Jacopone da Todi

(Jacopo Benedetti or Bennetti)

(ca. 1236–1306)

   The Italian Franciscan Jacopone da Todi was an ascetic and poet who wrote more than 100 lyric poems, or LAUDA, on religious themes, though stylistically somewhat influenced by the love songs of the TROUBADOURS. He is said to have gone through a cataclysmic conversion upon the death of his wife, becoming a strict Spiritualist Franciscan, whose opposition to Pope Boniface VIII resulted in his excommunication and life imprisonment. Tradition says that Jacopone was born into the noble family of Benedetti in Todi sometime in the 1230s. He trained for the law and possibly studied at Bologna. According to legend Jacopone was a successful advocate until 1268, when his young wife was killed by the collapse of a building during a festival in Todi. Rushing to his dying wife, Jacopone loosened her rich dress to discover a hairshirt she was wearing beneath it. Shocked by her death and struck by the evidence of her ascetic piety, Jacopone is said to have abandoned his law practice, given his goods to the poor, and spent 10 years as a penitent hermit, determined to live in absolute poverty.

   In about 1278, Jacopone joined the Franciscan order as a lay brother or Tertiary at the convent of San Fortunato, at Todi. Among the Franciscans of this time there were two factions: The Spiritualists advocated a strict adherence to St. FRANCIS’s original rule of absolute poverty; the Conventuals favored a laxer interpretation of the rule. Jacopone, like the other friars of San Fortunato, was a strict Spirtualist and wrote a number of poems condemning the corruption of the Franciscan order under the Conventualists, accusing them of hypocrisy and pride in their desire for worldly honor. He also wrote a number of poems praising the spiritual value of poverty.

   The Franciscan Spiritualists gained a great victory when the poor hermit Pier da Morrone became Pope Celestine V in 1294. Jacopone was among a group of Spiritual friars who petitioned the new pope for the right to live apart from other Franciscans in order to observe the Rule absolutely. Celestine granted the request, thus giving the Spiritualists some autonomy, and they began to be known as “the poor hermits of Celestine.” Celestine, however, abdicated the papal seat after only five months, only to be replaced by the unapologetically worldly Boniface VIII. Boniface revoked the privileges Celestine had granted the Spiritual friars, and in return incurred their active opposition. In 1297, Jacopone signed a manifesto at Lunghezza that declared Celestine’s resignation and Boniface’s election invalid. In retaliation Boniface excommunicated the Spiritualists who had signed the document, and when they fled to the stronghold of Palestrina, besieged them with papal troops. The rebels surrendered in 1298, and Jaco-pone was imprisoned for life in the nearby fortress of Castel San Pietro.

   From his prison cell Jacopone wrote numerous lyrics, some attacking Boniface as the “new Lucifer,” others pleading with the pope for absolution. In one of his better-known poems, “Que farai, fra Jacopone?” (“And what now, Fra Jacopone?”), the poet begins by bewailing his imprisonment, but ends with a recognition that the hardship and deprivation have helped lead him to his ascetic ideal.

   In October 1303, Boniface died, and the succeeding pope, Benedict XI, lifted Jacopone’s excommunication and released him from his prison. Now a broken old man, Jacopone lived out his last few years at the convent of San Lorenzo in Collazzone near his native Todi, and it was there he died in 1306. His tomb is in the Franciscan Church of San Fortunato.

   Jacopone’s lyrics, simple, vivid, emotional, and sometimes ardently mystical, were nearly all written in his native Umbrian dialect. His poetry enjoyed widespread popularity, evidenced by the many manuscripts of his songs that survive (often in other regional Italian dialects) in addition to seven early printed editions. His most admired poem in the vernacular is a lauda in dialogue form called “Donna del paradiso” (Lady of paradise). The poem, admired for its realism and emotion, depicts the torments of Christ (related to the Virgin Mary by a messenger), a lament spoken by the Virgin, and a final scene of farewell between Christ and Mary. But the most famous poem attributed to Jacopone (though without certainty) is the Latin sequence called the Stabat Mater dolorosa (“The Mother stood grieving”), a poem of 60 lines portraying the Virgin standing in sorrow at the foot of the cross. The poem became one of the most widespread and popular hymns in the medieval church.

   Bibliography

   ■ Dronke, Peter. The Medieval Lyric. New York: Harper, 1969.

   ■ Hughes, Serge, and Elizabeth Hughes, trans. Jacopone da Todi: The Lauds. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.

   ■ Peck, George T. The Fool of God: Jacopone da Todi. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1980.

   ■ Underhill, Evelyn. Jacopone da Todi, Poet and Mystic 1228–1306: A Spiritual Biography. Italian text translated into English verse by Mrs. Theodore Beck. 1926. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.