concord
which has bound together this whispering universe: for there beneath the
Cross of Jesus are none but saints, Madonna and the two SS. Maries, St.
John the Baptist and St. John the Divine, and beside them kneel the
founders of the Religious Orders St. Dominic, the founder of the
preaching friars, St. Jerome the father of monasticism, St. Francis the
little poor man, St. Bernard who spoke with Madonna, S. Giovanni
Gualberto the founder of Vallombrosa, St. Peter Martyr who was wounded
for Christ's sake. Above him stands St. Thomas Aquinas the angelic
doctor, St. Romuald the founder of Camaldoli St. Benedict who overthrew
the temples, St. Augustine who has spoken of the City of God, S. Alberto
di Vercelli the founder of the Carmelites. And on the other side, beside
St. John Baptist, St. Mark the patron of the convent kneels with his
open Gospel, St. Laurence stands with his gridiron, and behind him come
the two other Medici saints, S. Cosmo and S. Damiano.

Pass into the dormitories, and in every cell you enter Jesus is there
before you; on the threshold the angel announces His advent, and little
by little, scene by scene, you are involved in the beauty and the
tragedy of His life. You see Him transfigured (No. 6), you see Him
buffeted (No. 7), you see Him rise from the tomb (No. 8), and you see
Him in glory crowning Madonna (No. 9), or as a youth presented in the
Temple (No. 11). Many times you come upon Him crucified (15-23), once
John baptizes Him in Jordan (24), or Madonna and St. John the Divine
weep over Him dead (26). Here He bears His Cross (28), there descends
into Hades (31), preaches to the people (32), is betrayed by Judas (33),
agonises in the Garden (34), gives us His Body to eat, His Blood to
drink (35), is nailed to the Cross (36); crucified (37), and again
adored as a Child by the Magi (38), speaks with Mary in the garden (1),
is buried (2); the angel announces His birth (3), He is crucified (4),
and born in Bethlehem (5). It is the rosary of Jesus that we tell,
consisting of the glorious and sorrowful mysteries of His life and
death. It is the spirit of Christianity that we see here, blossoming
everywhere, haphazard like the wild flowers that are the armies of
spring. As Benozzo Gozzoli has expressed with an immense good fortune,
the very spirit of the Renaissance at its birth almost, the spirit and
the joy of youth, so Angelico with as simple an eagerness and a more
sure sincerity has expressed her