Berkley Center

The Misericordia di Firenze, Italy’s first volunteer ambulance service, is said to have begun in the thirteenth century. As the story goes, groups of porters who delivered goods for Florentine merchants began answering calls to transport the sick and injured in wicker stretchers for free, between jobs. It was a time of religious awakening in Italy; before long, associations of volunteer rescuers began to appear in other regions, and an extensive network of Misericordia was born.

Thanks to partial government funding and generous bequests of money and property by grateful Florentines, the Misericordia di Firenze continues to operate its aid services out of a spacious office in Piazza San Giovanni. It is impossible to place a value on its contributions to the city; during World War II, after Nazi planes leveled historic medieval buildings on either side of the Ponte Vecchio, the Misericordia rushed ambulances to the bombsites and set up first aid posts throughout the city. In 1966, when a great flood had Florence at a standstill, the Misericordia opened its clinic and was offering typhoid and tetanus vaccinations within 48 hours.

The association is rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition. The ancient, yellowed pages of its original constitution are dedicated to the martyr St. Peter da Verona. Inside the doors of the main offices in Piazza San Giovanni, Misericordia volunteers can sit in an exquisite chapel and reflect beneath a giant painting of St. Sebastian. The patron saint of the Misericordia also appears in the title of the organization’s official newsletter, approved and blessed in 1949 by the archbishop of Florence.

Because of its conservative views on social issues, Roman Catholicism has fallen out of favor with many Florentines. And yet, in a city that is moving toward more modern laws to fit its diverse population, the spirit of the gospel lives on in the Misericordia and its volunteers.

Just ask one of the 539 needy families who, thanks to a food drive organized every year by the Misericordia, will share a hot meal this Christmas. This week was the Mercatino Sacravita, at which hundreds of donated gifts were sold at yard sale prices. Part of the proceeds will go toward the purchase of a generator for the Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Congo. Like all Misericordia projects, the market was organized and run by volunteers of all ages.

Karina, a 30-year-old engineer, is training to be a chef and spends 12 hours every week in a Misericordia ambulance. On Thursday, when she could have been working or studying, she was helping sort boxes of donated ceramics, books, and jewelry at the Mercatino. “When I saw my older sister wearing this jacket,” she told me, pointing to the Misericordia insignia on her chest, “I wanted to be a part of this too.”

In many families, joining the Misericordia is a rite of passage. Minutes after speaking with Karina, I met Marco; born into a tradition of Misericordia service, Marco never thought twice about following in the footsteps of his father, uncles, and cousins. Forty years later, and over a decade after retiring from his job as a regulatory affairs manager, Marco proudly shows up for five-hour shifts every week.

While the Misericordia does have an affiliation with the Catholic Church, it is a fundamentally secular institution. Dr. George Benaim is Jewish and joins a long tradition of volunteers from a variety of religious backgrounds. Working up to 45 hours per week in four hospitals in the province of Siena, Italy, Dr. Benaim rarely makes it back to his home near Florence to sleep. Nevertheless, on the days when he does have some time free, Dr. Benaim volunteers for a branch of the Misericordia di Firenze.

Some follow in the footsteps of family members and are drawn toward the Misericordia by a sense of duty. Thankfully, volunteers no longer answer calls with a wicker basket in hand; they have upgraded to ambulances equipped with state-of-the-art medical gear. After seven and a half centuries of uninterrupted operation, the Misericordia continues to train modern-day Good Samaritans to serve the sick and injured. Whether or not they subscribe to the religion of its founders, Florentines are proud to call this incredible tradition of service their own.