Joachim of Fiore, the Christian mystical philosopher of history, lived in Calabria, Italy, a region characterized by the remote hermit life, yet close to Sicily, the hub of the Mediterranean. This combination of withdrawal from and encounter with the world also characterized Joachim's life. Becoming a Cistercian, by 1177 he was abbot of Curazzo, but he obtained papal permission to retire from monastic administration to a more remote mountainous region, where he founded the order of San Giovanni in Fiore about 1192. Yet he descended to dramatic encounters—in which he prophesied on contemporary events and the advent of Antichrist—with Pope Lucius III (1184), King Richard I of England (1190–1191), and the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI (1191), and he meditated deeply on contemporary history, especially the two great menaces to Christianity: the infidel and the heretic.

Joachim recorded two mystical experiences: one at...