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Who was Saint Francis?
from the Catholic
Encyclopedia
Founder of the Franciscan Order, born
at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 --
the exact year is uncertain; died there,
3 October, 1226.
His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy
Assisian cloth merchant. Of his mother,
Pica, little is known, but she is said
to have belonged to a noble family of
Provence. Francis was one of several children.
The legend that he was born in a stable
dates from the fifteenth century only,
and appears to have originated in the
desire of certain writers to make his
life resemble that of Christ. At baptism
the saint received the name of Giovanni,
which his father afterwards altered to
Francesco, through fondness it would seem
for France, whither business had led him
at the time of his son's birth. In any
case, since the child was renamed in infancy,
the change can hardly have had anything
to do with his aptitude for learning French,
as some have thought.
Francis received some elementary instruction
from the priests of St. George's at Assisi,
though he learned more perhaps in the
school of the Troubadours, who were just
then making for refinement in Italy. However
this may be, he was not very studious,
and his literary education remained incomplete.
Although associated with his father in
trade, he showed little liking for a merchant's
career, and his parents seemed to have
indulged his every whim.
Francis's Youth
Thomas of Celano, his first biographer,
speaks in very severe terms of Francis's
youth. Certain it is that the saint's
early life gave no presage of the golden
years that were to come. No one loved
pleasure more than Francis; he had a ready
wit, sang merrily, delighted in fine clothes
and showy display. Handsome, gay, gallant,
and courteous, he soon became the prime
favourite among the young nobles of Assisi,
the foremost in every feat of arms, the
leader of the civil revels, the very king
of frolic. But even at this time Francis
showed an instinctive sympathy with the
poor, and though he spent money lavishly,
it still flowed in such channels as to
attest a princely magnanimity of spirit.
When about twenty, Francis went out with
the townsmen to fight the Perugians in
one of the petty skirmishes so frequent
at that time between the rival cities.
Military Career
The Assisians were defeated on this occasion,
and Francis, being among those taken prisoners,
was held captive for more than a year
in Perugia. A low fever which he there
contracted appears to have turned his
thoughts to the things of eternity; at
least the emptiness of the life he had
been leading came to him during that long
illness. With returning health, however,
Francis's eagerness after glory reawakened
and his fancy wandered in search of victories;
at length he resolved to embrace a military
career, and circumstances seemed to favour
his aspirations. A knight of Assisi was
about to join "the gentle count", Walter
of Brienne, who was then in arms in the
Neapolitan States against the emperor,
and Francis arranged to accompany him.
Dreams
His biographers tell us that the night
before Francis set forth he had a strange
dream, in which he saw a vast hall hung
with armour all marked with the Cross.
"These", said a voice, "are for you and
your soldiers." "I know I shall be a great
prince", exclaimed Francis exultingly,
as he started for Apulia. But a second
illness arrested his course at Spoleto.
There, we are told, Francis had another
dream in which the same voice bade him
turn back to Assisi. He did so at once.
This was in 1205. Although Francis still
joined at times in the noisy revels of
his former comrades, his changed demeanour
plainly showed that his heart was no longer
with them; a yearning for the life of
the spirit had already possessed it. His
companions twitted Francis on his absent-mindedness
and asked if he were minded to be married.
"Yes", he replied, "I am about to take
a wife of surpassing fairness." She was
no other than Lady Poverty whom Dante
and Giotto have wedded to his name, and
whom even now he had begun to love. After
a short period of uncertainty he began
to seek in prayer and solitude the answer
to his call; he had already given up his
gay attire and wasteful ways.
Laper
One day, while crossing the Umbrian plain
on horseback, Francis unexpectedly drew
near a poor leper. The sudden appearance
of this repulsive object filled him with
disgust and he instinctively retreated,
but presently controlling his natural
aversion he dismounted, embraced the unfortunate
man, and gave him all the money he had.
About the same time Francis made a pilgrimage
to Rome. Pained at the miserly offerings
he saw at the tomb of St. Peter, he emptied
his purse thereon. Then, as if to put
his fastidious nature to the test, he
exchanged clothes with a tattered mendicant
and stood for the rest of the day fasting
among the horde of beggars at the door
of the basilica.
The restoration
of St. Damian's
Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst
Francis was praying before an ancient
crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel
of St. Damian's below the town, he heard
a voice saying: "Go, Francis, and repair
my house, which as you see is falling
into ruin." Taking this behest literally,
as referring to the ruinous church wherein
he knelt, Francis went to his father's
shop, impulsively bundled together a load
of coloured drapery, and mounting his
horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart
of some importance, and there sold both
horse and stuff to procure the money needful
for the restoration of St. Damian's. When,
however, the poor priest who officiated
there refused to receive the gold thus
gotten, Francis flung it from him disdainfully.
The elder Bernardone, a most niggardly
man, was incensed beyond measure at his
son's conduct, and Francis, to avert his
father's wrath, hid himself in a cave
near St. Damian's for a whole month. When
he emerged from this place of concealment
and returned to the town, emaciated with
hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis
was followed by a hooting rabble, pelted
with mud and stones, and otherwise mocked
as a madman. Finally, he was dragged home
by his father, beaten, bound, and locked
in a dark closet. Freed by his mother
during Bernardone's absence, Francis returned
at once to St. Damian's, where he found
a shelter with the officiating priest,
but he was soon cited before the city
consuls by his father. The latter, not
content with having recovered the scattered
gold from St. Damian's, sought also to
force his son to forego his inheritance.
