
- On 23 April 2020
The Shamed Poor
The church of San Martino al Vescovo and the shamed poor
San Martino al Vescovo (Saint Martin of the Bishop) was among the oldest churches of the city, founded by the end of the 10th century.
It was the parish church of Dante Alighieri (according to the tradition Dante’s wedding with Gemma Donati was celebrated right here) and is located in a small square in front of the Torre della Castagna, just behind the Florentine Abbey.
During the XIII century, until 1348 , Florence knew an incredible demographic growth.
The city was transformed: new larger walls and new larger palaces and churches were built.
That is why the small church of San Martino was suppressed.
But in the 15th century the building of the former church became the oratory of a recently founded confraternity: the Buonomini di San Martino. They, in 1479 completely transformed the building, reversing its orientation, with the new entrance located where we see it today and with new decorations, entrusted to Ghirlandaio and his workshop with the cycle of frescoes representing The Seven Works of Corporal Mercy.
The Confraternity of the Buonomini (“good men”) of San Martino
The Confraternity of Buonomini di San Martino was founded by the prior of the convent of San Marco, Sant’Antonino Pierozzi. It consisted of 12 young men that had to represent of the society of the time: 1 member was a worker not enrolled in any Guild, 6 were craftsmen, 1 member was a liberal professional (like a notary or a lawyer) and 4 came from the merchant bourgeoisie. The nobles were the only ones excluded.
The founding rule of the Confraternity of Buonomini was that everything they collected had to be redistributed. It was not possible to capitalize the money they had.
The Good Men’ purpose was charity to special poor people: the “Shamed poor”.
They were those people who, born into good families, had been humiliated by adversity; those who, after having lived in ease and wealth, now struggled in poverty; those who, after being lucky in business or great in public affairs, had been overwhelmed by misfortune and now found themselves without means and ashamed to beg for bread.
We are talking about top managers, about people that were granting loans to the rulers of half of Europe, business’s owners that could decide on the present and future of the world.
A wrong investment, a loan not repaid, or a shipwreck with goods had caused their ruin.
From very rich to very poor.
The idea of San Antonino was to create a specialized charity, in a world where everything was still generalized. The “hospiatals”; and the brotherhoods took care of everybody: young, old, ill, poor….
Sant’Antonino instead believed that only a specialized support could be effective (please just think of the newborn Spedale degli Innocenti, the first orphanage in the world).
The idea was extremely successful. The Confraternity received public and private funds.
The Buonuomini had thought of a discreet system to let people know when they really needed help.
They put candles in front of the church. When the candles were finished, so were their funds.
Many people made small and anonymous donations. The money was put in the alms hole, placed on the church’s facade.
alms hole
The more substantial ones are recorded instead in account books. Among others, in the ledgers we read:
“Lorenzo and Giuliano de’Medici must give, on March 25, 1475 lb onethousendtwohundred.,,”
The Confraternity also had the sponsorship of 5 Popes who promised indulgences in exchange for alms (2008 years!), as it says on the plaque by the entrance door:
“EVERY TIME ONE GIVES ALMS TO THE SHAMED
POOR OF S. MARTINO THEY GET
TWO THOUSAND EIGHT YEARS- AND ALSO
FORTY QUARANTENE OF INDULGENCE GRANTED.
FIVE PONTIFFES HAVE AGRRED THIS, AS RECORDED.”
COVID-19
This small church, however, has always been a bit indigestible to me.
I’ve always wondered if there really was a need for such a confraternity. Florence at the time certainly had other poor people more deserving of help, in short poorer than the shamed poor.
Also, if these people had been so rich, why didn’t they think of putting something aside? Besides, if they were so poor, why being ashamed to beg?
Then Covid-19 came and changed my point of view.
Florence is a wealthy city that lives richly on tourism and overnight it found out that everything was gone. ZERO tourists, ZERO entrances.
The, until recently, profitable professions became zero income professions. In the blink of an eye, who believed to be “rich” and was making “rich” projects incredibly became “poor”.
Not so poor to beg, but “shamed poor” – like those of San Martino.
It was a Bishop in 1400 Florence to think outside the box and to introduce innovative ideas and worried about the “shamed poor”.
Perhaps now its the Municipality’s turn.
After years of considerable incomes from tourist city tax and from tourist buses fees, it is now our city government (which this year had budgeted around 80 million euros based on these revenues) that is called to have new and brilliant ideas for a new Florence and its new “poor” citizens.