The extraordinary Jacopone da Todi of the Stabat Mater Dolorosa, was a renowned Franciscan poet, who wrote several Laudi in Italian, and the famous Latin lyric Stabat Mater is conventionally attributed to him. He was an early pioneer in Italian Theatre, being one of the earliest scholars who dramatised Gospel subjects.
Born at Todi in the first half of the Thirteenth Century, he was properly called Jacopo Benedicti or Benedetti. His death in Collazzone goes back to about 1306. Very little is known with certainty about the life of this extraordinary man. The oldest and most authentic document we have is Jacopone's signature to the manifesto of Cardinals Jacopo and Pietro Colonna against Boniface VIII. Angelo Clareno in his "Chronica Septem Tribulationum", written around 1323 mentions Jacobus Tudertus among those Spiritual Friars who, in 1294, sent a deputation to Celestine V, to ask permission to live separate from the other Friars and observe the Franciscan Rule in its perfection - a request which was eventually granted. The next reference to the Poet is found in Alvarus Pelagius's "De Planctu Ecclesiae", written principally in 1330, he quotes two of Jacopone's sayings, and calls him a perfect Friar Minor.
Born at Todi probably in 1228, of the noble family of Benedetti, Jacopone took up the study of law - probably at Bologna, as might be inferred from the fact that this was the most famous school of law at the time. On returning home he exercised - the legends say with some avarice - the profession of an advocate. In course of time around 1267 he married a noblewoman, who in one version of the legend is called Vanna, daughter of Bernardino, Count of Collemedio. It was the great piety and the tragic death of his young spouse that brought about an entire change in Jacopone. A great feast was being celebrated at Todi, probably in 1268. Among the onlookers was Jacopone's wife in rich array. Suddenly the raised platform from which she was witnessing the spectacle gave way, crushing her fatally. When the poet reached her side Vanna was already dying. The terrible blow caused by his wife's death, together with the evidence of her secret penance for his sins, made such an impression on Jacopone that for many years he seemed to be no longer himself. Abandoning his profession and wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, he led a roaming life for a full decade. During this period he was the terror of his friends and relations, and became a sort of Christian Diogenes. It was then probably that the former proud doctor of law, Jacopo dei Benedetti, mocked and scoffed at by the boys in the streets of Todi, received the nickname of Jacopone.
Around 1278, he sought admission into the Order of Friars Minor at his native town, a request which after some difficulty was granted. Out of humility he chose to be a lay brother. In the great convent of S. Fortunato at Todi, the so called party of the community of the Franciscan Order certainly prevailed. This party was strongly opposed to that of the more zealous friars, called the Spirituals. The sympathies of Jacopone were with the latter. Boniface VIII, who had under unusual circumstances succeeded Celestine V, the friend of Spirituals, having recalled all privileges granted by his predecessor and thus subjected anew the zealous friars to their regular superiors, and having engaged in a struggle with the two Cardinals Colonna, Jacopone took sides with these two protectors of the Spirituals against the Pope. Perhaps there were also personal reasons for enmity between Boniface and the poet, dating from the time when the former, then a young man, obtained an ecclesiastical benefice at Todi, where his uncle Peter was Bishop from 1252 to 1276. Palestrina - the stronghold of the Colonnas - having been taken in 1298, by the Papal Troops, Jacopone was imprisoned in the Fortress above the town, known today as Castel San Pietro. Some of Jacopone's most touching, and also most aggressive poems were composed in this dungeon. Not even in the great Jubilee of 1300 did Jacopone obtain pardon with the Colonnas and their partisans having been excluded from the jubilee by a special bull. Boniface VIII was captured at Anagni on September 7, 1303, and upon his death, which occurred shortly afterwards on October 11, Jacopone was set at liberty.
Now an old man, broken down, tried and purified by hardships he withdrew first to Pantanelli, a hermitage on the Tiber, three hours distant from Orvieto, then to Collazzone, a small town situated on a hill between Perugia and Todi. There is no record of a Franciscan Monastery at that place, but there was a Poor Clare convent, San Lorenzo, which served the Franciscan Friars. It was here that Jacopone died on December 25, 1306, just at the moment when the priest was intoning the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" at the midnight Mass. His last moments were consoled by the presence of his faithful friend, Blessed John of La Verna, from whom he had especially desired to receive the Last Sacraments, and who really arrived shortly just before the poet's death.
