Davide Lazzaretti’s Tomb – Luoghi Parlanti

TOMB OF DAVIDE LAZZARETTI

father ernesto balducci's places

BIOGRAPHY

DAVIDE LAZZARETTI

Davide Lazzaretti was born in Arcidosso (Gr) on November 6, 1834, the second son of seven siblings. They lived humbly in Arcidosso, in their father's house located just below the present Clock Tower. Davide was bright and lively as a child; he learned to read and write from the teaching of the pastor of the church of San Leonardo. In 1868 he had mystical crises, brought about by visions of intense suggestion, which totally changed his character and personality. He convinces himself that he must fulfill a divine mission, adheres with all his fervor to the Catholic Church, begins retreats, fasts and other ascetic practices, and becomes actively involved in the construction of a shrine in Arcidosso and a hermitage on Mount Labro. He died in Arcidosso under the lead of repression on August 18, 1878, along with three or four helpless peasants who were following him in a peaceful procession.

FATHER BALDUCCI'S SUPPORT

Undoubtedly Davide Lazzaretti's most exhilarating experiences were those that represented a form of concretization of the Christian Gospel, as Father Ernesto Balducci argued with great force. Recall the Camp of Christ and the Community of Christian Families. These were two collective experiences of common work and communion of goods, with clear social implications. Balducci refers several times to the story of Davide Lazzaretti, whom he sees as a kind of local Gandhi ante litteram who, in the name of justice and freedom, sacrificed his life.

THE EXCOMMUNICATION

The activities of Lazzaretti and his community alarmed both the Catholic Church and the Italian state: in March 1878, the Catholic Church, at the hands of the Holy Office, condemned him as a heretic, excommunicated him and placed his writings on the Index; but he continued his activities and proclaimed himself "Christ the Duce and Judge," claiming that he had come to complete Christian revelation, in a form of self-exaltation not unusual in preachers inclined to mystical needs and religious expectations. In his own way, Father Balducci was also a controversial figure, with a difficult relationship with ecclesiastical authorities. For this reason, he probably understood Lazzaretti's nonconformist attitude better than others

QUOTE

E. Balducci, “The dream of a thing”

"No change is to be considered positive if it obeys only economic and technological reasons, without introducing itself with respect, into the anthropological structure that a human group has inherited for centuries [...] popular culture, the one that seemed relegated to the archives, contains within itself perspectives that, instead, are entirely measured on the new dimensions of our historical responsibility [...] in the submerged memories are hidden messages suitable for the future […]"

BIOGRAPHY