Chapter 30 The Story of Fra Domenico
"'Do you know the history of Siena?' he asked."
"'No idea,' I said, 'almost nothing.'"
"'Siena has a long history, and has passed through many centuries. Some centuries were prosperous and peaceful, but most centuries were full of war, blood, tyranny, feuds, famine and plague. But the most terrible, 1355-15 The two centuries of '59.
"'For two hundred years there has been a continual, pointless and unprofitable war in and around Siena. The whole city has been plundered and raided by terrible mercenaries, and the weak government has failed to protect it. own citizens.
"'As you must know, there was no 'Italy' at that time, just duchies, principalities, small republics and city-states whose rulers often wanted to take other people's lands, and some even actually went to war Come. Siena is a city-state republic, coveted from time to time by the Duchy of Florence, and eventually we were brought under the control of Cosimo I, the Medici family.
"'But that happened in the worst of times, 1520 to 1550, that's what I'm talking about. Under the five sects known as the Monti, the tin The government of the city-state of Siena is in disarray. The Monti faction raged against each other and eventually destroyed the city. Until 1512, Siena was ruled by a single family who practiced tyranny , but at least the situation has been stabilized. After Pandolfo's death, the city fell into anarchic chaos.
"'The city government should have been Balia, a permanent council of magistrates, Petrucci the president of Balia, tactful and ruthless. But every member of Balia was also Members of the rival Monti Group. Instead of working together to manage the city, they were busy fighting each other and ruining Siena.
"'Though Pandolfo himself was dead, the family still ruled in Balia. In 1520 a branch of the Petrucci family bore a daughter. When the girl was four years old, Petrucci The Qi family lost control of Balia, so the other four sects of the Monty Group fought recklessly.
"'The girl grew up to be beautiful and pious, and quite a credit to her family. They all lived in a huge palace not far from here, away from the poverty and chaos of the streets. Other spoiled girls from rich families became even Not profligate, capricious and wicked, Caterina Petrucci remained dignified, demure, and devoted to the cause of religion.
"'The only estrangement between her and her father was the marriage issue. At that time, it was common for girls to marry at the age of fifteen or sixteen, but year after year, Katerina turned down one boy after another, which made her father very angry.
"'In 1540 calamity befell Siena and the surrounding countryside; famine, plague, riots, peasant uprisings, and internal factional strife threw the city-state into turmoil. For the palace walls and the father's With the protection of the guards, and the time spent at home reading books, being a womanizer, and going to mass in the family chapel, Katerina should have survived. But something happened that year and changed her life. Life. She went to a ball and never got there.
"'We know what happened—or, we think we do, because a document survives in Latin written by her confessor, the old priest who was the spiritual director of the Petrucci family. On that day, she brought He led a maid into a carriage, for the streets were dangerous, and was accompanied by six guards.
"'Halfway, her carriage was blocked by another carriage which was parked obliquely in the street. She heard shouts, a man screaming in pain. Against the objections of her companion, she raised the curtain and looked out. Look.
"'The other carriage belonged to a rival family of the Monty's, and it appears that an old beggar fell in the street, causing the horses to pull the cart to startle. In the carriage was a violent young nobleman, He was furious, jumped out of the carriage, grabbed the stick from the guard, and beat the beggar cruelly.
"'Catrina also jumped out of the carriage without hesitation, and the muddy ground stained her silk embroidered shoes, and she shouted at the man to stop. The man looked up, and she saw that it was her father who wanted her to be with him. A young aristocrat married to a young nobleman who saw the Petrucci coat of arms on the door of her carriage, stopped his club, and returned to his carriage.
"'The girl squatted in the mud and supported the old beggar's filthy body. He was beaten to the brink of death. Although such a person had parasites on his body and was dirty and smelly, when he died, she still used her hands on his arm. The legend says that as she looked down at that face, exhausted, anguished, muddy and bloodied, she thought she saw the dying face of Christ. Our ancient editors The annals say that Jesus whispered before he died, take care of my people.
"'We will never know exactly what happened that day, because eyewitnesses never speak of it. We only have a text written many years later by an old priest in a lonely monastery. But whatever happened, Those things changed her life. She returned home and burned all her clothes in the courtyard of the palace. She also told her father that she was going to stay away from the world and go to the empty door. Of course, her father did not agree and stopped her .
"'Against her father's wishes, such things were unheard of in those days. She went to every nunnery and convent in the city, asking to be a novice, but her father's messengers ran ahead of her, and she was met with Declined. They all know that the remaining prestige of the Petrucci family is still there.
"'Her father was mistaken if he thought this would stop her. She took her dowry treasure from the family and negotiated a long-term lease on a grounds with a rival family in the Monty Group. Matters. This courtyard is not big. It is the site of St. Zezilia Monastery, separated from the monastery by a wall. The monks and nuns no longer use this land. It is about 20 meters wide and 30 meters long, with a row of colonnades on one side. Standing in the shadows under a high stone wall.
"'For a more complete separation, Father Abbot installed a thick oak door in the only arched opening leading from the monastery to the courtyard, and locked it with a thick bolt.
"'In this yard the young ladies built a sanctuary of refuge for the poor and needy in the streets. Today we call it a poor house, but in those days, of course, there was no such institution. She cut off her long flowing hair, put on an ordinary gray cotton shirt, and walked barefoot among the poor.
"'In this yard the poor, the outcasts, the lame, the beggars, the destitute, the vagabond, the housemaids expelled from rich families for pregnancy, the blind, and the sick, all come to the door.