His body was brought to Todi and buried in the church of the Poor Clares of Montecristo or Montesanto, outside the walls of Todi. In 1433 it was discovered in Montecristo and removed to the Franciscan church of San Fortunato inside the town, where his tomb is still to be seen, embellished by Bishop Cesi in 1596, and adorned by a beautiful inscription : "Ossa. Beati Jacoponi. De Benedictis. Tudertini. Fratris Ordinis Minorum. Qui stultus propter Christum. Nova mundum arte delusit. Et caelum rapuit. Obdormivit in Domino. Die XXV Martii. An. Dom. MCCXCVI. Ang. Caes. Episc. Tudert. Hic collocavit ann. MDXCVI." – which means "Here lie the bones of Blessed Jacopone dei Benedetti da Todi, Friar Minor, who, having gone mad with love of Christ, by a new artifice deceived the world and took Heaven by violence."
Jacopone is often called Blessed, and has been considered a blessed or a saint, in the technical sense of the words, by different authors. As a matter of fact, Jacopone has not been beatified or canonized by the Church, although various efforts have been made in this direction, for example, by the Municipal Council of Todi in 1628, and by the chapter of the Cathedral of Todi in 1676. Lastly, in the years 1868 and 1869, the postulator of the Causes of Saints of the Friars Minor collected call the documents proving the cultus ab immemorabili paid to Jacopone, in order to obtain its official confirmation. The chief obstacle to the confirmation of the cultus lies in the part Jacopone took against Boniface VIII and the satires he wrote against this much calumniated Pope.
Born at Todi in the first half of the Thirteenth Century, he was properly called Jacopo Benedicti or Benedetti. His death in Collazzone goes back to about 1306. Very little is known with certainty about the life of this extraordinary man. The oldest and most authentic document we have is Jacopone's signature to the manifesto of Cardinals Jacopo and Pietro Colonna against Boniface VIII. Angelo Clareno in his "Chronica Septem Tribulationum", written around 1323 mentions Jacobus Tudertus among those Spiritual Friars who, in 1294, sent a deputation to Celestine V, to ask permission to live separate from the other Friars and observe the Franciscan Rule in its perfection - a request which was eventually granted. The next reference to the Poet is found in Alvarus Pelagius's "De Planctu Ecclesiae", written principally in 1330, he quotes two of Jacopone's sayings, and calls him a perfect Friar Minor.
Born at Todi probably in 1228, of the noble family of Benedetti, Jacopone took up the study of law - probably at Bologna, as might be inferred from the fact that this was the most famous school of law at the time. On returning home he exercised - the legends say with some avarice - the profession of an advocate. In course of time around 1267 he married a noblewoman, who in one version of the legend is called Vanna, daughter of Bernardino, Count of Collemedio. It was the great piety and the tragic death of his young spouse that brought about an entire change in Jacopone. A great feast was being celebrated at Todi, probably in 1268. Among the onlookers was Jacopone's wife in rich array. Suddenly the raised platform from which she was witnessing the spectacle gave way, crushing her fatally. When the poet reached her side Vanna was already dying. The terrible blow caused by his wife's death, together with the evidence of her secret penance for his sins, made such an impression on Jacopone that for many years he seemed to be no longer himself. Abandoning his profession and wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, he led a roaming life for a full decade. During this period he was the terror of his friends and relations, and became a sort of Christian Diogenes. It was then probably that the former proud doctor of law, Jacopo dei Benedetti, mocked and scoffed at by the boys in the streets of Todi, received the nickname of Jacopone.
Around 1278, he sought admission into the Order of Friars Minor at his native town, a request which after some difficulty was granted. Out of humility he chose to be a lay brother. In the great convent of S. Fortunato at Todi, the so called party of the community of the Franciscan Order certainly prevailed. This party was strongly opposed to that of the more zealous friars, called the Spirituals. The sympathies of Jacopone were with the latter. Boniface VIII, who had under unusual circumstances succeeded Celestine V, the friend of Spirituals, having recalled all privileges granted by his predecessor and thus subjected anew the zealous friars to their regular superiors, and having engaged in a struggle with the two Cardinals Colonna, Jacopone took sides with these two protectors of the Spirituals against the Pope. Perhaps there were also personal reasons for enmity between Boniface and the poet, dating from the time when the former, then a young man, obtained an ecclesiastical benefice at Todi, where his uncle Peter was Bishop from 1252 to 1276. Palestrina - the stronghold of the Colonnas - having been taken in 1298, by the Papal Troops, Jacopone was imprisoned in the Fortress above the town, known today as Castel San Pietro. Some of Jacopone's most touching, and also most aggressive poems were composed in this dungeon. Not even in the great Jubilee of 1300 did Jacopone obtain pardon with the Colonnas and their partisans having been excluded from the jubilee by a special bull. Boniface VIII was captured at Anagni on September 7, 1303, and upon his death, which occurred shortly afterwards on October 11, Jacopone was set at liberty.
