1. Catholic Authors Dante Alighieri 1265-1321

2. The Divine Comedy  Dante’s major work  He was a poet  From a modestly wealthy family  Well educated  From Florence, Italy  Fought for city  Was a soldier

3. More About Dante  By 1300 he was elected as prior of Florence (very high office)  Contemporaries of St. Bonaventure & St. Thomas Aquinas  Renaissance begins in Italy

4. Dante’s Comedia  Why a comedy?  Ends happily  Also called Divine Comedy  Journey through Purgatory & Hell  What motivates Dante?  Love of God  Love of Beatrice

5. Comedy? What’s So Funny?  Who is Beatrice?  Gave Dante new life (analogy to God)  Relationships lead us to good or evil  Virgil is first guide  Thought ancients had much Truth  Poet of Aenid & Ancient Rome  Beatrice is second guide

6. Comedy Continued  Virgil gives way after Purgatory  Starts the tour of Hell  Satan is at the very bottom of Hell encased in ice  That’s right, James, ICE!  As we try to get away from God, we become more frozen in the ice  Hell gets darker

7. Where in the Hell are WE?  At the lowest levels  Purgatory  We see, slowly, how penance helps to start freeing souls.  Many souls are just waiting  Atmosphere is a mountain  Opposite of Calvary  Much more light & vegetation than Hell

8. Finally!  Spiritual aspects:  Starts in dark woods—lost, confused  Dante is exiled most of his life from Florence  Was he a mystic?  Many say yes  His stories permeated with Biblical characters