Travel Feature
By Bridget Spinks
Florence is a beautiful city renowned for its history, beautiful buildings, art, and most of all for its remarkable saints, chiefly Carmelites and Dominicans.
Known in Italian as Firenze, Florence has on display the incorrupt bodies of three famous women saints.
Blessed Mary Bagnesi (1514-1577) was a Dominican Tertiary of extraordinary suffering and sanctity who, amongst many other miracles, is said to have cured the 18-year-old Carmelite Sr Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi (1566-1607) who went on to become one of the greatest saints in Carmelite history. These two incorrupt bodies are displayed together in the Carmelo di S Maria Maddelana d’ Pazzi.
St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart (1747-1770) is another incorrupt Carmelite whose body is housed in the convent named after her in Florence.
Also among the incorrupt is the patron saint of Florence, St Antoninus (1389-1459), who became a Dominican in 1406 and was ordained in 1413. He was made Prior of many Dominican establishments, including one of the most admired churches in Rome, Santa Maria sopra Minerva. He was responsible for displaying the incorrupt remains of St Catherine of Siena in that church.
Later, he established the Dominican Convent of San Marco, one of the artistic glories of Florence. As a tribute to him, Pope Eugene IV and the entire College of Cardinals assisted at the consecration of the building. The ground floor cloister of the convent is named after him.
Among these remarkable saints, one who holds a unique place is Guido di Piero because, as Blessed Angelico, he is revered both for his sanctity and his art. When he entered the Dominicans in 1420, he took the name Fra Giovanni (Br John) but soon became known to his brothers as Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One) because of the holiness of his life and his art.
Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1982 as Fra Angelico and proclaimed him patron saint of artists.
Anyone interested in his holy art must visit the Museum of St Mark (Museo de San Marco).
Over 100 works of Fra Angelico’s art can be seen in this museum, many of them frescoed in the cells of friars, novices and lay brothers.
Five Dominicans, including Fr Fausto Sbaffoni OP, reside in the priory around the corner from the entrance to the museum and church.
Fr Fausto said that Fra Angelico is “an important figure for many Dominicans” because he reminds them through his art to live an authentic Dominican life, observant of the Rule.
Fra Angelico, who was already a painter, joined the Dominicans at the convent in Fiesole where he continued to paint while religiously adhering to the Dominican Rule of life, Fr Fausto said.
“We could say he was a mystic of painting,” Fr Fausto said, because “his art is an art that unified the technical skills of a master with a deep spiritual experience.
“What you can identify is light and colour that creates a particular atmosphere that appears to be supernatural,” he said.
“When you look at a Beato Angelico painting, there is a balance and harmony to the work even when he depicts ‘evil’ or ‘sorrow’ such as a crucifixion scene,” Fr Fausto said.
“Jesus Christ is serene, calm with a peaceful expression. Why? Generally speaking, Beato Angelico was neither naive nor simple. He knew evil but he saw everything with the eyes of faith. Even in the darkest moments, he could see the light of the resurrection of Jesus,” Fr Fausto said.
Fr Fausto, originally from Rome, entered the novitiate in 1979 when he was 27 and served two three-year terms as Prior from 2002-09.
He said he was attracted to the Dominicans by the combination of study, community life and prayer.
Being part of the Order of Preachers, Fra Angelico used his painting as an instrument to preach the truth of the Gospel, Fr Fausto said.
“Beato Angelico was a religious man who would contemplate the divine truth and transmit this to others through his art … all his paintings breathe some sort of spirituality,” he said.
In the Museum of St Mark, the familiar scene of the Annunciation painted by the holy Florentine artist and Dominican friar in the 1430s greets you as you reach the top of the stairs to the upper floor. The Latin inscription under the picture translates as, ‘Hail, O Mother of piety and noble domicile of the Holy Trinity’.
Fr Fausto explained that in this scene, Our Lady’s posture and gestures indicate that she receives the will of God “with humility”; she says, ‘Fiat voluntas tua,’ which means, ‘Thy will be done’.
The tilt of her face shows that she is listening to God and the Angel genuflects because she will become the Mother of God. The garden and the green in the window are signs: reminders of paradise and the Garden of Eden that was closed.
“When Mary says ‘Yes,’ it reopens the possibility of a return to Eden,” Fr Fausto said.
“In that moment of the Annunciation, when Mary says ‘Yes’, the Incarnation of Christ occurs and the doors of that garden open again,” he said.
This depiction of the Annunciation is on a corridor wall in the museum, which friars would have walked past on the way to their cells when it was a convent.
A second depiction of the Annunciation can be seen in Cell No 3 on the same floor, a third depiction is in the church of San Domenico in Cortona and a fourth is in the Prado museum in Madrid.
This ex-convent that is now a museum publicly displays the holy frescoes, painted by Fra Angelico and a team of assistants, which depict scenes from the life of Christ such as the Institution of the Eucharist and the Crucifixion.
They are in what were once cells of the elderly friars, novices, and lay brothers where they once prayed, meditated and slept and although not intended for the public, visitors can now walk in the footsteps of the friars and thereby meditate on the life of Christ.
“Beato Angelico preaches for the people but many paintings, above all in these rooms in San Marco, are made for the friars to teach and remind them of the fundamental points of faith, of the principle of faith and the commitment to religious life,” Fr Fausto said.
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This holy hilltop city is just 20 minutes from Florence
After you have seen the holy artist’s work, visit the Convent and Church of St Dominic (San Domenico) by taking Bus No 7 bus to Fiesole from outside the Convent of San Marco. Blessed Fra Angelico lived in the Convent of San Domenico for many years and was Vicar in 1431, 1432, 1436 and 1450 and in 1986, Pope John Paul II visited it. Next door to the convent is the Church of St Dominic which houses Bl Angelico’s Madonna and Saints.
Fiesole is a little town 20 minutes away from Florence and this church and convent of St Dominic is on the way to the town centre. If you take the bus to the end of the line, you will end up in Fiesole itself. Here, you will see the mediaeval Cathedral of San Romulo which houses the remains of St Romulus, Fiesole’s patron, under the altar.
From the Cathedral, continue up the steep and tiring Via Francesco as Pope John Paul II did in 1986. You will be rewarded by a a magnificent panorama of Florence (pictured right) and as well as that, you’ll get a profound sense of peace and holiness in the breeze. Go up the hill behind you to see the chapel and monastery of St Francis and even see cells where Blesseds once prayed.
St Bernardine of Siena would have lived in one of these cells as, above the doorway of one cell here (below), are the words Vera Cella di S Bernadino di Siena – true cell of St Bernadine of Siena.