Now an old man, broken down, tried and purified by hardships he withdrew first to Pantanelli, a hermitage on the Tiber, three hours distant from Orvieto, then to Collazzone, a small town situated on a hill between Perugia and Todi. There is no record of a Franciscan Monastery at that place, but there was a Poor Clare convent, San Lorenzo, which served the Franciscan Friars. It was here that Jacopone died on December 25, 1306, just at the moment when the priest was intoning the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" at the midnight Mass. His last moments were consoled by the presence of his faithful friend, Blessed John of La Verna, from whom he had especially desired to receive the Last Sacraments, and who really arrived shortly just before the poet's death.
His body was brought to Todi and buried in the church of the Poor Clares of Montecristo or Montesanto, outside the walls of Todi. In 1433 it was discovered in Montecristo and removed to the Franciscan church of San Fortunato inside the town, where his tomb is still to be seen, embellished by Bishop Cesi in 1596, and adorned by a beautiful inscription : "Ossa. Beati Jacoponi. De Benedictis. Tudertini. Fratris Ordinis Minorum. Qui stultus propter Christum. Nova mundum arte delusit. Et caelum rapuit. Obdormivit in Domino. Die XXV Martii. An. Dom. MCCXCVI. Ang. Caes. Episc. Tudert. Hic collocavit ann. MDXCVI." – which means "Here lie the bones of Blessed Jacopone dei Benedetti da Todi, Friar Minor, who, having gone mad with love of Christ, by a new artifice deceived the world and took Heaven by violence."
Jacopone is often called Blessed, and has been considered a blessed or a saint, in the technical sense of the words, by different authors. As a matter of fact, Jacopone has not been beatified or canonized by the Church, although various efforts have been made in this direction, for example, by the Municipal Council of Todi in 1628, and by the chapter of the Cathedral of Todi in 1676. Lastly, in the years 1868 and 1869, the postulator of the Causes of Saints of the Friars Minor collected call the documents proving the cultus ab immemorabili paid to Jacopone, in order to obtain its official confirmation. The chief obstacle to the confirmation of the cultus lies in the part Jacopone took against Boniface VIII and the satires he wrote against this much calumniated Pope.
The extraordinary Jacopone da Todi of the Stabat Mater Dolorosa, was a renowned Franciscan poet, who wrote several Laudi in Italian, and the famous Latin lyric Stabat Mater is conventionally attributed to him. He was an early pioneer in Italian Theatre, being one of the earliest scholars who dramatised Gospel subjects.
Born at Todi in the first half of the Thirteenth Century, he was properly called Jacopo Benedicti or Benedetti. His death in Collazzone goes back to about 1306. Very little is known with certainty about the life of this extraordinary man. The oldest and most authentic document we have is Jacopone's signature to the manifesto of Cardinals Jacopo and Pietro Colonna against Boniface VIII. Angelo Clareno in his "Chronica Septem Tribulationum", written around 1323 mentions Jacobus Tudertus among those Spiritual Friars who, in 1294, sent a deputation to Celestine V, to ask permission to live separate from the other Friars and observe the Franciscan Rule in its perfection - a request which was eventually granted. The next reference to the Poet is found in Alvarus Pelagius's "De Planctu Ecclesiae", written principally in 1330, he quotes two of Jacopone's sayings, and calls him a perfect Friar Minor.
Born at Todi probably in 1228, of the noble family of Benedetti, Jacopone took up the study of law - probably at Bologna, as might be inferred from the fact that this was the most famous school of law at the time. On returning home he exercised - the legends say with some avarice - the profession of an advocate. In course of time around 1267 he married a noblewoman, who in one version of the legend is called Vanna, daughter of Bernardino, Count of Collemedio. It was the great piety and the tragic death of his young spouse that brought about an entire change in Jacopone. A great feast was being celebrated at Todi, probably in 1268. Among the onlookers was Jacopone's wife in rich array. Suddenly the raised platform from which she was witnessing the spectacle gave way, crushing her fatally. When the poet reached her side Vanna was already dying. The terrible blow caused by his wife's death, together with the evidence of her secret penance for his sins, made such an impression on Jacopone that for many years he seemed to be no longer himself. Abandoning his profession and wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, he led a roaming life for a full decade. During this period he was the terror of his friends and relations, and became a sort of Christian Diogenes. It was then probably that the former proud doctor of law, Jacopo dei Benedetti, mocked and scoffed at by the boys in the streets of Todi, received the nickname of Jacopone.