This Francis was only too eager to do;
he declared, however, that since he had
entered the service of God he was no longer
under civil jurisdiction.
The Herald
Having therefore been taken before the
bishop, Francis stripped himself of the
very clothes he wore, and gave them to
his father, saying: "Hitherto I have called
you my father on earth; henceforth I desire
to say only 'Our Father who art in Heaven.'"
Then and there, as Dante sings, were solemnized
Francis's nuptials with his beloved spouse,
the Lady Poverty, under which name, in
the mystical language afterwards so familiar
to him, he comprehended the total surrender
of all worldly goods, honours, and privileges.
And now Francis wandered forth into the
hills behind Assisi, improvising hymns
of praise as he went. "I am the herald
of the great King", he declared in answer
to some robbers, who thereupon despoiled
him of all he had and threw him scornfully
in a snow drift. Naked and half frozen,
Francis crawled to a neighbouring monastery
and there worked for a time as a scullion.
At Gubbio, whither he went next, Francis
obtained from a friend the cloak, girdle,
and staff of a pilgrim as an alms. Returning
to Assisi, he traversed the city begging
stones for the restoration of St. Damian's.
These he carried to the old chapel, set
in place himself, and so at length rebuilt
it.
Works of Charity
In the same way Francis afterwards restored
two other deserted chapels, St. Peter's,
some distance from the city, and St. Mary
of the Angels, in the plain below it,
at a spot called the Porziuncola. Meantime
he redoubled his zeal in works of charity,
more especially in nursing the lepers.
On a certain morning in 1208, probably
24 February, Francis was hearing Mass
in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels,
near which he had then built himself a
hut; the Gospel of the day told how the
disciples of Christ were to possess neither
gold nor silver, nor scrip for their journey,
nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff,
and that they were to exhort sinners to
repentance and announce the Kingdom of
God. Francis took these words as if spoken
directly to himself, and so soon as Mass
was over threw away the poor fragment
left him of the world's goods, his shoes,
cloak, pilgrim staff, and empty wallet.
At last he had found his vocation. Having
obtained a coarse woolen tunic of "beast
colour", the dress then worn by the poorest
Umbrian peasants, and tied it round him
with a knotted rope, Francis went forth
at once exhorting the people of the country-side
to penance, brotherly love, and peace.
Followers
The Assisians had already ceased to scoff
at Francis; they now paused in wonderment;
his example even drew others to him. Bernard
of Quintavalle, a magnate of the town,
was the first to join Francis, and he
was soon followed by Peter of Cattaneo,
a well-known canon of the cathedral. In
true spirit of religious enthusiasm, Francis
repaired to the church of St. Nicholas
and sought to learn God's will in their
regard by thrice opening at random the
book of the Gospels on the altar. Each
time it opened at passages where Christ
told His disciples to leave all things
and follow Him. "This shall be our rule
of life", exclaimed Francis, and led his
companions to the public square, where
they forthwith gave away all their belongings
to the poor. After this they procured
rough habits like that of Francis, and
built themselves small huts near his at
the Porziuncola. A few days later Giles,
afterwards the great ecstatic and sayer
of "good words", became the third follower
of Francis. The little band divided and
went about, two and two, making such an
impression by their words and behaviour
that before long several other disciples
grouped themselves round Francis eager
to share his poverty, among them being
Sabatinus, vir bonus et justus, Moricus,
who had belonged to the Crucigeri, John
of Capella, who afterwards fell away,
Philip "the Long", and four others of
whom we know only the names.
The Rule
When the number of his companions had
increased to eleven, Francis found it
expedient to draw up a written rule for
them. This first rule, as it is called,
of the Friars Minor has not come down
to us in its original form, but it appears
to have been very short and simple, a
mere adaptation of the Gospel precepts
already selected by Francis for the guidance
of his first companions, and which he
desired to practice in all their perfection.
When this rule was ready the Penitents
of Assisi, as Francis and his followers
styled themselves, set out for Rome to
seek the approval of the Holy See, although
as yet no such approbation was obligatory.
There are differing accounts of Francis's
reception by Innocent III. It seems, however,
that Guido, Bishop of Assisi, who was
then in Rome, commended Francis to Cardinal
John of St. Paul, and that at the instance
of the latter, the pope recalled the saint
whose first overtures he had, as it appears,
somewhat rudely rejected. Moreover, in
site of the sinister predictions of others
in the Sacred College, who regarded the
mode of life proposed by Francis as unsafe
and impracticable, Innocent, moved it
is said by a dream in which he beheld
the Poor Man of Assisi upholding the tottering
Lateran, gave a verbal sanction to the
rule submitted by Francis and granted
the saint and his companions leave to
preach repentance everywhere. Before leaving
Rome they all received the ecclesiastical
tonsure, Francis himself being ordained
deacon later on. After their return to
Assisi, the Friars Minor -- for thus Francis
had named his brethren, either after the
minores, or lower classes, as some think,
or as others believe, with reference to
the Gospel (Matthew 25:40-45), and as
a perpetual reminder of their humility
-- found shelter in a deserted hut at
Rivo Torto in the plain below the city,
but were forced to abandon this poor abode
by a rough peasant who drove in his ass
upon them.
