by Luisa MURARO
Romana was a passionate and very generous scholar, as all those who approached her recognize. Speaking with her I realized almost immediately that she was the depositary of the richness of the mystical feminine theology which I had just glimpsed. That is the richness of an admirable season of European civilization, between the Low Middle Ages and the dawn of modernity. Romana had accumulated them over the years, assimilated with intimate participation and now placed them at my disposal.
Ours have been a long relation, marked by regular stays in her house, by long conversations and by some extra moenia excursions. Everything was beautiful, nothing was easy, just as it should have be.
At first Romana told me of her friendship with Don Giuseppe De Luca, of her conversion to the Catholic Church and of their intense collaboration in the publishing house that they had founded together, until his death, arrived too early. I learned to know her. She did not appraise from conventional courtesy or from other exteriorities, but from the interiority. She did so, however, remaining connected to her counter part, as proof of a strength and a calm that nourished each other. Romana had a special gift, she loved souls. Out of the subjects of study, if she was not solicited, she did not speak about religion but always had a wide window open to the sky. At the centre of her conversion and her faith, Romana put the friendship and love of Jesus, just as she called it. When questioned by me, she said that they were superior to the friendship and love that bound her to Don Giuseppe De Luca, the man who made her meet with her Jesus. Without any doubt she had proved her superior fidelity to this supernatural love, in the friendship itself that bound her to the man without ever becoming an attachment nor, much less, an addiction. Yes, she was a free woman and so she was thanks to God. She was a Beguine.
To read the full Italian text sent to us by Luisa Muraro click the following link: Romana Guarnieri testo completo.