At 22.03 10/10/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear co-mailers
>
>I had recently the occasion to notice how widespread were representations of
>Pope Urban V in votive images of the later Middle Ages, but I cannot yet
>understand which were the original motivations of this cult. In a passage of
>his Letters, Franco Sacchetti remembers Urban V as a new saint deserving an
>overwhelming popular veneration. Was such a phenomenon due to the invention
>of the heads of Sts Peter and Paul, or to the Pope's temporary restitution
>of Pontifical dignity to Rome? I will appreciate every information on this
>particular subject.
>Thank you in advance
>
>Michele Bacci
>Scuola Normale Superiore
>Pisa (Italy)
>
>
Could it not be that he really was an ideal Pope, having his enthronement
and coronation be without the customary pomp and circumstance, living simply
in his black Benedictine habit, in prayer and study, as well as papal
administration, establishing bursaries for hundreds of poor students,
founding three universities, curbing curial greed, working with the Emperors
Charles IV of Bohemia and John V Paleologus for peace, heeding St Birgitta
of Sweden's pleas for peace-making between the Kings of England and France
and that he return the Papacy to Rome. Pope Urban V granted Birgitta the
Bull for the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (the Brigittines of Vadstena),
with the Augustinian Rule, her own Rule as supplement. In the end,
discouraged by the mercenaries in Italy, he went back to Avignon, despite
Birgitta's warning that he would soon die if he did so. Her prophecy took
place. Earlier she had warned Clement VI that if he did not obey her and go
to Rome, lightning would strike the bells of St Peters and melt them and he
would die and those two events occurred, December 2, 6, 1352. Birgitta in
turn gave to St Catherine of Siena the model of a woman who persuaded a Pope
to return to Rome, both being instrumental in Gregory XI's return.
Birgitta's Canonization was embroiled in controversy and carried out during
the reigns of Grogory XI, Urban VI, Boniface IX, Martin V. Connected with
the Brigittines were the Hieronymites, their founder being the brother of
Bishop Hermit Alfonso of Jaen, Birgitta's director; likewise the Norwich
Benedictine Cardinal Adam Easton (which later brings about the Syon Abbey
founding); thus creating a network of Scandinavian, English, and Spanish
support for the Popes in Italy. If one looks at the illuminations and
woodblocks of Birgitta's Revelationes it is to see her giving the text to
Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Emperors, Kings, and the Laity, the Pope most
favourable to her having been Urban V.
____
Julia Bolton Holloway, Hermit of the Holy Family
via del Partigiano 16, Montebeni, 50014 FIESOLE, ITALY
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http://members.aol.com/juliansite/Juliansite.htm
'Lord, of your goodness, give me yourself: for you are enough to me.
I may not ask anything that is less, that is so worthy of you. If I ask
anything less, ever I want, for only in you I have all.'
Julian of Norwich, Westminster Manuscript
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