Links and Exchanges between Istrian and Paduan Conventual Franciscans

Abstract

For almost five centuries of common history, the Republic of Venice had two monastic provinces of the Order: the Province of St. Anthony, with monasteries around Padua, and that of St. Jerome, having monasteries in Istria and Dalmatia. Naturally, the friars of the same Order and under the same political administration had continuous spiritual and cultural exchange. This was facilitated even more by the fact that Istrian friars completed their studies at the universities of the Order in Padua and Venice. The beginnings of the exchange were marked by the presence of Fra Jakov of Pula, a friar and architect from Pula, who spent over twenty years completing the construction of St. Anthony’s Basilica in Padua. His operation was followed by the fruitful scientific and theological activity of Fra Ljudevit of Piran, and the subsequent equally rich professorial activity of Fra Mate Ferkić from Krk. A friar of Padua, Fra Antun of Lendinara decorated the statutes of the City of Pula. The preaching of the Paduan reformers Fra Girolamo Galateo and Fra Bartolomeo Fonzio in Piran and Koper incited great interest in some Istrian friars for Lutheranism and made them embrace it. Two of them (Fra Baldo Lupetina and Fra Julije Morato) were victims of the Inquisition. Eventually, after the collapse of Venice, these two provinces, due to a small number of friars and loss of monasteries, joined and remained so for over eighty years. This gave an excellent opportunity for even livelier links and a richer exchange of spiritual and cultural treasures.