Francesco Chiappelli - Pope Alexanders Last Travel, 1410

Image 1 - Pope Alexander V: (Peter Filargo of the Counts of Crusinallo)

Note: The figure is a reproduction of a painting of the Alliatta-Nobili family collection. The original is to be found in Virgili, 1957. In the bottom right, the coat of arms shown is the original coat of arms of the Nobili Counts of Crusinallo (as per Virgili, 1957) The text on the parchment begins with these words: Quintus Alexander de religione minorum: ex Crusinalli Domini, Alexander V of the religious order of the Minors: from the Lords of Crusinallo

On a late Summer day, close to 25 years ago, I met Clelia in Rome. We had a simple lunch at the neighborhood trattoria. She was happy and light-hearted, eager to chat with this young man she hardly knew. The purpose of our meeting is irrelevant for this discussion, suffice it to say that we had corresponded for a while, and we both were glad to share a couple of hours together. She was past her eighties, and in fact passed away a few months after our meeting. May she rest in peace - she was, we could say, a good soul, a lady of many undeniable charms and qualities.

This writing is dedicated to Clelia.

As we spoke, she became very excited at one point: she remembered something very important, she felt, she had to tell me - you know, she said, abbiamo un papa in famiglia, we have a pope in the family. She told me to go to the Island of Saint Jules on the lake of Orta to find the proof.

So started a 25-year-plus research on this pope, Alexander V: national archives in diverse cities of Italy, historical records, chronicles, academic papers and books by various authors in a variety of languages, including Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German and English, her family archives, which her own mother had compiled before World War II, and archives of related families as they were kindly made available to me, and any other sort of authenticated information I could get my hands on. And yes, this included published Italian, British and French encyclopedias, and more recently Wikipedia, and a variety of websites. I acknowledge all these sources at this point, a partial list of which I present at the end of this book, because this novel is based on documented historical facts.

It is a story that connects established events of history. In some instance that connection is established by means of popular tales and legends. In other parts of the novel, the historical facts are connected by creative fictional elaborations of what the most likely uchronic set of occurrences might have been to lead from this to that. Principally, this writing attempts to relate the story of an individual, who happens to be Pope Alexander V, as he is forced into a perilous crossing of snow-capped mountains with his papal Court in early Spring 1410. It focuses on the human story of the man, as it might have been, constructed about the historical facts that are known to all and well established in scholarly documents and original records.

A few years after that Summer day lunch in Rome with Clelia, and having traversed significant events in my own life, I was ready to leave the secular life behind, and join the Catholic priesthood. My good friend for over two decades, Father Edward, had guided me and counseled me during my personal spiritual growth.

This writing is dedicated to Fr. Ed.

By then, and following many lengthy conversations with him, and guided by the Spirit, I was ready to take the next step: from being a Secular Franciscan, for which I had made my Promise a decade earlier, to undergoing Formation for my formal Vows as a Franciscan friar, and eventually the seminary to be ordained Franciscan priest. Fr Ed had guided me through that, and has continued to guide me ever since as one of my dearest and most trusted friends.

As it turned out, as I was leaving the secular life, one of the last - no, now that I think of it, the very last new acquaintance I made was Olivia. We met just four weeks before my de facto detachment, as it were, was going to commence. I quickly realized how good a person she was to become a good friend with. In fact, we very soon discovered that there was much more to that: that we were each other's soul mates, that we were meant for eternity to meet and complete each other by fulfilling each other in each other. We both personified love for each other and in each other, and it is not surprising that, within a few months, we were bound together in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Needless to mention the rather intense searching this entire process provoked in my mind, heart and soul.

This work, and all my work since, is dedicated to Olivia.

In all these years, Olivia has encouraged me and supported all my interests, research, writings and thoughts. We traveled together to visit archives and cemeteries, and our work is far from over. I owe to her all because she has helped me realize that all has been gifts from God, to Whom this and all always must be offered - freely! as He gives freely, so must we freely give back. She is my inspiration, my strength, my most constructive critic, my muse.

It is not clear to me what she finds in me, but I must acknowledge Fredi and America, and their forefathers. It is they, with the benevolent assistance of my older sister, Marina, who helped me become, by their teaching, examples, suggestions and corrections, who I am today: whom God meant for me to become.

This work is dedicated to them as well, in kind remembrance and thanksgiving.

They and my friends and benefactors along the years have sustained me and pushed me ahead. None more certainly than our dearest friends Rick and Sylvia. We have traveled with them in many places around this beautiful earth, and have recently discovered the majesty of Montecatini Alto and the mountains of Pistoia. That, and his plan to travel presently in pilgrimage across the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, re-awakened in me the need to finish this decades-long endeavor: writing the story of Pope Alexander across the mountains of Pistoia in the early Spring 1410.