From a text message to a family friend (slightly edited, links added)
Of interest about Carol (1929 - 2023). She was a huge St. Francis fan. And she knew things about his biography that most people don’t.
For example, part of his inner circle was this woman named Jacopa. She was from a wealthy family based in Rome. The Frangipanis. They had a castle inside the Roman Colosseum!
Anyway, she wrote a whole novel about Jacopa and Saint Francis called The Lions and the Lamb. It never got published but not because her agents thought it was bad. It was just too long and they were worried it would not be suitable for mass publication given she was a first timer. They don’t like to go with multipart books with a new author. Or something like that. It was a long time ago.
Later, she managed to parlay her research for the novel into a masters degree from a Jesuit college in the Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University. That was pretty exotic and is shown in the picture.
