I knelt and prayed before Savonarola's chambers. I have little doubt that he and many of the saints would call the majority of current Church hierarchy satanic.
The fatal flaw, as I understood it, was that Savonarola turned Florence into a Catholic version of a Sharia Law principality. Draconian rules of conduct were imposing by force that a Puritan would have applauded, even encouraging children to rat out parents for vices like playing cards.
His theology may have been spot-on, but he missed the Dominican vocation of preaching to overcome vice via free will, turning to totalitarianism to effect order instead. His one truly heroic act was surrendering himself to the mob and effecting the release of his Dominican brothers, thus sparing their lives. For that I admire him, but otherwise I think he missed by a country mile, and my initial enthusiasm for him fell away. He still has a mixed fan love-hate base, depending on which aspects are focused on, often to the exclusion of others.
I will admit that it has been almost 30 years since I studied Savonarola, whose response to the crisis in his time was way different from Abp Lefebvre's!
Thank you for clarifying the story of Savonarola for us. I had heard about him, and how he was executed, so I thought that perhaps he was a shady character, but you straightened this misconception out. What a turbulent time he lived in. He was a contemporary of Michaelangelo, who in his youth was sponsored and even housed by Lorenzo de Medici in his palace, along with his own son and nephew, who were about the same age.
I knelt and prayed before Savonarola's chambers. I have little doubt that he and many of the saints would call the majority of current Church hierarchy satanic.
"Hall locuta est." The Irish sounding jig incidental music is excellent.
The fatal flaw, as I understood it, was that Savonarola turned Florence into a Catholic version of a Sharia Law principality. Draconian rules of conduct were imposing by force that a Puritan would have applauded, even encouraging children to rat out parents for vices like playing cards.
His theology may have been spot-on, but he missed the Dominican vocation of preaching to overcome vice via free will, turning to totalitarianism to effect order instead. His one truly heroic act was surrendering himself to the mob and effecting the release of his Dominican brothers, thus sparing their lives. For that I admire him, but otherwise I think he missed by a country mile, and my initial enthusiasm for him fell away. He still has a mixed fan love-hate base, depending on which aspects are focused on, often to the exclusion of others.
I will admit that it has been almost 30 years since I studied Savonarola, whose response to the crisis in his time was way different from Abp Lefebvre's!
Awesome! If we’re so blessed to make it to paradise, it will be amazing to see how many people like this fill the “front row seats” in heaven ❤️
The parallels are indeed striking
Thank you for clarifying the story of Savonarola for us. I had heard about him, and how he was executed, so I thought that perhaps he was a shady character, but you straightened this misconception out. What a turbulent time he lived in. He was a contemporary of Michaelangelo, who in his youth was sponsored and even housed by Lorenzo de Medici in his palace, along with his own son and nephew, who were about the same age.
Fascinating. Thanks for letting us know about this wonderful saint