Around 1278, he sought admission into the Order of Friars Minor at his native town, a request which after some difficulty was granted. Out of humility he chose to be a lay brother. In the great convent of S. Fortunato at Todi, the so called party of the community of the Franciscan Order certainly prevailed. This party was strongly opposed to that of the more zealous friars, called the Spirituals. The sympathies of Jacopone were with the latter. Boniface VIII, who had under unusual circumstances succeeded Celestine V, the friend of Spirituals, having recalled all privileges granted by his predecessor and thus subjected anew the zealous friars to their regular superiors, and having engaged in a struggle with the two Cardinals Colonna, Jacopone took sides with these two protectors of the Spirituals against the Pope. Perhaps there were also personal reasons for enmity between Boniface and the poet, dating from the time when the former, then a young man, obtained an ecclesiastical benefice at Todi, where his uncle Peter was Bishop from 1252 to 1276. Palestrina - the stronghold of the Colonnas - having been taken in 1298, by the Papal Troops, Jacopone was imprisoned in the Fortress above the town, known today as Castel San Pietro. Some of Jacopone's most touching, and also most aggressive poems were composed in this dungeon. Not even in the great Jubilee of 1300 did Jacopone obtain pardon with the Colonnas and their partisans having been excluded from the jubilee by a special bull. Boniface VIII was captured at Anagni on September 7, 1303, and upon his death, which occurred shortly afterwards on October 11, Jacopone was set at liberty.
Now an old man, broken down, tried and purified by hardships he withdrew first to Pantanelli, a hermitage on the Tiber, three hours distant from Orvieto, then to Collazzone, a small town situated on a hill between Perugia and Todi. There is no record of a Franciscan Monastery at that place, but there was a Poor Clare convent, San Lorenzo, which served the Franciscan Friars. It was here that Jacopone died on December 25, 1306, just at the moment when the priest was intoning the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" at the midnight Mass. His last moments were consoled by the presence of his faithful friend, Blessed John of La Verna, from whom he had especially desired to receive the Last Sacraments, and who really arrived shortly just before the poet's death.
His body was brought to Todi and buried in the church of the Poor Clares of Montecristo or Montesanto, outside the walls of Todi. In 1433 it was discovered in Montecristo and removed to the Franciscan church of San Fortunato inside the town, where his tomb is still to be seen, embellished by Bishop Cesi in 1596, and adorned by a beautiful inscription : "Ossa. Beati Jacoponi. De Benedictis. Tudertini. Fratris Ordinis Minorum. Qui stultus propter Christum. Nova mundum arte delusit. Et caelum rapuit. Obdormivit in Domino. Die XXV Martii. An. Dom. MCCXCVI. Ang. Caes. Episc. Tudert. Hic collocavit ann. MDXCVI." – which means "Here lie the bones of Blessed Jacopone dei Benedetti da Todi, Friar Minor, who, having gone mad with love of Christ, by a new artifice deceived the world and took Heaven by violence."
Jacopone is often called Blessed, and has been considered a blessed or a saint, in the technical sense of the words, by different authors. As a matter of fact, Jacopone has not been beatified or canonized by the Church, although various efforts have been made in this direction, for example, by the Municipal Council of Todi in 1628, and by the chapter of the Cathedral of Todi in 1676. Lastly, in the years 1868 and 1869, the postulator of the Causes of Saints of the Friars Minor collected call the documents proving the cultus ab immemorabili paid to Jacopone, in order to obtain its official confirmation. The chief obstacle to the confirmation of the cultus lies in the part Jacopone took against Boniface VIII and the satires he wrote against this much calumniated Pope.
Born at Todi in the first half of the Thirteenth Century, he was properly called Jacopo Benedicti or Benedetti. His death in Collazzone goes back to about 1306. Very little is known with certainty about the life of this extraordinary man. The oldest and most authentic document we have is Jacopone's signature to the manifesto of Cardinals Jacopo and Pietro Colonna against Boniface VIII. Angelo Clareno in his "Chronica Septem Tribulationum", written around 1323 mentions Jacobus Tudertus among those Spiritual Friars who, in 1294, sent a deputation to Celestine V, to ask permission to live separate from the other Friars and observe the Franciscan Rule in its perfection - a request which was eventually granted. The next reference to the Poet is found in Alvarus Pelagius's "De Planctu Ecclesiae", written principally in 1330, he quotes two of Jacopone's sayings, and calls him a perfect Friar Minor.
