Joachim of Fiore

Joachim of Fiore (c.1135–1202), biblical exegete and mystic. A monk of the monastery of Corazzo, he was elected abbot in 1177. He relinquished this office to lead a more contemplative life, in 1196 finally receiving Papal permission to establish his own congregation in the Sila mountains.

The central doctrine of his main works is a Trinitarian conception of the whole of history, viewed in three periods. The first, characterized by the ‘Ordo conjugatorum’, was the age of the Father in which mankind lived under the Law until the end of the OT dispensation; the second, characterized by the ‘Ordo clericorum’, is that of the Son which is lived under grace and covers the NT dispensation; the third, that of the ‘Ordo monachorum’ or ‘contemplantium’, is the age of the Spirit which will be lived in the liberty of the ‘Spiritualis Intellectus’ proceeding from the OT and NT. This last age would see the rise of new religious orders to convert the whole world and usher in the ‘Ecclesia Spiritualis’. After his death, Joachim's ideas were carried to revolutionary conclusions, notably by certain Franciscans and Fraticelli.