End of Semester
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2011
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29
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Trip End
Apr 30, 2011
Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Monday, April 27, 2009
LaVerna. These are special places in the history/mythology of St.Francis. The hermitage is on the site of the castle of Montecasale which was destroyed in the 13th Century. However, a hospice and hospital for
wayfarers run by the Benedictine monks was allowed to remain. It was donated to St. Francis in 1212. His bed made from a rock that he covered with brush wood can still be seen. He made his last visit in 1224 on his way back from La Verna. St.Antonio and St. Bonaventura of Bagnoregio were also guests at Montecasale.
Immediately after Assisi, La Verna is the place most closely associated with St.Francis. The mountain was given to him by Orlando Catani, count of Chiusi, in 1213. The Count was apparently moved by Francis's preaching. Francis stayed there often, at least once a year, and on the last occasion in August 1224, he received the stigmata. After visiting the church and enjoying the breathtaking view of the mountains and valleys, we had the obligatory wonderful lunch - 3 courses - in the Refectory. After lunch, around 3 PM daily, the Friars, and anyone who wishes to join them, form a procession from the chapel through the corridor to the Cappella di Stimata (Chapel of the Stigmata). The friars chant the entire time and the effect is both beautiful and spooky. . This is a ceremony that has taken place twice a day for eight centuries. Some narrow steps lead us down under the Chapel of the Stigmata . Here in 1259 St. Bonaventure had a cell built for himself. As Minister General of theOrder he had come "to the peaceful solitude of La Verna ... inspired by the Lord ... in search of ... that peace which Francis proclaimed in
every sermon of his and wished in every greeting".
The week following the end of classes is the Week of Special Academic Events. It's a really nice week, with student work featured each day/night. So Monday night we went to Il Birraio (The Brewery) and listened to the creative writing class read their literary pieces; Tuesday night was the art and photography show (wine and snacks served); Thursday were student presentations - Mike and I were chosen to be on the panel of judges that will award a $250 prize to the winners. The contestants were from the Marketing class and the Identity and Culture class. These presentations were fascinating. The marketing group had visited and studied a local business and had developed a marketing plan for improvement/expansion of the business. The culture and identity group had spent 2 hours/week with a local family and presented their findings on differences between Italian and American families. We will choose the winner next week.
The weekend was terrific - again, we had such a good time that we forgot to take many pictures. On Saturday night we had our own experience of Italian Culture and Identity. I think I have mentioned in previous blogs that we have become good friends with Walter. He is an Italian who is about to retire from working 30 years for the phone company - so he's close to our age. Among his many interests are Slow Food, wine, and learning English. So we have been meeting with him for coffee and language exchange (he speaks broken English and we speak broken Italian) for weeks. In this time he has helped us with many things, like installing WiFi in our apartment. A few weeks ago we went out for pizza with him and his wife Linda, who is an artist. This past Sat. night we were invited to their home - a beautiful 3 bedroom modern apt. outside of the center - which means it is not in a 1,000 year old building like ours! Walter and Linda have triplets - 2 boys and a girl, 15 years old. The boys play in a rock band and, before we went to the apt. for our dinner, Walter took us to the band's practice space, where Mike sat in on "Jumpin' Jack Flash." Needless to say, the kids thought Mike was molto cool! I did get a picture of that.
On Sunday night the fun continued. We hosted a pizza party for the students in the Franciscan Heritage Program. We made up goofy award certificates that kind of captured outstanding characteristics of each student and, of course, I wrote an Ode to FHP '09. But we did forget to take pictures! Oh well.
We have about 10 days left and will be mainly packing and shipping. We did have a fascinating look at some recently discovered Hebrew manuscripts from the 12th century and we will have a visit to a Raffaello exhibit in Urbino and maybe, if we have time, one more visit to Rome. I'll blog about these before we leave and I will remember to take pictures!