Born at Todi probably in 1228, of the noble family of Benedetti, Jacopone took up the study of law - probably at Bologna, as might be inferred from the fact that this was the most famous school of law at the time. On returning home he exercised - the legends say with some avarice - the profession of an advocate. In course of time around 1267 he married a noblewoman, who in one version of the legend is called Vanna, daughter of Bernardino, Count of Collemedio. It was the great piety and the tragic death of his young spouse that brought about an entire change in Jacopone. A great feast was being celebrated at Todi, probably in 1268. Among the onlookers was Jacopone's wife in rich array. Suddenly the raised platform from which she was witnessing the spectacle gave way, crushing her fatally. When the poet reached her side Vanna was already dying. The terrible blow caused by his wife's death, together with the evidence of her secret penance for his sins, made such an impression on Jacopone that for many years he seemed to be no longer himself. Abandoning his profession and wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, he led a roaming life for a full decade. During this period he was the terror of his friends and relations, and became a sort of Christian Diogenes. It was then probably that the former proud doctor of law, Jacopo dei Benedetti, mocked and scoffed at by the boys in the streets of Todi, received the nickname of Jacopone.
Around 1278, he sought admission into the Order of Friars Minor at his native town, a request which after some difficulty was granted. Out of humility he chose to be a lay brother. In the great convent of S. Fortunato at Todi, the so called party of the community of the Franciscan Order certainly prevailed. This party was strongly opposed to that of the more zealous friars, called the Spirituals. The sympathies of Jacopone were with the latter. Boniface VIII, who had under unusual circumstances succeeded Celestine V, the friend of Spirituals, having recalled all privileges granted by his predecessor and thus subjected anew the zealous friars to their regular superiors, and having engaged in a struggle with the two Cardinals Colonna, Jacopone took sides with these two protectors of the Spirituals against the Pope. Perhaps there were also personal reasons for enmity between Boniface and the poet, dating from the time when the former, then a young man, obtained an ecclesiastical benefice at Todi, where his uncle Peter was Bishop from 1252 to 1276. Palestrina - the stronghold of the Colonnas - having been taken in 1298, by the Papal Troops, Jacopone was imprisoned in the Fortress above the town, known today as Castel San Pietro. Some of Jacopone's most touching, and also most aggressive poems were composed in this dungeon. Not even in the great Jubilee of 1300 did Jacopone obtain pardon with the Colonnas and their partisans having been excluded from the jubilee by a special bull. Boniface VIII was captured at Anagni on September 7, 1303, and upon his death, which occurred shortly afterwards on October 11, Jacopone was set at liberty.
Now an old man, broken down, tried and purified by hardships he withdrew first to Pantanelli, a hermitage on the Tiber, three hours distant from Orvieto, then to Collazzone, a small town situated on a hill between Perugia and Todi. There is no record of a Franciscan Monastery at that place, but there was a Poor Clare convent, San Lorenzo, which served the Franciscan Friars. It was here that Jacopone died on December 25, 1306, just at the moment when the priest was intoning the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" at the midnight Mass. His last moments were consoled by the presence of his faithful friend, Blessed John of La Verna, from whom he had especially desired to receive the Last Sacraments, and who really arrived shortly just before the poet's death.
His body was brought to Todi and buried in the church of the Poor Clares of Montecristo or Montesanto, outside the walls of Todi. In 1433 it was discovered in Montecristo and removed to the Franciscan church of San Fortunato inside the town, where his tomb is still to be seen, embellished by Bishop Cesi in 1596, and adorned by a beautiful inscription : "Ossa. Beati Jacoponi. De Benedictis. Tudertini. Fratris Ordinis Minorum. Qui stultus propter Christum. Nova mundum arte delusit. Et caelum rapuit. Obdormivit in Domino. Die XXV Martii. An. Dom. MCCXCVI. Ang. Caes. Episc. Tudert. Hic collocavit ann. MDXCVI." – which means "Here lie the bones of Blessed Jacopone dei Benedetti da Todi, Friar Minor, who, having gone mad with love of Christ, by a new artifice deceived the world and took Heaven by violence."
Jacopone is often called Blessed, and has been considered a blessed or a saint, in the technical sense of the words, by different authors. As a matter of fact, Jacopone has not been beatified or canonized by the Church, although various efforts have been made in this direction, for example, by the Municipal Council of Todi in 1628, and by the chapter of the Cathedral of Todi in 1676. Lastly, in the years 1868 and 1869, the postulator of the Causes of Saints of the Friars Minor collected call the documents proving the cultus ab immemorabili paid to Jacopone, in order to obtain its official confirmation. The chief obstacle to the confirmation of the cultus lies in the part Jacopone took against Boniface VIII and the satires he wrote against this much calumniated Pope.
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