The Firts Francisian
Convent
About 1211 they obtained a permanent foothold
near Assisi, through the generosity of
the Benedictines of Monte Subasio, who
gave them the little chapel of St. Mary
of the Angels or the Porziuncola. Adjoining
this humble sanctuary, already dear to
Francis, the first Franciscan convent
was formed by the erection of a few small
huts or cells of wattle, straw, and mud,
and enclosed by a hedge. From this settlement,
which became the cradle of the Franciscan
Order (Caput et Mater Ordinis) and the
central spot in the life of St. Francis,
the Friars Minor went forth two by two
exhorting the people of the surrounding
country. Like children "careless of the
day", they wandered from place to place
singing in their joy, and calling themselves
the Lord's minstrels. The wide world was
their cloister; sleeping in haylofts,
grottos, or church porches, they toiled
with the labourers in the fields, and
when none gave them work they would beg.
In a short while Francis and his companions
gained an immense influence, and men of
different grades of life and ways of thought
flocked to the order. Among the new recruits
made about this time By Francis were the
famous Three Companions, who afterwards
wrote his life, namely: Angelus Tancredi,
a noble cavalier; Leo, the saint's secretary
and confessor; and Rufinus, a cousin of
St. Clare; besides Juniper, "the renowned
jester of the Lord".
Sisters
During the Lent of 1212, a new joy, great
as it was unexpected, came to Francis.
Clare, a young heiress of Assisi, moved
by the saint's preaching at the church
of St. George, sought him out, and begged
to be allowed to embrace the new manner
of life he had founded. By his advice,
Clare, who was then but eighteen, secretly
left her father's house on the night following
Palm Sunday, and with two companions went
to the Porziuncola, where the friars met
her in procession, carrying lighted torches.
Then Francis, having cut off her hair,
clothed her in the Minorite habit and
thus received her to a life of poverty,
penance, and seclusion. Clare stayed provisionally
with some Benedictine nuns near Assisi,
until Francis could provide a suitable
retreat for her, and for St. Agnes, her
sister, and the other pious maidens who
had joined her. He eventually established
them at St. Damian's, in a dwelling adjoining
the chapel he had rebuilt with his own
hands, which was now given to the saint
by the Benedictines as domicile for his
spiritual daughters, and which thus became
the first monastery of the Second Franciscan
Order of Poor Ladies, now known as Poor
Clares.
Desire for the
Conversion
In the autumn of the same year (1212)
Francis's burning desire for the conversion
of the Saracens led him to embark for
Syria, but having been shipwrecked on
the coast of Slavonia, he had to return
to Ancona. The following spring he devoted
himself to evangelizing Central Italy.
About this time (1213) Francis received
from Count Orlando of Chiusi the mountain
of La Verna, an isolated peak among the
Tuscan Apennines, rising some 4000 feet
above the valley of the Casentino, as
a retreat, "especially favourable for
contemplation", to which he might retire
from time to time for prayer and rest.
For Francis never altogether separated
the contemplative from the active life,
as the several hermitages associated with
his memory, and the quaint regulations
he wrote for those living in them bear
witness. At one time, indeed, a strong
desire to give himself wholly to a life
of contemplation seems to have possessed
the saint. During the next year (1214)
Francis set out for Morocco, in another
attempt to reach the infidels and, if
needs be, to shed his blood for the Gospel,
but while yet in Spain was overtaken by
so severe an illness that he was compelled
to turn back to Italy once more. Authentic
details are unfortunately lacking of Francis's
journey to Spain and sojourn there. It
probably took place in the winter of 1214-1215.
After his return to Umbria he received
several noble and learned men into his
order, including his future biographer
Thomas of Celano.
Salvation of
Souls
The next eighteen months comprise, perhaps,
the most obscure period of the saint's
life. That he took part in the Lateran
Council of 1215 may well be, but it is
not certain; we know from Eccleston, however,
that Francis was present at the death
of Innocent III, which took place at Perugia,
in July 1216. Shortly afterwards, i.e.
very early in the pontificate of Honorius
III, is placed the concession of the famous
Porziuncola Indulgence. It is related
that once, while Francis was praying at
the Porziuncola, Christ appeared to him
and offered him whatever favour he might
desire. The salvation of souls was ever
the burden of Francis's prayers, and wishing
moreover, to make his beloved Porziuncola
a sanctuary where many might be saved,
he begged a plenary Indulgence for all
who, having confessed their sins, should
visit the little chapel. Our Lord acceded
to this request on condition that the
pope should ratify the Indulgence. Francis
thereupon set out for Perugia, with Brother
Masseo, to find Honorius III. The latter,
notwithstanding some opposition from the
Curia at such an unheard-of favour, granted
the Indulgence, restricting it, however,
to one day yearly. He subsequently fixed
2 August in perpetuity, as the day for
gaining this Porziuncola Indulgence, commonly
known in Italy as il perdono d'Assisi.
Such is the traditional account. The fact
that there is no record of this Indulgence
in either the papal or diocesan archives
and no allusion to it in the earliest
biographies of Francis or other contemporary
documents has led some writers to reject
the whole story. This argumentum ex silentio
has, however, been met by M. Paul Sabatier,
who in his critical edition of the "Tractatus
de Indulgentia" of Fra Bartholi has adduced
all the really credible evidence in its
favour. But even those who regard the
granting of this Indulgence as traditionally
believed to be an established fact of
history, admit that its early history
is uncertain. (See PORTIUNCULA.)
