the tomb of father balducci
father balducci's places
BIOGRAPHY
THE DEATH
In early 1992 his last volume, The Land of Sunset, came out, in which he argued for the need to integrate different cultures and recover the original insight of all religions. He died in Cesena on April 25 of that year, two days after a car accident just outside Faenza.
THE ESEQUES
The day after his death, the body was transported to the Badia fiesolana for the wake and the next day transferred to the Scolopi Institute on Via Cavour in Florence. On the afternoon of April 27, the funeral liturgy was held, celebrated by Archbishop Piovanelli in the packed Florentine cathedral. The body temporarily interred, on April 28, in the Balducci family chapel in the small cemetery of Santa Fiora, then had its final resting place in the tomb designed by the Michelucci Foundation, with the contribution of the Balducci Foundation and the Santa Fiora municipal administration.
THE CULTURAL LEGACY
On the initiative of a committee immediately organized by a group of Balducci's friends, collaborators and admirers, and thanks to the willingness shown by the Scolopi Fathers and Father Balducci's heirs, a Foundation named after him was established on February 25, 1995, with the purpose of preserving his book and archival heritage, collecting and publishing his writings, coordinating the activities of the realities that refer to his commitment, and attempting to put to good use the seed left by such a rich and multifaceted personality.
QUOTE
E. Balducci, “L'uomo planetario”
"[Jesus] said: when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all to myself. Not before, then, but at the very moment when, lifted up on the cross, he entered the agony and emitted his spirit, stripped of all determinations. He was no longer, then, of Semitic race, nor Jew, nor son of David. He was universal, as is universal the nothingness of death, and as is universal the quality that in that annihilation flared up: love for others to the annihilation of self. And in this annihilation out of love the definition of Jesus, planetary man. Before he died they had cried out to him: "If you are a child of God, save yourself." But he could not save himself because he had laid down his life belt from birth. Thus it was that he descended into hell. Even his God had forsaken him at the moment when, having slipped into the ocean of death, he became forever the brother of all hopeless people. His universality must be placed here, in this free settlement, out of love for men, in the heart of total negativity.”
MUST-SEE
BIRTHPLACE
THE TOMB
The monumental tomb, in which Balducci is buried, was designed by Giovanni Michelucci and engraved with the most important phrases from Balducci's own writings and published books.
PICTURES
Father Balducci's tomb
Santa Fiora
Plaque
