Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941)

It’s no surprise that in reading Evelyn Underhill on Jacopone that you are reading two mystics at once: the 13th century Franciscan and the 20th Century Anglican, Underhill herself.

While unfolding the life of Jacopone, Underhill shows what a great teacher of mysticism she is. Her understanding of Jacopone’s progress in the spiritual life is penetrating and fascinating, and to draw this portrait, she opens up the literature on mysticism in an accessible way.

Jacopone trained as a lawyer, show more although it seems that much of his time as a student was spent studying poetry and literature. In particular he was fascinated by the new vernacular poetry being created in the dialects of the Italian peninsula with its roots in the love songs of the jongleurs.

He practised for some years as a celebrity lawyer, enjoying the comforts of the good life. He later threw over all the material trappings of success to become a Franciscan Tertiary, spending perhaps ten years in the rough habit of a Tertiary, probably wandering from town to town spreading the gospel message through songs and poetry.

He felt a particular closeness to the ageing Brother Leo still living at the Portiuncula near Assisi and to the zelanti, the party within the friars who emphasised absolute poverty. Eventually he sought entry to the convent at Todi. The friars there took some time to accept him: they were of the more relaxed party, and were perhaps reluctant to accept a strong personality at the extreme other end of the Franciscan movement. Why did Jacopone choose the Todi friary? Certainly the town of Todi was his home. But it may also have been a genuine reflection of his humility. He chose to submit himself to superiors with views quite different from his own, and he agreed to remain a lay brother and not seek the privileges of clerical office within the Order.

He seemed to want the quiet life. But to break a deadlock in the 1294 Conclave his friend, the hermit Pietro Angelerio, was unexpectedly elected Pope Celestine V. Celestine’s administration was a disaster. It appears that Jacopone, the trained lawyer, travelled to Rome to assist the Pope.

At the same time, tensions within the Franciscan Order grew even greater, and, perhaps thinking that Jacopone’s presence in the Curia would help, the friars appealed to Celestine to sort the Order out. Celestine’s solution was drastic. He invited all the zelanti to leave the Friars Minor altogether and to come directly under his protection. Because it would break their connection with St Francis of Assisi, neither the zelanti nor the moderati wanted this, so Jacopone returned to Todi, disillusioned, and probably saddened to watch his friend’s papacy spiral downwards in chaos until Celestine resigned later that year and returned to being a hermit.

Jacopone spent the rest of his life in relative seclusion in the convent at Todi. His poems and songs reveal how he grew spiritually leaving behind the wild joy of his years as a Tertiary, to learn how to order love and to integrate his being as a Christian, and finally to detach himself from everything except God’s grasp of him.

His reputation for saintliness continued to grow in his lifetime, particularly among Tertiaries. Guilds of Tertiaries gathered to sing Jacopone’s songs, often belting them out like rugby fans singing Abide With Me, but also writing their own sensitive spiritual songs in the vernacular.

Jacopone’s story reveals the interplay between the interior and exterior life: how as a Tertiary, he lived la santa pazia (the holy madness). His wandering life reflected the roller-coaster emotions of the jubilo, the interior stage of the soul’s progress, characterised by “immoderate transports, tears, raptures, despairs” (p. 132). This early stage was an inebriation, which, as Jacopone wandered the beautiful Umbrian countryside, he saw reflected in all Creation and in the Creator. (p. 79)

Jacopone strikingly believed that God does not fit with narrow-mindedness.


Dio non alberga en core stretto
tant’è grande quant’hai affetto,
povertate ha si’ gran petto
che chi alberga deitate.
(Lauda LX)

God does not dwell in narrow hearts,
the larger the heart the greater the desire for God -
poverty has such a great heart
that Deity dwells there.


