Davide Lazzeretti

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{{Expand Italian|topic=bio|Davide_Lazzaretti |date=January 2022}}

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Davide Lazzaretti (6 November 1834 – 18 August 1878) was an Italian preacher.

Biography

Davide Lazzeretti was born on 6 November 1834 near Arcidosso, a small town in the Province of Grosseto in the Italian region of Tuscany.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTTbMGtm-tIC |title=The Athenaeum |date=1885 |publisher=J. Lection |language=en}} In his early life, Lazzaretti worked as a wagoner and was known as the town drunk.{{Cite web |last=Manns |date=19 August 2020 |title=David Lazzaretti: The Prophet-King of Monte Labbro |url=https://thethinkersgarden.com/david-lazzaretti-prophet-king-of-monte-labbro/ |access-date=5 April 2024}} In 1860, Lazzaretti participated in nine months of military service, working with Garibaldi in a military campaign opposing the Church State Army.{{Cite web |last=Di Fiorino |first=Mario |date=1999 |title=If the world does not end. When the prophecy plays false ! |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256426318 }}

In 1868, Lazzaretti had his self-proclaimed prophetic meeting with the Virgin Mary. This led him to live the life of a hermit, modeled after the life of St Francis. He gained many followers among the peasants around Mount Amiata and Mount Labbro. He began sporting a tattoo of a key, symbolizing St Peter, on his forehead. At Mount Labbro, he gathered a community of followers, about 80 families. He would disappear for weeks at a time, returning with new prophecies and visions. This continued until 1870 when Lazzaretti created three religiously oriented organizations: the Holy League, the Institute of Penitentiary Hermits and Penitents, and the Society of Christian Families. From 1873 to 1877, he travelled three times to France. He traveled to Rome and attempted to meet with the Pope. He postulated he would become the leader of a Divine Republic consisting of the three Latin peoples of Spain, France and Italy. On the 18th of August, a few days after the date he predicted the Divine Republic would start, he led a crowd of his followers, dressed in peasant garb to the town, where the local policemen shot him dead.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTTbMGtm-tIC |title=The Athenaeum |date=1885 |publisher=J. Lection |language=en}}

The David Lazzaretti Study Center in Arcidosso, located in Italy, is named after him{{Cite web |date=2023-05-22 |title=David Lazzaretti Study Center |url=https://maremma.name/en/amiata/arcidosso/david-lazzaretti-study-center/ |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=maremma.name |language=en-US}}

References

Category:Italian religious leaders

Lazzaretti