Franciscans Missions
The first general chapter of the Friars
Minor was held in May, 1217, at Porziuncola,
the order being divided into provinces,
and an apportionment made of the Christian
world into so many Franciscan missions.
Tuscany, Lombardy, Provence, Spain, and
Germany were assigned to five of Francis's
principal followers; for himself the saint
reserved France, and he actually set out
for that kingdom, but on arriving at Florence,
was dissuaded from going further by Cardinal
Ugolino, who had been made protector of
the order in 1216. He therefore sent in
his stead Brother Pacificus, who in the
world had been renowned as a poet, together
with Brother Agnellus, who later on established
the Friars Minor in England.
Success
Although success came indeed to Francis
and his friars, with it came also opposition,
and it was with a view to allaying any
prejudices the Curia might have imbibed
against their methods that Francis, at
the instance of Cardinal Ugolino, went
to Rome and preached before the pope and
cardinals in the Lateran. This visit to
the Eternal City, which took place 1217-18,
was apparently the occasion of Francis's
memorable meeting with St. Dominic. The
year 1218 Francis devoted to missionary
tours in Italy, which were a continual
triumph for him. He usually preached out
of doors, in the market-places, from church
steps, from the walls of castle court-yards.
Allured by the magic spell of his presence,
admiring crowds, unused for the rest to
anything like popular preaching in the
vernacular, followed Francis from place
to place hanging on his lips; church bells
rang at his approach; processions of clergy
and people advanced to meet him with music
and singing; they brought the sick to
him to bless and heal, and kissed the
very ground on which he trod, and even
sought to cut away pieces of his tunic.
The extraordinary enthusiasm with which
the saint was everywhere welcomed was
equalled only by the immediate and visible
result of his preaching. His exhortations
of the people, for sermons they can hardly
be called, short, homely, affectionate,
and pathetic, touched even the hardest
and most frivolous, and Francis became
in sooth a very conqueror of souls. Thus
it happened, on one occasion, while the
saint was preaching at Camara, a small
village near Assisi, that the whole congregation
were so moved by his "words of spirit
and life" that they presented themselves
to him in a body and begged to be admitted
into his order.
Third Order
It was to accede, so far as might be,
to like requests that Francis devised
his Third Order, as it is now called,
of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance,
which he intended as a sort of middle
state between the world and the cloister
for those who could not leave their home
or desert their wonted avocations in order
to enter either the First Order of Friars
Minor or the Second Order of Poor Ladies.
That Francis prescribed particular duties
for these tertiaries is beyond question.
They were not to carry arms, or take oaths,
or engage in lawsuits, etc. It is also
said that he drew up a formal rule for
them, but it is clear that the rule, confirmed
by Nicholas IV in 1289, does not, at least
in the form in which it has come down
to us, represent the original rule of
the Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In
any event, it is customary to assign 1221
as the year of the foundation of this
third order, but the date is not certain.
At the second general chapter (May, 1219)
Francis, bent on realizing his project
of evangelizing the infidels, assigned
a separate mission to each of his foremost
disciples, himself selecting the seat
of war between the crusaders and the Saracens.
With eleven companions, including Brother
Illuminato and Peter of Cattaneo, Francis
set sail from Ancona on 21 June, for Saint-Jean
d'Acre, and he was present at the siege
and taking of Damietta. After preaching
there to the assembled Christian forces,
Francis fearlessly passed over to the
infidel camp, where he was taken prisoner
and led before the sultan. According to
the testimony of Jacques de Vitry, who
was with the crusaders at Damietta, the
sultan received Francis with courtesy,
but beyond obtaining a promise from this
ruler of more indulgent treatment for
the Christian captives, the saint's preaching
seems to have effected little.
Troubles
Before returning to Europe, the saint
is believed to have visited Palestine
and there obtained for the friars the
foothold they still retain as guardians
of the holy places. What is certain is
that Francis was compelled to hasten back
to Italy because of various troubles that
had arisen there during his absence. News
had reached him in the East that Matthew
of Narni and Gregory of Naples, the two
vicars-general whom he had left in charge
of the order, had summoned a chapter which,
among other innovations, sought to impose
new fasts upon the friars, more severe
than the rule required. Moreover, Cardinal
Ugolino had conferred on the Poor Ladies
a written rule which was practically that
of the Benedictine nuns, and Brother Philip,
whom Francis had charged with their interests,
had accepted it. To make matters worse,
John of Capella, one of the saint's first
companions, had assembled a large number
of lepers, both men and women, with a
view to forming them into a new religious
order, and had set out for Rome to seek
approval for the rule he had drawn up
for these unfortunates. Finally a rumour
had been spread abroad that Francis was
dead, so that when the saint returned
to Italy with brother Elias -- he appeared
to have arrived at Venice in July, 1220
-- a general feeling of unrest prevailed
among the friars. Apart from these difficulties,
the order was then passing through a period
of transition. It had become evident that
the simple, familiar, and unceremonious
ways which had marked the Franciscan movement
at its beginning were gradually disappearing,
and that the heroic poverty practiced
by Francis and his companions at the outset
became less easy as the friars with amazing
rapidity increased in number. And this
Francis could not help seeing on his return.
