Entre le désir de la montagne et les appels du village : Franco d'Assergi, ermite du Gran Sasso (XIIIe siècle)

Abstract

The Pull of the Mountain, the Call of the Village : Franco of Assergi, Hermit of Gran Sasso (13th century) - In the late thirteenth century, Franco of Assergi chose the steep and craggy Abruzzi mountains as a retreat to attain his ideal of the solitary life. The Benedictine monk became a hermit, and the mountain became his desert. It was, in fact, a much visited desert, where the hermit's presence appears as a projection of the civilized world into a natural and wild expanse. After his death, the pioneer-hermit became the intercessor-saint of the village of Assergi, as well as its patron saint. All the anger and the anguish felt by the mountain populations transpire in the accounts of the miracles of Saint Franco. The popular paintings which decorate the altar dedicated to the saint and represent the different places which had been visited by him give an idea of the perception men had of these wild or civilized areas.