscriptsis a small group of Conformity of the Life of incunabula(printed works from prior to 1500),most of which BlessedFrancis to theLife are works by St. Bonaventure,by St. Bernardineof Siena of Our Lord Redeemer (1380-1444),and by scholastictheologian Alexander of Hales JesusChrist"), material (n.d.-1245). compiledin 1399by a friar The rarest,however, is a copy in excellentcondition of called Bartholomewof Arbor Vtae Crucifixaeby Ubertinoda Casale,printed in Veniceby Andrea Bonettisde Papiain 1485.Ubertino, who joined the Order of Friars Minor in 12'73,was one of the leadersof the Zelanti,or Spirituals."This is a very importantbook," comments Moorman, "for anyonestudying the historyof the Order;but, curiouslyenough, it has neverbeen reprinted since the first edi- tionof 1485." Other raritiesin the collection includea secondedition of Speculum Vitae, accolnts of incidentsof St. Francis'life documentedby Brother Leo in 1246,printed at Metz in 1509 and discoveredby Paul Sabatier,the great lgth-centurybiographer of the ereda pioneerin ltaliantheater. Althoughhis biography,espe- A LEGENDARY ciallybefore his vows,has few FRANCISCAN reliablehistorical sources, it is generallyagreed that, like his f')p"n until May2, 2007,in the mentorSt. Francis,Jacopone, vbeautiful Umbrianhill town of whosegiven name was Jacopo Todi,is a splendidexhibition about its Benedictior Benedetti,was born mostfamous native son, Jacopone da intoa wealthyfamily. Todi,to celebratethe 700thanniver- Hestudied law at Bologna,the saryof his deathon Christmasnight oldestuniversity in the Western r 306. world(1088) and the most distin- Jacoponeda Todi(Todi 1235-Col- guishedin ttalyat thattime, and lazzone1306), an earlyFranciscan becamea successfullawyer. friar,is certainlynot a household Probablytn 1267he marrieda name.Nor is he amongltaly's best- verypious noblewoman called knownwriters. But he is famousfor Vanna,daughter of Bernardino, his100 mystical loudiin the Umbrian countof Collemedio. dialect(songs in praiseof the Lord). A decadelater tragedy struck. Healso wrote two shortprose works Partof the floorof Jacopone's in Latin,Dicto and Troctotusutilis- housecollapsed during a party, simus;and the lyricsStobot moter killinghis young wife. dolorosoare attributed to him.Proba- Althoughtacopone is oftencalled'blessed' Duringhis attemptto revive blybeing the first scholar who drama- or'saint" hehas never been beafified her,he discoveredthat beneath tizedGospel subjects for the stage, or canonizdby the Church, in partbecause of her splendidrobes she had Jacopone,greatly admired by hiscon- theHtires he wrote against secretlybeen wearing a hairshirt temporaryDante Alighieri, is consid- frequendy-malignedPope Boniface ltll I to mortifyher flesh. INSIDE THE VATICAN February 2007 Pisa,comparing the life