The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-09-10
DANTE MOULDER OF ITALY

NOTED JESUIT WRITES GLOWING
~ OF WORLDS GREATEST
POET - DANTE, SON OF FLOR.
ENcE, WAS ExlLED BY NATIVE
COUNTRY ROSE TO SUPREME
HEIGHTS IN HIS DiVlNA COM.
MEDIA - &tW AVS FERVENT
CATHOLIC - GAVE INSPIRATION
TO ALL SUBSEQUENT ITALIAN
GENIUS.
Ravenna, once the capital of ByZan-
tine exarchs and the mistress of the
sea, had been for centuries shorn of
her glory. But in 1917, by signal
act of hospitality, she crowned herself
with immortal fame, writes Father
Reville in America She had welcom-
ed Florentine exile, Dante Alighieri,
within her walls. AS he walked her
streets or fingered near the mournful
marshes, where Roman navies once
rode in stately squadrons, the citi-
zens knew that the eagle-eyed stranger
was thinking neither of Roman en-
presses like Gala Placidia, nor Gothic
kings like Theodoric, nor Lombard
princes like Aistulph who once ruled
the destinies of the former queen of the
Adriatic. The followers of Ravenna's
lord, Guido da Polenta, the exile's
friend as we'll as the solemn burghers
that thronged the porticoes of San
Vitale. and the women that gossiped
near the old Roman wharves, nodded
to. each other and whispered to their
raven-haired children as they saw him
glide by like ghost from his own "Pur-
gatorio": Looks, There passes the man
who has gone down living into hell!
He has seen purgatory's fires, where
departed souls are cleansed of their
sins! He has been admitted by Blessed
Peter into the circles of the Elect and
beheld the Face of God!"
The Broken Man.
Unheeding of their whisperings the
Florentine went his way What meant
earth to him any more? His Florence
had cast him out He was q broken
man He had seen wonders OF which
only Paul in his visions or John in his
apocalyptic raptures in Patmos had
ever dreamed.
The music of the spheres had en-
tranced him with solemn symphonies.
Before his eyes had flashed the splen'
dors of that eternal Mystic Rose whose
petals were the Saints, fadeless blooms
ever stirred to life and beauty by the
love of the First Moved and the breath
of God.
And Beatrice, the child and the .wo-
man, spotless as the lilies that lifted
their silver chalices by Arno stream,
Beatrice, symbol and reflection of the
Love of God, had guided him to the
throne of the Triune Majesty. She
was calling to him now. With her
and with God he would begin that Vita
Nuova," that new life of which he had
once written in such melodious strains
Four years only did Ravenna hold
the exile On the feast of the Exal
tation of the Holy Cross, September IA
1921, he passed away. All Ravenna
knelt in homage when he was laid
to rest in the Church of his beloved
ST. Francis There for the last SOC
years his ashes have lain undisturbed
"Ungrateful Florence!" Byron ex
claims:
Dante sleeps afar
Like Scipio buried by the upraidins
shore;
Thy factions, in their worse than civi
war
Prescribed the bard whose name fol
evermore
Thy childrens children would in vail
adore
With the remorse of ages.
Happier Ravenna," he continues,
On thy hoary shore
Fortress of falling empire, honoret
sleeps
The immortal exile
Ravenna and Florence.
But Florence, the city Dante love-
and of which he is the greatest sor
has long made up for it's unmotherl
neglect. To Ravenna the whole worl
now makes pilgrimage to pause befor
the tomb of the poet who wrote tn
Bible of Italy, created with one might
fiat masterpiece, a literature and
language, celebrated with new Son
of Songs, and a sweetest epithalamiun
the mystic bridals of poesy and theo
ogy. Had the Florentine seer lived III
der the Old Law, Jehovah would hav
lifted him to princely fellowship wit
Isaias and Ezechiel If John the B,
loved had not chronicled the terror
of Judgment Day and the battle (
Michael's hosts against the drago
of the Apocalypse, Dante Alighie
might have been equal to the tasl
Homer, Aeschylus, Michaelangel
and Shakespeare welcome him anon
their sacred band. The Cathol
Church halls him as one of her grea
est sons
Dante Today.
The men of the Twentieth ceRtur
so different from the men of his as
in ideals and outlook; so scornful
the mysteries he celebrated in his ire
and golden verse; so reckless Of IL
hell he pictured in flaming lines;
sceptic of the. purgatory up who's
slopes he toiled with Beatrice; so CO
to that heaven he painted in coloss
frescoes ablaze with the lambent lig
of eternity. turn to the lifeless ashes