Cardinal Ugolino had already undertaken
the task "of reconciling inspirations
so unstudied and so free with an order
of things they had outgrown." This remarkable
man, who afterwards ascended the papal
throne as Gregory IX, was deeply attached
to Francis, whom he venerated as a saint
and also, some writers tell us, managed
as an enthusiast. That Cardinal Ugolino
had no small share in bringing Francis's
lofty ideals "within range and compass"
seems beyond dispute, and it is not difficult
to recognize his hand in the important
changes made in the organization of the
order in the so-called Chapter of Mats.
At this famous assembly, held at Porziuncola
at Whitsuntide, 1220 or 1221 (there is
seemingly much room for doubt as to the
exact date and number of the early chapters),
about 5000 friars are said to have been
present, besides some 500 applicants for
admission to the order. Huts of wattle
and mud afforded shelter for this multitude.
Francis had purposely made no provision
for them, but the charity of the neighbouring
towns supplied them with food, while knights
and nobles waited upon them gladly. It
was on this occasion that Francis, harassed
no doubt and disheartened at the tendency
betrayed by a large number of the friars
to relax the rigours of the rule, according
to the promptings of human prudence, and
feeling, perhaps unfitted for a place
which now called largely for organizing
abilities, relinquished his position as
general of the order in favour of Peter
of Cattaneo. But the latter died in less
than a year, being succeeded as vicar-general
by the unhappy Brother Elias, who continued
in that office until the death of Francis.
Missions of Example
The saint, meanwhile, during the few years
that remained in him, sought to impress
on the friars by the silent teaching of
personal example of what sort he would
fain have them to be. Already, while passing
through Bologna on his return from the
East, Francis had refused to enter the
convent there because he had heard it
called the "House of the Friars" and because
a studium had been instituted there. He
moreover bade all the friars, even those
who were ill, quit it at once, and it
was only some time after, when Cardinal
Ugolino had publicly declared the house
to be his own property, that Francis suffered
his brethren to re-enter it. Yet strong
and definite as the saint's convictions
were, and determinedly as his line was
taken, he was never a slave to a theory
in regard to the observances of poverty
or anything else; about him indeed, there
was nothing narrow or fanatical. As for
his attitude towards study, Francis desiderated
for his friars only such theological knowledge
as was conformable to the mission of the
order, which was before all else a mission
of example. Hence he regarded the accumulation
of books as being at variance with the
poverty his friars professed, and he resisted
the eager desire for mere book-learning,
so prevalent in his time, in so far as
it struck at the roots of that simplicity
which entered so largely into the essence
of his life and ideal and threatened to
stifle the spirit of prayer, which he
accounted preferable to all the rest.
In 1221, so some writers tell us, Francis
drew up a new rule for the Friars Minor.
Others regard this so-called Rule of 1221
not as a new rule, but as the first one
which Innocent had orally approved; not,
indeed, its original form, which we do
not possess, but with such additions and
modifications as it has suffered during
the course of twelve years. However this
may be, the composition called by some
the Rule of 1221 is very unlike any conventional
rule ever made.
The Second Rule
It was too lengthy and unprecise to become
a formal rule, and two years later Francis
retired to Fonte Colombo, a hermitage
near Rieti, and rewrote the rule in more
compendious form. This revised draft he
entrusted to Brother Elias, who not long
after declared he had lost it through
negligence. Francis thereupon returned
to the solitude of Fonte Colombo, and
recast the rule on the same lines as before,
its twenty-three chapters being reduced
to twelve and some of its precepts being
modified in certain details at the instance
of Cardinal Ugolino. In this form the
rule was solemnly approved by Honorius
III, 29 November, 1223 (Litt. "Solet annuere").
This Second Rule, as it is usually called
or Regula Bullata of the Friars Minor,
is the one ever since professed throughout
the First Order of St. Francis (see RULE
OF SAINT FRANCIS). It is based on the
three vows of obedience, poverty, and
chastity, special stress however being
laid on poverty, which Francis sought
to make the special characteristic of
his order, and which became the sign to
be contradicted. This vow of absolute
poverty in the first and second orders
and the reconciliation of the religious
with the secular state in the Third Order
of Penance are the chief novelties introduced
by Francis in monastic regulation. It
was during Christmastide of this year
(1223) that the saint conceived the idea
of celebrating the Nativity "in a new
manner", by reproducing in a church at
Greccio the praesepio of Bethlehem, and
he has thus come to be regarded as having
inaugurated the population devotion of
the Crib. Christmas appears indeed to
have been the favourite feast of Francis,
and he wished to persuade the emperor
to make a special law that men should
then provide well for the birds and the
beasts, as well as for the poor, so that
all might have occasion to rejoice in
the Lord.
Meaning of The
Passion
Early in August, 1224, Francis retired
with three companions to "that rugged
rock 'twixt Tiber and Arno", as Dante
called La Verna, there to keep a forty
days fast in preparation for Michaelmas.
During this retreat the sufferings of
Christ became more than ever the burden
of his meditations; into few souls, perhaps,
had the full meaning of the Passion so
deeply entered. It was on or about the
feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14
September) while praying on the mountainside,
that he beheld the marvellous vision of
the seraph, as a sequel of which there
appeared on his body the visible marks
of the five wounds of the Crucified which,
says an early writer, had long since been
impressed upon his heart. Brother Leo,
who was with St. Francis when he received
the stigmata, has left us in his note
to the saint's autograph blessing, preserved
at Assisi, a clear and simple account
of the miracle, which for the rest is
better attested than many another historical
fact. The saint's right side is described
as bearing on open wound which looked
as if made by a lance, while through his
hands and feet were black nails of flesh,
the points of which were bent backward.
