Matteo Antonio Di Iorio

This project investigates the emergence and consolidation of rigorist Franciscan reform within the Custody of the Holy Land between 1376 and 1443, a period characterised by profound institutional instability within the Order of Friars Minor. It examines how reformist currents, seeking a return to the original forma vitae, found particularly receptive ground in the Custody and reshaped its spiritual, institutional, and political configuration.
The study reconstructs the identity, practices, and networks of the friars operating in partibus, highlighting the decisive influence of Western patrons, papal intermediaries, and the evolving relationships between the Custody, the Apostolic See, and Islamic authorities.
The project aims to offer a refined reconstruction of the strategies, privileges, and legal mechanisms that underpinned the reforming tendencies and ultimately to the rise of the Observant movement in the Holy Land. By reassessing the political and religious dynamics at the frontier of Latin Christendom, the study demonstrates how the Custody became a strategic laboratory for religious reform and a crucial node in redefining power relations between ecclesiastical and secular actors in the late-medieval Mediterranean.