In 1943-44, amidst the horrors of war, Assisi had another time of true glory. While the Allies had just landed in Sicily, Assisi was occupied by German troops. There, three men worked together to do something constructive rather than destructive: Bishop Giuseppe Nicolini, the German commander, a medical doctor, Col. Valentin Müller and Don Aldo Brunacci.
Divided by the war, they remained nevertheless united by their Christian faith and its mandate of unconditional love. They obtained that Assisi be made a hospital city, a city for medical care, not for military confrontation; a city for healing, not for fighting. The anthology highlights the heroic efforts of Nicolini and Brunacci by which many Jewish refugees survived, correcting the distorted historical account of the book and film “Assisi Underground.”
Don Aldo Brunacci (1914-2007)
by Murray Bodo OFM
Pigeons sleep on the railings
of windows opposite mine.
Echoes pulsate from the stones
where I last saw Don Aldo,
a frail 92, his cane
gently tapping away from me
toward the Piazza Commune
at the end of Via San Paolo.
I watched him walking, it seemed,
forever, and the piazza – like
the Jewish refugees he shelteredand
saved from harm – was receding
from his determined will.
I see him walking still,
his short shuffle out of step
among friends and passersby.
and saved from harm – was receding
from his determined will.
I see him walking still,
his short shuffle out of step
among friends and passersby.