The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-03-26

hoped that generous sum may be
collected among the American admir-
ers of Dante, irrespective of creed or
nationality, as a small tribute to his
mighty genius for all that mankind
owes it, SO that whenever an Amer
lean visits the ancient city by the
Adriatic he may feel proud that his
native land contributed generously to
the suitable restoration of the veneer
able church where the great poet of
justice and liberty awaits their uni
versal triumph.
The Debt to Date.
Distinguished American names,
Longfellow, Parsons, Norton, Fay, not
to speak of other writer's of merit,
vouch for our interest in the great
Florentine, and unite us inseparably
with that Divine Comedy which has
so profoundly affected Western
thought in all its higher ranges, whose
forces of inspiration. suggestion and
illumination are by no means exhaust
ed. Standing as it were on a great
watershed of history. midway between
the crusades, the schools, and the en-
pire on the one hand, and on the other
a new mental temper and fresh inter-
ests, he is at once witness, interpreter
and guardian of the past of Europe,
and the herald of that new dawn of
life and letters which men call the
Renaissance. What Homer did, for
the nebulous conditions of archaic Hell
las, and what Vergil did for the spirit
of Roma Quadrata, that and much
more Dante did for all the posterity of
| Europe when he fused into one imper-
ishable record the long crepuscular
waning of the Roman Empire, and the
| vigorous new growth of the Christian
spirit and order as they radiated
| worldwide from it's immemorial seat
| of power and authority. Indeed, he
may be called the last of the Romans,
"di Quella Roma onde Cristo ro-
mano." Similarly he may be called
the prophet of the new order of life,
since his great poem is so compact of
unchanging human experience, so can
did as history, so profoundly human in
its Incompatible pictures of joy and
sorrow, of struggle and failure, of all
life on one side and the other of the
common grave. His great poem may
be called the Bible of European man.
kind, so shot through is it with the
| life of ten centuries, so prophetic are
all it's instincts, so lyrical it's range OF
emotion, so wise it's appropriations and
| judgments, so applicable in countless
ways to modern mankind as it feels its
way along the dark and narrow path
which for the poet as for us seems a
true symbol of life.
The restoration to it's original beauty
of the Church of ST. Francis, at Ra
VIENNA, seems fitting tribute to the
deeply religious genius of Dante. II
was here that Dante prayed and wor
shipped in the evening of life, from
here that he was buried, and close by
his mortal remains have rested for
six hundred years. Originally built in
the fifth century, the venerable edifce
has survived it's many alterations, and
will soon reproduce the early Chris
tian basilica as which it entered on its
long career. If every American who
has suffered the magic spell of Dante
Alighieri will make modest contribu
ton, a sum may be raised not un
worthy of our place among the nations
of our varied obligations to one of the
worlds foremost benefactors.. Contri
buttons may be sent to Bishop Shahan
at the Catholic University of America
| 4 +