Eventually Jacopone realised that he needed to be more ordered in love. He passed from Richard Rolle’s stage of “fire and song”, through the stage of intellectual integration, ‘’mentis sublevatio, in which the illuminated mind beholds things above itself” (Richard of St. Victor, p. 231) to a stage of letting go completely to find “Love beyond all language, imageless Good.”(p. 225)

Jacopone writes of this final spiritual stage:


Possedi posseduta
entanta unione
non c’è divisione
che te da lui retragga.
Tu bevi e se’ bevuta
en transformazione. (Lauda XCI)

You possess – and you are the possessed,
in such a complete union
there is no division
that can drag you away from him.
You drink – and you are the drink
in this transformation.
The saint discovers that God’s love is as ordinary and amazing as gravity, felt as the soul’s weight, carrying it to its right place; God’s love is “the secret of stability, the rule of the Universe”. (p. 235)

From his time as a travelling Tertiary onwards, when he wrote his early songs and ballads, until his death, Jacopone wrote songs, poems and satirical verse in Umbrian. In particularly, the Laude (Praises) deserve to be better known. They resonate well with our modern sensibility being both direct and yet clear in describing complexities of the spiritual journey. show less

Summary: Prayers compiled in two books by Evelyn Underhill for retreats she conducted, edited into a compact edition.

Evelyn Underhill was an Anglo-Catholic who wrote extensively on mysticism and the spiritual life. Her favorite retreat site was Pleshey and in the 1920’s and 1930’s she conducted a number of retreats there. As part of her preparation, from the years of 1924 to 1938, she compiled two handwritten books of prayers for her use as she led prayers.

These books disappeared after show more her death. Then Underhill scholar Robyn Wrigley-Carr came across a leather bound volume of handwritten prayers during a visit at Pleshey in 2016. What she had discovered was the second of the two books, consisting of prayers compiled between 1929 and 1938. Returning to check her copy against the original, she discovered that the first volume had been found, with prayers from 1924-1928. This led to her creating a single volume edition, preserving the numbering and index system created by Underhill.

Underhill draws many of the prayers from spiritual writers from the third to twentieth century. In the introduction, Wrigley-Carr notes the influence of Friedrich von Hugel on Underhill, particularly in the writers he recommended. As a result, her prayers draw on these writers.. Wrigley-Carr includes a list by century in the introduction and offers brief author biographies in the back by order of their appearance. Examples of writer range from Augustine to AEthelwold of Winchester, John Donne, John Henry Newman, and Christina Rosetti.

In addition, Underhill wrote many of the prayers herself, especially in the second part of the work, beginning with prayer number 68. Names of authors appear after their prayers. However prayers without attribution are Underhill’s. She also draws from various church liturgies including the Book of Common Prayer.

The prayers cover a wide range of subjects, from praise of God to consecration of oneself to intercession for others, including the ill, the dying, and our communion with the saints in glory. An index combining the two volumes, following Underhill’s indexing, appears in the after matter.

The work serves as a wonderful introduction to the prayers of great spiritual writers through the ages. It was a delight to encounter the prayers of Launcelot Andrews. For example, this Benediction:

The power of the Father guide and guard us.
The wisdom of the Son, enlighten us.
The working of the Spirit, quicken us.
Guard our souls. Strengthen our bodies.
Our senses, refine; our conduct correct; our characters, set in tune.

Bless our actions; perfect our prayers; breath into us holy thoughts.
Our sins that are past, forgive, our present sins, amend, and future sins, prevent.
Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, far beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us: to him be glory in the Church in Christ unto all generations.

Likewise, I found Underhill’s prayers equally rich. For instance consider this prayer of consecration (#131):

O blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who bid your disciples stand with their loins gird and their lamps burning, be with us at this hour. Here we dedicate ourselves to you anew. Help us to run the race that is set before us with redoubled vigour and fresh vision. Teach us how to trim our lamps that they may not burn dim. Guide us to the constant recollection that the candle of the Lord is the Spirit of humanity. And by Your risen power, make us a power for you in this place, for Your own name’s sake.

This is a treasure rediscovered. Certainly, this is a wonderful resource for our personal life of prayer. We often grope for words to express our heart’s longings. Likewise, this book, so compact, makes a wonderful resource to take on retreat. Finally, retreat leaders will find this a rich resource of prayers for retreatants as will those who plan worship services. show less

Evelyn Uuderhill wrote that " mysticism was the art of union with reality....a science of love..a condition of being, not of seeing" This was a very rich dense little book, I will need to read it again. Many people have abandoned Christianity for Eastern religions because they did not find a deep spirituality there, the deep life Underhill describes offers everything to be found in all belief systems and transcends them all.

A very good introduction to the numerous writings of this 20th century English mystic. Selected from a variety of her best works and prodcasts (early radio), these brief daily readings give one much food for thought during the Lenten season.