100KM IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HOLY HUMILITY
Many saints were also great walkers … Of course, once we went on foot! But theirs was a particular journey, made with the feet and the heart, with the power of the Spirit, along the paths of God: the paths of prayer, of charity, of justice, of commitment to the Church and the society of their time.
Their journey has often left a lasting mark in many places – sanctuaries, monasteries – that still retain their memory and push others today to set off, to become pilgrims.
The journey of these saints, often marked by difficulties and hardships, is a sign that God is not a “tranquilizer”, but one who pushes us to leave our own land, one who is uncomfortable. The God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the God who traveled our land in the courageous steps of a young man
Rabbi of Nazareth, he is a God who loves the journey, the adventure …
Among the various holy walkers, this year I want to remember Sant’Umiltà (born Rosanese Negusanti) 700 years after his death in Florence on 22 May 1310, at 84 years old. Humility made the 100 km several times, the first time in reverse in 1281, at 55 years old, when with some companions of his monastery in Malta in Faenza he went to Florence to open a new Vallombrosan monastery near the Mugnone. How long did it take them to cross the Apennines? Certainly more than today’s cents: not hours, but days. As places to eat and stop for the night there were the parishes such as Pieve Thò and the monasteries such as Crespino and Razzuolo. At the finish there will not have been the banner, but the arrival of these women full of faith and charity in a Florence marked by struggles and factions, soon left their mark, so much so that they were called “the women of Faenza”.
Humility in its long life has gone through various stages: marriage, motherhood, pain for the loss of children, the convent, the hermit life, the
intense prayer, the advice and the spiritual guide of other young people, the responsibility of the community, the manual work in the construction of the monastery, the care of the sick, the illness … These are also remembered stages in this booklet that wants to offer some pause for reflection and prayer to those who travel the 100 route.
The booklet also reports the testimony of some communities that we meet today along the way, a story between history and imagination
and a comic book on some episodes of the journey of Saint Humility through our Apennines.
Don Luca Ravaglia
– ITINERARY BOOKLET ON 100KM IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. HUMILITY 2010
