Chapter 36: To Offer Him Flowers
‘In the year 1080, a great plague struck Florence. Pope Sistine I went to the lower city to comfort the people. During this epidemic, he displayed an extraordinary calmness, rationality, and compassion, conducting daily requiem masses and receiving devout believers… To pray to God, he insisted on eating only one meal a day, consisting mainly of water, black bread, and cabbage soup. He underwent a major purification every five days, during which any food was prohibited… His actions inspired more and more people, and the chaotic lower city had never loved a Florentine religious leader as much…’
‘… A month after the outbreak, Pope Sistine I issued a papal bull, ordering that all people and livestock that died from the plague, as well as related clothing and items, be burned to ashes, including those who had already been buried… The lower city experienced several successive riots, and some patients even began to attack the checkpoints guarded by the Knights Templar and were shot dead…’
‘Three days after the papal bull was issued, the Knights Templar, in accordance with the Pope’s orders, sent all of the plague-stricken dead and their related items in Florence to the pyre. Patients were sent to the Great Gospel Monastery for unified management…’
‘… A month after the papal bull was issued, the plague in Florence ended.’
‘Pope Sistine I was the first to adopt the method of quarantine and cremation to disinfect and eliminate the plague, which had a great impact on the prevailing theological idea in the Middle Ages. This practice effectively accelerated the elimination of infectious disease, and modern medicine thus emerged. As a theological leader and religious spokesperson, Pope Sistine I’s actions were controversial at the time, and the Holy Church also had many debates about it…‘
‘However, undoubtedly, as the leader who faced the Florentine plague head-on, compared to the Black Death, which had ravaged most of the continent for more than a decade and claimed tens of millions of lives, Florence under the rule of Pope Sistine I only had a little over 7,000 deaths 1 during the disaster, which was a remarkable achievement…’
The record on paper only had a few lines. In the vast sea of files, this incident was just a moment in the long history of Florence. History does not listen to the cries of the dead, nor does it hear the complaints of the poor. The deaths of seven thousand people were reduced to cold numbers on paper, only four characters long, but behind it were the flames that never stopped burning day and night, the ashes that covered Florence’s sky, and the desperate screams and shouts.
The Great Gospel Monastery was built on the edge of the lower city of Florence. A few miles further out, one could see the ancient city walls of Florence. Some monks still lived in this monastery. They strictly adhered to the church rules and demanded the most austere and frugal lifestyle of themselves in order to draw closer to God.
After the outbreak of the plague, all the monks of the Great Gospel Monastery left here and participated in the management and care of the patients. The monastery gates were open, allowing anyone to enter or leave freely, and accepted all homeless people. Ferrante and Rafael jointly designated it as the final residence for the patients of this epidemic. Because this monastery had very thick walls, narrow windows, and was located far away from residential areas.