After the reception of the stigmata, Francis
suffered increasing pains throughout his
frail body, already broken by continual
mortification. For, condescending as the
saint always was to the weaknesses of
others, he was ever so unsparing towards
himself that at the last he felt constrained
to ask pardon of "Brother Ass", as he
called his body, for having treated it
so harshly.
Canticle of the
Sun
Worn out, moreover, as Francis now was
by eighteen years of unremitting toil,
his strength gave way completely, and
at times his eyesight so far failed him
that he was almost wholly blind. During
an access of anguish, Francis paid a last
visit to St. Clare at St. Damian's, and
it was in a little hut of reeds, made
for him in the garden there, that the
saint composed that "Canticle of the Sun",
in which his poetic genius expands itself
so gloriously. This was in September,
1225. Not long afterwards Francis, at
the urgent instance of Brother Elias,
underwent an unsuccessful operation for
the eyes, at Rieti. He seems to have passed
the winter 1225-26 at Siena, whither he
had been taken for further medical treatment.
In April, 1226, during an interval of
improvement, Francis was moved to Cortona,
and it is believed to have been while
resting at the hermitage of the Celle
there, that the saint dictated his testament,
which he describes as a "reminder, a warning,
and an exhortation". In this touching
document Francis, writing from the fullness
of his heart, urges anew with the simple
eloquence, the few, but clearly defined,
principles that were to guide his followers,
implicit obedience to superiors as holding
the place of God, literal observance of
the rule "without gloss", especially as
regards poverty, and the duty of manual
labor, being solemnly enjoined on all
the friars.
Last Days
Meanwhile alarming dropsical symptoms
had developed, and it was in a dying condition
that Francis set out for Assisi. A roundabout
route was taken by the little caravan
that escorted him, for it was feared to
follow the direct road lest the saucy
Perugians should attempt to carry Francis
off by force so that he might die in their
city, which would thus enter into possession
of his coveted relics. It was therefore
under a strong guard that Francis, in
July, 1226, was finally borne in safety
to the bishop's palace in his native city
amid the enthusiastic rejoicings of the
entire populace. In the early autumn Francis,
feeling the hand of death upon him, was
carried to his beloved Porziuncola, that
he might breathe his last sigh where his
vocation had been revealed to him and
whence his order had struggled into sight.
On the way thither he asked to be set
down, and with painful effort he invoked
a beautiful blessing on Assisi, which,
however, his eyes could no longer discern.
The saint's last days were passed at the
Porziuncola in a tiny hut, near the chapel,
that served as an infirmary. The arrival
there about this time of the Lady Jacoba
of Settesoli, who had come with her two
sons and a great retinue to bid Francis
farewell, caused some consternation, since
women were forbidden to enter the friary.
But Francis in his tender gratitude to
this Roman noblewoman, made an exception
in her favour, and "Brother Jacoba", as
Francis had named her on account of her
fortitude, remained to the last. On the
eve of his death, the saint, in imitation
of his Divine Master, had bread brought
to him and broken. This he distributed
among those present, blessing Bernard
of Quintaville, his first companion, Elias,
his vicar, and all the others in order.
"I have done my part," he said next, "may
Christ teach you to do yours." Then wishing
to give a last token of detachment and
to show he no longer had anything in common
with the world, Francis removed his poor
habit and lay down on the bare ground,
covered with a borrowed cloth, rejoicing
that he was able to keep faith with his
Lady Poverty to the end. After a while
he asked to have read to him the Passion
according to St. John, and then in faltering
tones he himself intoned Psalm cxli. At
the concluding verse, "Bring my soul out
of prison", Francis was led away from
earth by "Sister Death", in whose praise
he had shortly before added a new strophe
to his "Canticle of the Sun". It was Saturday
evening, 3 October, 1226, Francis being
then in the forty-fifth year of his age,
and the twentieth from his perfect conversion
to Christ. The saint had, in his humility,
it is said, expressed a wish to be buried
on the Colle d'Inferno, a despised hill
without Assisi, where criminals were executed.
However this may be, his body was, on
4 October, borne in triumphant procession
to the city, a halt being made at St.
Damian's, that St. Clare and her companions
might venerate the sacred stigmata now
visible to all, and it was placed provisionally
in the church of St. George (now within
the enclosure of the monastery of St.
Clare), where the saint had learned to
read and had first preached.
Miracles
Many miracles are recorded to have taken
place at his tomb. Francis was canonized
at St. George's by Gregory IX, 16 July,
1228. On that day following the pope laid
the first stone of the great double church
of St. Francis, erected in honour of the
new saint, and thither on 25 May, 1230,
Francis's remains were secretly transferred
by Brother Elias and buried far down under
the high altar in the lower church. Here,
after lying hidden for six centuries,
like that of St. Clare's, Francis's coffin
was found, 12 December, 1818, as a result
of a toilsome search lasting fifty-two
nights. This discovery of the saint's
body is commemorated in the order by a
special office on 12 December, and that
of his translation by another on 25 May.
