Word: franciscans
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Despite drizzly skies, a crowd of almost half a million Poles waited patiently in an open field near the Franciscan monastery that Kolbe had founded. Most of them were peasants who had traveled from nearby farms, sometimes in horse-drawn carts, for a glimpse of John Paul. One banner held above the crowd bore the insignia of Rural Solidarity, the independent farmers' union that was organized in May 1981 and dissolved in October 1982. But there were also more traditional symbols of Polish patriotism, including an ensign emblazoned with a golden Polish eagle wearing a royal crown and brandishing...
...possible to read the notices that hang on the wall amid posters of Pope John Paul II. One large hand-scrawled message contains a plea for men's shoes of all sizes. Another, more ominously, lists the political trials that are currently in progress. Inside the vestibule, a Franciscan nun in a brown habit tends an old-fashioned telephone switchboard. Off to the side, a room is piled high with boxes containing toothpaste, soap, powdered milk and other items...
...author tips his hat to Sir Arthur early on. The name of his medieval detective, William of Baskerville, is an echo of the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the 14th century context, William is a Franciscan friar, famed for his formidable powers of deduction. His companion and disciple is called Adso, or in French, Adson, as in the phrase "Elementary, my dear Adson...
...menacing shadow over the whole era. The Emperor in Milan and the Pope in Avignon are battling for ascendancy over the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor, Louis IV, has sent William to the abbot of a rich and powerful Benedictine monastery in Italy on a mission of conciliation. The Franciscan and Adso arrive at the abbey right after the body of a young monk has been discovered. Suicide or murder is suspected. The abbot, aware of William's skills at detection, persuades him to investigate the death...
...than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Repeating those words of Jesus (John 15:13), Pope John Paul II last week presided over the canonization of a fellow Pole who greatly inspired his own vocation as a priest: Maximilian Maria Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who died for his faith-and to save another man's life-at the most notorious of Nazi death camps...