Reflections

1221 - Birth of the Roman Province on a territorial area extending from Tuscany to Sicily. The first Provincial was Blessed Nicola da Giovinazzo 1294 - The jurisdiction of the Province was limited to Lazio, Tuscany, Umbria and Sardinia. 1380 - With the death of Saint Catherine of Siena and the Minerva priory of Blessed Raimondo da Capua, the Roman convent acquired a renown throughout the Order, such that it later became the place of celebration of many general chapters until 1868. 1406 - Blessed Giovanni Dominici, placed at the head of the disciplinary and ascetic reform of the Order, founded the convent of San Domenico di Fiesole, which had as its first vocation Saint Antonino Pierozzi. 1436 - Having become Vicar General of the reformed Cisalpine convents, Saint Antoninus had the convent of San Marco built in Florence with the funds donated by Cosimo de' Medici and had it frescoed by his brother Giovanni da Fiesole 'Beato Angelico'. 1449 - The reformed Cisalpine convents were united with the Lombard Congregation. 1493 - By virtue of a letter from Alexander VI, dated May 22, the Congregation of San Marco received legal recognition, by virtue of which the convent of San Marco - through the efforts of Brother Girolamo Savonarola - was able to separate from the Lombard Congregation and be under the immediate jurisdiction of the Master of the Order, then Brother Gioacchino Turriani. On November 15 of the same year, Savonarola was elected Vicar General with headquarters in the convent of San Marco, which was immediately joined by the convents of Fiesole, Santa Caterina di Pisa and, shortly after, the communities of Santa Maria del Sasso in Bibbiena (1495) and San Domenico di Prato (1496). 1498 - After Savonarola's death, the Congregation of San Marco was united with the Tuscan Congregation "of the Observance" by the Master of the Order, fr. Gioacchino Turriani. 1530 - The aforementioned Congregation was transformed by Pope Clement VII into the reformed Roman Province and gradually absorbed all the convents existing in the territory of the Roman Province. 1695 - With a Brief of Innocent XII (June 14), the Congregation of San Marco was once again restored sui iuris and ten convents were assigned to it. 1922 - With a rescript of the Congregation of Religious, the convent of San Domenico in Cagliari was assigned to the jurisdiction of San Marco. 1930 - Following the extinction of the Province of Santa Caterina, the region of Abruzzo was centralized in the territory of the Roman Province. 1931 - Under the provincialate of Brother Ludovico Fanfani, the Roman Province opened a mission in the East (in Multan, Pakistan) from which two dioceses originated (Multan and Faisalabad), two provincial vicariates (1969) and finally (1982) a Vice-province. The Master of the Order, Brother Martin Stanislao Gillet, with a rescript of March 23, erected and constituted the Congregation of San Marco, to which the territory of the ancient Province of Sardinia was annexed, in a Province with the title of San Marco and Sardinia. Brother Francesco M. Guerrini was appointed the first Provincial Prior. August 20, 1997 - The Master of the Order, Brother Timothy Radcliffe, after a vote on the unification of the two Provinces, made separately by the respective Provincial Chapters of the Roman Province and the Province of San Marco and Sardinia, convened simultaneously, but separately at Castelgandolfo, on August 19, 1997 by virtue of his authority, establishes the new Roman Province of Saint Catherine of Siena by uniting together the territories, convents and friars of the Roman Province and San Marco and Sardinia, with immediate effect, maintaining the 5th place in the list of the Provinces of the Order. August 23, 1997 - The Master of the Order confirms and establishes Brother Fausto Sbaffoni as the first Provincial Prior of the new Province.