His feast is kept throughout the Church
on 4 October, and the impression of the
stigmata on his body is celebrated on
17 September.
Glory
It has been said with pardonable warmth
that Francis entered into glory in his
lifetime, and that he is the one saint
whom all succeeding generations have agreed
in canonizing. Certain it is that those
also who care little about the order he
founded, and who have but scant sympathy
with the Church to which he ever gave
his devout allegiance, even those who
know that Christianity to be Divine, find
themselves, instinctively as it were,
looking across the ages for guidance to
the wonderful Umbrian Poverello, and invoking
his name in grateful remembrance. This
unique position Francis doubtless owes
in no small measure to his singularly
lovable and winsome personality. Few saints
ever exhaled "the good odour of Christ"
to such a degree as he. There was about
Francis, moreover, a chivalry and a poetry
which gave to his other-worldliness a
quite romantic charm and beauty. Other
saints have seemed entirely dead to the
world around them, but Francis was ever
thoroughly in touch with the spirit of
the age. He delighted in the songs of
Provence, rejoiced in the new-born freedom
of his native city, and cherished what
Dante calls the pleasant sound of his
dear land. And this exquisite human element
in Francis's character was the key to
that far-reaching, all-embracing sympathy,
which may be almost called his characteristic
gift. In his heart, as an old chronicler
puts it, the whole world found refuge,
the poor, the sick and the fallen being
the objects of his solicitude in a more
special manner. Heedless as Francis ever
was of the world's judgments in his own
regard, it was always his constant care
to respect the opinions of all and to
wound the feelings of none. Wherefore
he admonishes the friars to use only low
and mean tables, so that "if a beggar
were to come to sit down near them he
might believe that he was but with his
equals and need not blush on account of
his poverty." One night, we are told,
the friary was aroused by the cry "I am
dying." "Who are you", exclaimed Francis
arising, "and why are dying?" "I am dying
of hunger", answered the voice of one
who had been too prone to fasting. Whereupon
Francis had a table laid out and sat down
beside the famished friar, and lest the
latter might be ashamed to eat alone,
ordered all the other brethren to join
in the repast. Francis's devotedness in
consoling the afflicted made him so condescending
that he shrank not from abiding with the
lepers in their loathly lazar-houses and
from eating with them out of the same
platter. But above all it is his dealings
with the erring that reveal the truly
Christian spirit of his charity. "Saintlier
than any of the saint", writes Celano,
"among sinners he was as one of themselves".
Writing to a certain minister in the order,
Francis says: "Should there be a brother
anywhere in the world who has sinned,
no matter how great soever his fault may
be, let him not go away after he has once
seen thy face without showing pity towards
him; and if he seek not mercy, ask him
if he does not desire it. And by this
I will know if you love God and me." Again,
to medieval notions of justice the evil-doer
was beyond the law and there was no need
to keep faith with him. But according
to Francis, not only was justice due even
to evil-doers, but justice must be preceded
by courtesy as by a herald.
The Habit of Courtesy
Courtesy, indeed, in the saint's quaint
concept, was the younger sister of charity
and one of the qualities of God Himself,
Who "of His courtesy", he declares, "gives
His sun and His rain to the just and the
unjust". This habit of courtesy Francis
ever sought to enjoin on his disciples.
"Whoever may come to us", he writes, "whether
a friend or a foe, a thief or a robber,
let him be kindly received", and the feast
which he spread for the starving brigands
in the forest at Monte Casale sufficed
to show that "as he taught so he wrought".
The very animals found in Francis a tender
friend and protector; thus we find him
pleading with the people of Gubbio to
feed the fierce wolf that had ravished
their flocks, because through hunger "Brother
Wolf" had done this wrong. And the early
legends have left us many an idyllic picture
of how beasts and birds alike susceptible
to the charm of Francis's gentle ways,
entered into loving companionship with
him; how the hunted leveret sought to
attract his notice; how the half-frozen
bees crawled towards him in the winter
to be fed; how the wild falcon fluttered
around him; how the nightingale sang with
him in sweetest content in the ilex grove
at the Carceri, and how his "little brethren
the birds" listened so devoutly to his
sermon by the roadside near Bevagna that
Francis chided himself for not having
thought of preaching to them before. Francis's
love of nature also stands out in bold
relief in the world he moved in.
Gift of Sympathy
He delighted to commune with the wild
flowers, the crystal spring, and the friendly
fire, and to greet the sun as it rose
upon the fair Umbrian vale. In this respect,
indeed, St. Francis's "gift of sympathy"
seems to have been wider even than St.
Paul's, for we find no evidence in the
great Apostle of a love for nature or
for animals. Hardly less engaging than
his boundless sense of fellow-feeling
was Francis's downright sincerity and
artless simplicity. "Dearly beloved,"
he once began a sermon following upon
a severe illness, "I have to confess to
God and you that during this Lent I have
eaten cakes made with lard." And when
the guardian insisted for the sake of
warmth upon Francis having a fox skin
sewn under his worn-out tunic, the saint
consented only upon condition that another
skin of the same size be sewn outside.
For it was his singular study never to
hide from men that which known to God.
"What a man is in the sight of God," he
was wont to repeat, "so much he is and
no more" -- a saying which passed into
the "Imitation", and has been often quoted.
