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Pope Francis: Dante is a Bedrock of Italian Culture

Italy cannot deny that Dante Alighieri is fundamental to its national identity, Pope Francis said

Italy cannot deny that Dante Alighieri is fundamental to its national identity, Pope Francis said

FLORENCE, ITALY – National identity is based on culture, Pope Francis notes in a Vatican speech today, Thursday February 5, 2015. For this reason Italian culture cannot disown Dante Alighieri.

“We need to seek the traditions of each population that are fundamental for national identity”, Pope Francis said in a video conference with seven disabled students from around the world, marking the end of the Scholas Occurrentes conference.

“Italian culture, for example, cannot disown Dante Alighieri as a bedrock of its culture”, the Pope said, comparing the role played by the Florentine poet in Italy’s culture to that of the epic poem Martin Fierro, by 19th-century writer José Hernandez, in Argentina.

Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.

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