GIOACHINO da FIORE. – He is one of the most representative, yet also most complex, figures of medieval spirituality: mystic, reformer, prophet, theologian, exegete; venerated as a saint by some, regarded as an impostor by others. St. Thomas acknowledges the holiness of his life, but holds that in some of his prophecies he was mistaken.
I. BIOGRAPHY
Born at Celico (Cosenza) around 1130. It is highly questionable that he spent his youth as a page at the Norman court. Reminiscences of a youthful journey to the Holy Land emerge in his Tractatus super quatuor Evangelia. On his return, around 1155, he entered the Cistercian monastery of Sambucina (Luzzi), where he served as porter and began to preach. Having moved to the monastery of Corazzo, he was ordained a priest by the bishop of Catanzaro and, in 1177, elected abbot. In 1182–83 he was a guest at Casamari, and from there went to Veroli to see Pope Lucio III, in order to obtain authorization to commit his exegetical ideas on Holy Scripture to writing. At Casamari he dictated to Luca, his future biographer, the Concordia N. et V. Testamenti and part of the Psalterium. In 1186 he reached Urbano III at Verona. The Pope urged him to compile the Expositio in Apocalypse. It is pure legend that from Verona he went to Venice to offer suggestions concerning the composition of the famous mosaics, including those depicting prophecies concerning ss. Domenico and Francesco, of which the Venetian and Franciscan chroniclers have spoken so much. On 8 June 1188, Clemente III addressed to him an Admonitorium, exhorting him to complete his works and submit them to the judgment of the Holy See. Shortly thereafter he separated from the Cistercians and founded the Florense Congregation, whose center was at S. Giovanni in Fiore. It was approved, despite Cistercian opposition, by a bull of Celestino III dated 25 April 1196. His Testamento spirituale dates from 1200; it was called into question by E. Buonauti, rather out of prejudice, and defended by H. Grundmann. He died at Canale (Cosenza) on 30 March 1202. His relics were transferred to the archmonastery of S. Giovanni in Fiore, where he received public veneration, which the Church never officially sanctioned. A Latin epitaph was placed on the tomb; it was condensed into the antiphon of Vespers, which Dante in turn echoed in the famous verses of canto XII of the Paradiso, where G. is placed among the luminaries of learning, between s. Tommaso and s. Bonaventura, precisely because of the spirit of prophecy that, conversely, had been denied him by the Angelic Doctor.II. THE DOCTRINAL WORK
Gioachimist exegesis is not original; but it pushes allegorical interpretation, which forms the basis of his system, to the point of absurdity.As a theologian, he received a mortal blow with the condemnation of his Libellus de essentia Trinitatis contra Lombardum by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The pamphlet has been lost; but its content is known
through the terms of the conciliar condemnation: G. reproached Peter Lombard with a misunderstood quaternity, while he himself, in turn, defended a similitudinary unity that resulted in the destruction of the unity of essence. F. Foberti, while admitting the justice of the conciliar condemnation, disputes G.’s authorship of the pamphlet, considering it a forgery presented to the Council under his name. But his defense is weak; no less weak is the defense of G.’s orthodoxy regarding the Sacraments and the Church.
More successful, on the other hand, is E. Denifle’s clarification concerning the nature of the third age, the cornerstone of the Gioachimist message.
The advent of the third age, that of the Holy Spirit, following that of the Father (of fear) and of the Son (of Grace), should not be understood as a new economy or revelation of the Third Divine Person, but as a «intelligentia spiritualis» of the Christian Revolution. It was a deformation of Gioachimist thought, carried out by the Franciscan Spirituals, especially by Gherardo da Borgo S. Donnino, to present the three principal works of G. as the «Eternal Gospel». Hence the denunciation to the Holy See and the condemnation of 23 October 1255. Alongside Gerardo, among the best-known Gioachimists, the following should be remembered: Giovanni da Parma, minister general of the Franciscans, Salimbene de Adam, Ubertino da Casale and Angelo da Chiarino in Italy; Ugo de Digne and Pier di Giovanni Olivi in France; Arnaldo da Villanova in Spain; and other lesser figures in Germany and England.
As for influences, it must be excluded that the Gioachimist message found its actualizer in s. Francesco d’Assisi; but it cannot be denied that Gioachimist arguments were also adopted by s. Bonaventura and s. Bernardino da Siena; nor can it be overlooked that the entire movements of the Flagellants, the Spirituals, the Fraticelli and the Beghins were linked to G. Direct or indirect Gioachimist influences have likewise been identified in Savonarolan prophetism, in the philosophy of history of G. B. Vico, in the speculations of Telesforo di Cosenza, in the aspirations of Cola di Rienzo, and even in Giuseppe Mazzini and the Norwegian poet Ibsen, as G. Manacorda has pointed out.
But the most debated question is the alleged Dantean Gioachimist doctrine, brought to the fore by very recent studies, to the point of making it one of the fundamental themes of the Commedia. Barbi’s warning against exaggerations and deviations has been of no avail; indeed, the recent discovery of the Codice delle Figure by L. Tondelli has only accentuated the tendency.