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March 4, 2025We have begun the Jubilee Year 2025 and this book by Italians Mauro D’Amico and Giovanni Raccuia is an interesting quick introduction to what a Jubilee or Holy Year is and the history of them.
This is a translation from Italian into English which unfortunately was not overly successful but is still readable even with its mistakes.
The Jubilee has its origins from the Old Testament days. Christian Jubilees were first started in 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII (1230-1303). It was mainly for religious reasons that the jubilees were begun, but financial reasons also played a part because pilgrims to the Holy City of Rome would have to buy food, lodging and other things.
There are two kinds of Jubilees or Holy Years, ordinary or extraordinary. The time of each varied too. There have been more extraordinary jubilees than the ordinary or regular ones. Sometimes as the authors show some jubilees had to be canceled due to war, plague or some other major reason. A lot of the time the extraordinary jubilees were called to celebrate the election of a new pope. Other times it was for a time of prayer against enemies of the Church or Europe, mainly the Turks.
The authors summarize the history of the jubilees with when the popes called them and the events that happened during them. The authors have mostly color portraits of the popes in connection with the jubilees.
There is a calendar for the Holy Year, although it is mostly of Italian dioceses visiting Rome, and it does indicate the various jubilee days, like the Jubilee Day for Consecrated Life, etc. There is a bibliography of websites for more jubilee information and for the portraits of the popes.
This book is recommended to those interested in a quick introduction into jubilees and their history.
Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., Saint Gregory's Abbey, Shawnee, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
The Jubilee: from 1300 to the present day.
D’Amico, Mauro and Raccuja, Giovanni
Fly Books 5.0, 2024.
ISBN 9798305393071
