Christianity: Details about 'Joachim Of Fiore'
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Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (ca 1135 –March 30, 1202), was the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore (now Jure Vetere). He was a mystic, a theologian and an esoterist. His followers are called Joachimites.
BiographyBorn in the small village of Celico near Cosenza in Calabria, at the time part of the Kingdom of Sicily, he was the son of Mauro the notary, who was well placed, and Gemma, his wife. He was educated at Cosenza, where he became first a clerk in the courts, and then a notary himself, and worked in 1166–67 for Etienne du Perche, archbishop of Palermo and chancellor of Marguerite, regent for the young William II of Sicily. About 1169, he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, an episode about which we know very little, save that he underwent a spiritual crisis and conversion in Jerusalem that turned him from the worldly life. When he returned, he lived as a hermit for several years, wandering and preaching before joining the ascetic Cistercian abbey of Sambucina near Luzzi, Calabria, as a lay brother, where he devoted his time to lay preaching. Under pressure from the ecclesiastical authorities, he joined the monks of the Abbey of Corazzo, and was ordained priest, apparently in 1168 (CE). He applied himself entirely to Biblical study, with a special view to uncovering the arcane meaning concealed in the Scriptures, above all in Revelation. To his dismay, he was acclaimed abbot by the monks of Corazzo. He then attempted to join the monastery to the Cistercian Order, but was refused because of the community's poverty. In the winter of 1178, he appealed in person to William II, who granted the monks some lands. A few years later, he appealed in 1182 to Pope Lucius III, who relieved him of the temporal care of his abbey, and warmly approved of his work, bidding him continue it in whatever monastery he thought best. He spent the following year and a half at the Cistercian Abbey of Casamari, engaged upon his three great books, his dictations keeping three scribes busy night and day; there the young monk, Lucas (afterwards Archbishop of Cosenza), who acted as his secretary, was amazed to see so famous and eloquent a man wearing such rags, and the wonderful devotion with which he preached and said Mass. In 1184 he was in Rome, interpreting an obscure prophecy found among the papers of Cardinal Matthew of Angers, and was encouraged by Pope Lucius III. Succeeding popes confirmed the papal approbation, though his manuscripts had not begun to circulate. Joachim retired first to the hermitage of Pietralata, writing all the while, and then founded the Abbey of Fiore (or Flora) in the mountains of Calabria; Flora became the center of a new and stricter branch of the Cistercian Order, approved by s"). In this year, instead of the parousia (second Advent of Christ), a new Epoch of peace and concord would begin, thus making the hierarchy of the Church unnecessary. Condemnation
Thomas Aquinas confuted his theories in his Summa Theologica, but in The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri placed him in paradise. Among the more spiritually-inclined of the Franciscans,a "Joachist" group arose, many of whom saw Antichrist already in the world in the person of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (who died, however, in 1250). As the appointed year approached, spurious works began to circulate under Joachim's name: De Oneribus Prophetarum, an Expositio Sybillae et Merlini ("Exposition of the Sibyl and Merlin") and commentaries on the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah. The Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 condemned some of his ideas about the nature of the Trinity, without taking any action, Finally Pope Alexander IV condemned his writings and those of his follower Gerardo of Borgo San Donnino and set up a commission that in 1263 eventually declared his theories heretical. His theories inspired also subsequent heresies like Dulcinians and Brethren of the Free Spirit. "Neojoachimism"Since 2005 there has arisen a "Neojoachimistic" current in Catholic theology, affirming that Joachim was right when he announced the "Reign of the Spirit", but only erred about its date. It began not in 1260 but seven hundred years later, leading the Church to the spiritual revolution of the second Vatican Council: God's Covenant with Israel is not abolished on Good Friday but remains valid; freedom of conscience is not folly but God's will. Joaquín de Fiore Joachim de Flore Gioacchino da Fiore Joachim van Fiore Joakim av Floris
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