Israel. Occasion : procession on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Many many people. Leading celebrant : the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Italian Albert Avogadro who has been in the Holy Land nine years, sent explicitly by Pope Innocent III to settle an internal dispute between two States (Cyprus and Jerusalem). Suddenly a man comes out of the crowd, appoaches the Patriarch and stabs him. Once, twice, three times.

Everything happens so suddenly that when the deacons accompanying the Patriarch intervene, it is too late. Albert dies on the spot, dressed in his liturgical vestments, asking forgiveness for his murderer. This man was the Director of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit - he had a grudge against the Patriarch because the latter had downgraded him from office because of his licentious life. When one follows the Master, one cannot expect a better fate than Him!

Albert was then in his late fifties. He had quite an eventful life, being Bishop first of Bobbio and then of Vercelli. He was the mediator in the dispute between the Emperor Barbarossa and Pope Clement III and between the King of Armenia and the Knights Templars. Happy are the peacemakers....

Sometime between 1206 and 1214, he was approached by the Latin hermits of Mount Carmel with the request to prepare for them a written ' formula of life' based on their own traditional patters. This is how the "primitive Rule" came about. It is a precious synthesis of a contemplative communitarian life.

Father Pius