"'They lay in the yard, ragged and dirty, with rats and fleas. She swabbed their bodies, tended their wounds and abscesses, bought food with what was left of her dowry, and maintained the cause , and begged for money on the street. Of course, her family has drawn a line with her.
"'But a year later, things changed. People started calling her Catherine of Mercy, and the yard began to receive anonymous donations from the rich and sinners. Her fame spread over the walls and through the streets of the city. Another The young woman gave up her wealthy family to join her charity. Then two more joined them. By the third year, all of Tuscany had heard of her. She also attracted the attention of the Church.
"'You must know, sir, that these were the most dreadful times for the Catholic Church. Even I have to say it. Because of its long privilege and wealth, the Catholic Church became corrupt. Many of the Church's bishops, archbishops, and cardinals Living a life like a monarch, extravagant and dissipated, pursuing the satisfaction of carnal desires.
"'This has affected the masses, they are looking for new guidance. This is a Reformation movement. In Northern Europe, it is even worse. With the Reformation, the King of England has parted ways with Rome. Here in Italy, the real Controversies of faith exploded. In Florence, just a few miles away, a preaching monk was tortured, made to confess his mistakes and renounce his Protestant faith, and then burned alive at a stake. But even he died , the voice of resistance continues to spread.
"'The Church needs reform, not schism, yet many in power cannot see this situation clearly, and Bishop Ludovico of Siena is one of them. He fears the most because he has turned his palace into a sensual Dogs and horses, places of wanton debauchery. He patronizes and pampers the rich in exchange for their wealth. Yet in his town, almost under his nose, there is a young lady whose actions set an example that makes He was humiliated and people saw it. She didn't preach or incite the crowd like Savonarola did, but Ludovico was still scared.'”
Jockey Club prizes were presented to the winning parish leaders on the judging platform in Field Square.Flags emblazoned with "porcupines" danced triumphantly.They are about to sing and cheer, and go to the banquet of victory.
"We've all missed it, dear," said the American's wife.She tried on her injured ankle again and found that it was much better now. "There is nothing to see."
"There's only a little bit left of the story. I promise you, we'll see all the festivities and pageants later, which will go on until dawn. So what happened to her? What happened to good Catherine?"
"'The next year, the bishop's chance came. That summer was extremely hot. The earth was scorched, the rivers were dried up, the streets were filled with dead bodies of people and animals, and the rats multiplied. Then, a plague came. .
"'It was the terrible Black Death, and thousands fell ill and died. We now know that it was bubonic plague, which was spread by fleas that lived on rats. But people at the time thought it was angry The gods are manifested, and they are in trouble. To appease the angry god, there must be a victim.
"'At that time, to distinguish herself and her three assistants from the other nuns in the city, Catalina devised a design to be embroidered on the robes the four of them wore: the cross of Jesus, but with a horizontal bar broken off to show that God grieves over his people and the way they have behaved. We know this because the old confessor wrote these memories many years later.
"'The bishop declared that the pattern represented heresy, and stirred up a mob, many of whom received payment from him. He declared that the plague came from that courtyard, caused by sleeping there at night but gathering in the streets by day. spread by the beggars. People wanted to believe that someone was responsible for their disease. The mob ran to the yard.
"'The elderly recorder is now dead, but he claims to have heard from multiple sources what happened. It is said that when the mob rushed, three assistants, throwing torn blankets over cotton clothes, fled to safety. place. Catalina stayed. The mob broke in, beat the men, women and children who were there, and drove them beyond the city walls, leaving them to starve in the countryside to fend for themselves.
"'The mob, however, took out their rage on Katerina. She must have been a virgin, but they held her down and beat her many times. There must have been soldiers of the bishop's guard among the mob, and when they had finished raping her, they took her Nailed to the wooden gate at the end of the yard, where she died.'”
"That's all," said the German, "Fra Domenico told me that seven years ago in the hotel café."
"No more?" asked the American. "Didn't he say anything else?"
"There are still some cases," the German admitted.
"Tell me, please tell me everything," the American tourist asked.
"Well, according to the old monk, something like this happened."
"'On the very night of the murder there was a terrible storm in the town. Clouds rolled over the hills, thunder and lightning struck, and it became so dark that the sun, and later the moon and stars, lost all their light. Then began It rained. The rain was unprecedented. It gathered so much power and anger. It seemed that the whole city of Siena was sprayed with high-pressure water cannons. It rained all night and lasted until the next morning. Then the rain passed The sky is fine, the clouds open and the sun rises.
"'Siena has been washed clean, and the dirt that has accumulated in every crevice has been washed away. The flood water rushes through the streets, flows out of the gaps in the city walls, and meets the mountain streams downstream. The rainwater carries away the dirt. Animals and mice, like the tears of Christ, washed away the crimes of the bad guys.
"'After a few days, the plague began to subside, and soon disappeared. Those who participated in the atrocities were ashamed of what they had done. Some of them returned to this courtyard, which was empty. They took the broken one from the door. The remains wanted to be buried according to Christian customs, but the priests were afraid of the bishop and would be accused of heresy, so a few brave men loaded the body into a garbage truck and pulled it out of the city to the countryside. They burned the body Yes, scatter the ashes into the mountain stream.
"'The confessor of the Petrucci family recorded all this in Latin, and he did not write the exact year, nor even the month and day. But in another chronicle, the exact date of the monstrous storm is mentioned The time. It was July, 1544, and the rains began on the evening of the second.'”
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