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488 Antonio Mursia

convents on the island . Authorization that was confirmed on May 7 of
24
the same year with a special privilege, by which the friar was allowed to
be able to preach anywhere, even without the prior consent of local
bishops and parish priests . Evidently, however, the obstacles encoun-
25
tered by the friar along his journey must have been many, so much so
that he implored the intervention of the Count of Urbino Guidantonio
da Montefeltro. The pope’s nephew thus wrote, on May 18, 1425, to the
papal curia to request a new privilege that would allow, this time, how-
ever, Bernardine of Siena and John da Capestrano as well, to be able to
preach everywhere and absolve anyone from sins .
26
Finally, in mid-1425, having almost certainly obtained the consent
of Alfonso V the Magnanimous, Matthew decided to head to Sicily.
During his journey, the friar from Agrigento did not miss the oppor-
tunity to preach in many cities in Campania and Calabria. In this way,
in Salerno he was able to reconcile the opposing factions, while in Co-
senza he managed to obtain for his brethren a monastery that had
previously belonged to the Poor Clares .
27

3. The return to Sicily

In December 1425, Matthew arrived in Sicily, landing in Messina.
It was a return for him to the island, which he had left several years
earlier. Unknown remain the reasons why the Agrigentine had moved
away from his hometown, just as unknown remain both the evolution
of his path within the Order of Friars Minor and the regions where he
stayed until the first decade of the 15th century. One can only try to
speculate that, after having donned the habit of the saint of Assisi in
Sicily, Matthew had later moved to Aragon, in whose region he ap-
proached the Franciscan observance movement. From there, he had
to head to northern Italy, where he came into contact with Bernardine
of Siena. Several doubts persist, however, about his journey to Aragon.
Nevertheless, it is nevertheless true that no documentary source at-
tests to the presence of observant communities on the island in the
years when Matthew joined the ranks of the Franciscan Order: this
has led Filippo Rotolo, therefore, to believe that the friar approached

24 Bullarium Franciscanum, Nova Series, 7, Ad Claras Aquas, Quaracchi 1929,
p. 623.
25 J. M. Pou y Martì, Commentatio S. Bernardini Senensis et Joannis de Capis-
trano ac B. Matthaei ab Agrigento, «Archivum franciscanum historicum» 35 (1932),
pp. 555-559.
26 There, p. 557.
27 Regarding obtaining the convent in Cosenza, cf. Bullarium Franciscanum cit.,
7, p. 714.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XX - Dicembre 2023
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)