Abstract

ALVAREZ, Cristian  and  DUSAEVA, Enzhe. Around «Il più santo tra gli Italiani, il più Italian tra i santi». A look from outside Italy and some additional data on the chronicle of a historical phrase about Francis of Assisi. Franciscanum [online]. 2023, vol.65, n.180, pp.11-11.  Epub Feb 12, 2024. ISSN 0120-1468.  https://doi.org/10.21500/01201468.6217.

The phrase with which Francis of Assisi has sometimes been called «il più santo tra gli italiani, il più italiano tra i santi» may cause surprise from outside Italy for its too exclusive affirmation of a nationality. Some suggestions that arise from the reading of some lines by Jorge Luis Borges guide a possible sense of interpretation on the subjective representation of patriotic ideals. In addition to that, based on the investigation of Felice Accrocca in order to determine the origin of the phrase, it is observed how the second part of this is found for the first time in the work of Vincenzo Gioberti (1843); with that phrase it sought to praise the qualities of the Saint that could characterize a patriotic emblem for the unification of Italy. The brief historical chronicle exposed by Accrocca is completed with the vicissitudes of the phrase slogan, in terms of its ideological and political use, including the manipulation of the figure of the Saint. However, the need to specify other elements absent in Accrocca’s work leads to the examination of some texts with arguments about the identification of love of neighbor with love of homeland. It further indicates how the initial phrase became a memorable pun in a speech by Geremia Brunelli (1882). Finally, the proclamation of Francis of Assisi as Patron Saint of Italy (1939) seeks to recover the meaning of the values ​​that the Saint exemplifies beyond patriotic exaltation and even in opposition to an exacerbation of it.

Keywords : Church; Francis of Assisi; Italy; Nationalism; Saints.

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