A Watch in the Night

By Helen C. White A Watch in the Night tells of one Jacopone da Todi, a famous poet of the Middle Ages. Devastated by the sudden death of his wife, Jacopone forsakes all his earthy possessions, undertaking a new life of asceticism and penance and eventually joining the Franciscan Order. There he assumes a critical role in the Order’s internal struggles between the Conventuals, who affirm a more lenient interpretation of St. Francis’s rule, and “Spirituals,” who uphold absolute poverty as the “distinctive grace” of the Order. After his enthusiastic support for the Spirituals ends in disillusionment, Jacopone withdraws, subdued. Yet when the plague strikes Italy, Jacopone must face the ultimate test and summon the courage to offer the supreme sacrifice. “One thinks to do so much and he does so little, and that little so strangely compounded of blindness and good intent and much effort and much thwarting, and the end is a watch in the night,” said Jacomo, suddenly feeling that all the wo