Susan Pitchford
Fioretti ("little flowers")
A "florilegium" is a collection, or bouquet, of writings. It comes from the Latin "flora" (flower)+ "legere" (to gather). It has the same meaning as the Greek word "anthology."
In the Middle Ages and beyond, when books were rare and expensive, people copied their favorite excerpts from books into a booklet they carried with them, a florilegium. In a similar vein, the "fioretti" or "little flowers" of Francis of Assisi are a series of stories about the saint that were gathered into a single volume. In this florilegium (nicer than "blog," isn't it?), I'd like to gather some of my favorite bits of writing by various authors, adding a little commentary but mostly letting the quotations speak for themselves. I hope it will grow into a garden that will be a pleasant place to linger for a bit. Enjoy! Archives
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FlorilegiumDesert ClassroomJanuary 24, 2010
One of the symptoms of my current insanity is that, in spite of having no discretionary time at all, I’ve agreed to participate in no less than three reading groups. One of these is reading “In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers,” by John Chryssavgis. The desert abbas and ammas were those strange third and fourth century men and women who fled civilization, with all its comforts and distractions, and went into the Egyptian desert to be stripped bare before God. The book, which is a collection of their sayings grouped around a set of key themes, begins with a fourth century Eucharistic prayer to God: “We entreat you, make us truly alive.” (more…)
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