The Great Painter of the Seventeenth Century: Art, Strength and Independence Artemisia Gentileschi spent centuries being discussed as an exception before the world finally began to see her as what she had always been: a major painter. Her life contained…
The Literary Voice of Sardinia: Nobel Prize in Literature Grazia Deledda became one of the great voices of Italian literature by writing from a place many cultural elites of her time considered peripheral. She was born in Sardinia, educated only…
The Divine of Italian Theatre: Intensity, Elegance and a Revolution on Stage There are performers who become famous, and then there are performers who change the vocabulary used to describe acting itself. Eleonora Duse belongs to the second category. At…
The restless merchant’s son who chose poverty and changed Christianity forever Few names in Italian history are as universally recognized as Francis of Assisi, and few lives have been simplified so enthusiastically. He is often reduced to a gentle man…
The noblewoman who chose radical poverty and fought for the freedom of her community Clare of Assisi is often introduced as the female companion of Saint Francis, a description that is true and at the same time much too small.…
The dyer’s daughter who advised popes, crossed political battle lines and became a Doctor of the Church Catherine of Siena lived only thirty-three years, never attended a university, struggled to learn reading and writing, held no official political office and…
The monk from Norcia whose Rule helped shape the monasteries, culture and memory of Europe Saint Benedict of Nursia is one of the most influential Italians who ever lived, even though we know surprisingly little about him with the certainty…
Padre Pio: faith, suffering, controversy and one of the most powerful devotions of modern Italy There are saints whose lives seem to belong to a distant age of legends, and then there is Padre Pio, a man who died in…
The Martyr Who Became the Heart of Naples There are saints who belong to the history of the Church, and there are saints who seem to belong to the bloodstream of a city. Saint Januarius, known in Naples as San…
The Priest Who Built a Future for the Young John Bosco entered history through a door that respectable society often preferred not to see: the door through which poor, abandoned, unemployed and delinquent boys entered the rapidly changing cities of…