Proclamare l'Osservanza. Girolamo Savonarola apologeta della Congregazione di San Marco

The founding reasons for the birth of an observant family were set out by Savonarola in a short writing he composed when the Congregation of San Marco in Florence was put under attack by pope Alexander VI. In his Apologeticum (1497), Savonarola explained that an observant family comes to life when its members feel a need for perfection that prevents them from keeping on an old lifestyle, that they judge to be imperfect. Since the mixing of two different categories of friars bears no positive fruit, separation between the lukewarm and the fervent is the first step towards the recovery of discipline as a school of holiness within a friary. The purpose of this writing was to demonstrate that the initiative taken by Alexander VI was not inspired by the Holy Spirit. Obviously such a stance produced no result but hastening Savonarola’s condemnation as a protestor of papal authority and therefore a heretic.