Another winning trait of Francis which
inspires the deepest affection was his
unswerving directness of purpose and unfaltering
following after an ideal. "His dearest
desire so long as he lived", Celano tells
us, "was ever to seek among wise and simple,
perfect and imperfect, the means to walk
in the way of truth." To Francis love
was the truest of all truths; hence his
deep sense of personal responsibility
towards his fellows. The love of Christ
and Him Crucified permeated the whole
life and character of Francis, and he
placed the chief hope of redemption and
redress for a suffering humanity in the
literal imitation of his Divine Master.
The saint imitated the example of Christ
as literally as it was in him to do so;
barefoot, and in absolute poverty, he
proclaimed the reign of love. This heroic
imitation of Christ's poverty was perhaps
the distinctive mark of Francis's vocation,
and he was undoubtedly, as Bossuet expresses
it, the most ardent, enthusiastic, and
desperate lover of poverty the world has
yet seen. After money Francis most detested
discord and divisions. Peace, therefore,
became his watchword, and the pathetic
reconciliation he effected in his last
days between the Bishop and Potesta of
Assisi is bit one instance out of many
of his power to quell the storms of passion
and restore tranquility to hearts torn
asunder by civil strife.
The Duty of a
Servent of God
The duty of a servant of God, Francis
declared, was to lift up the hearts of
men and move them to spiritual gladness.
Hence it was not "from monastic stalls
or with the careful irresponsibility of
the enclosed student" that the saint and
his followers addressed the people; "they
dwelt among them and grappled with the
evils of the system under which the people
groaned". They worked in return for their
fare, doing for the lowest the most menial
labour, and speaking to the poorest words
of hope such as the world had not heard
for many a day. In this wise Francis bridged
the chasm between an aristocratic clergy
and the common people, and though he taught
no new doctrine, he so far repopularized
the old one given on the Mount that the
Gospel took on a new life and called forth
a new love. Such in briefest outline are
some of the salient features which render
the figure of Francis one of such supreme
attraction that all manner of men feel
themselves drawn towards him, with a sense
of personal attachment. Few, however,
of those who feel the charm of Francis's
personality may follow the saint to his
lonely height of rapt communion with God.
For, however engaging a "minstrel of the
Lord", Francis was none the less a profound
mystic in the truest sense of the word.
The whole world was to him one luminous
ladder, mounting upon the rungs of which
he approached and beheld God. It is very
misleading, however, to portray Francis
as living "at a height where dogma ceases
to exist", and still further from the
truth to represent the trend of his teaching
as one in which orthodoxy is made subservient
to "humanitarianism". A very cursory inquiry
into Francis's religious belief suffices
to show that it embraced the entire Catholic
dogma, nothing more or less. If then the
saint's sermons were on the whole moral
rather than doctrinal, it was less because
he preached to meet the wants of his day,
and those whom he addressed had not strayed
from dogmatic truth; they were still "hearers",
if not "doers", of the Word. For this
reason Francis set aside all questions
more theoretical than practical, and returned
to the Gospel. Again, to see in Francis
only the loving friend of all God's creatures,
the joyous singer of nature, is to overlook
altogether that aspect of his work which
is the explanation of all the rest --
its supernatural side. Few lives have
been more wholly imbued with the supernatural,
as even Renan admits. Nowhere, perhaps,
can there be found a keener insight into
the innermost world of spirit, yet so
closely were the supernatural and the
natural blended in Francis, that his very
asceticism was often clothed in the guide
of romance, as witness his wooing the
Lady Poverty, in a sense that almost ceased
to be figurative. For Francis's singularly
vivid imagination was impregnate with
the imagery of the chanson de geste, and
owing to his markedly dramatic tendency,
he delighted in suiting his action to
his thought. So, too, the saint's native
turn for the picturesque led him to unite
religion and nature. He found in all created
things, however trivial, some reflection
of the Divine perfection, and he loved
to admire in them the beauty, power, wisdom,
and goodness of their Creator.
Francis's Love
of Creatures
And so it came to pass that he saw sermons
even in stones, and good in everything.
Moreover, Francis's simple, childlike
nature fastened on the thought, that if
all are from one Father then all are real
kin. Hence his custom of claiming brotherhood
with all manner of animate and inanimate
objects. The personification, therefore,
of the elements in the "Canticle of the
Sun" is something more than a mere literary
figure. Francis's love of creatures was
not simply the offspring of a soft or
sentimental disposition; it arose rather
from that deep and abiding sense of the
presence of God, which underlay all he
said and did. Even so, Francis's habitual
cheerfulness was not that of a careless
nature, or of one untouched by sorrow.
None witnessed Francis's hidden struggles,
his long agonies of tears, or his secret
wrestlings in prayer. And if we meet him
making dumb-show of music, by playing
a couple of sticks like a violin to give
vent to his glee, we also find him heart-sore
with foreboding at the dire dissensions
in the order which threatened to make
shipwreck of his ideal. Nor were temptations
or other weakening maladies of the soul
wanting to the saint at any time. Francis's
lightsomeness had its source in that entire
surrender of everything present and passing,
in which he had found the interior liberty
of the children of God; it drew its strength
from his intimate union with Jesus in
the Holy Communion. The mystery of the
Holy Eucharist, being an extension of
the Passion, held a preponderant place
in the life of Francis, and he had nothing
more at heart than all that concerned
the cultus of the Blessed Sacrament. Hence
we not only hear of Francis conjuring
the clergy to show befitting respect for
everything connected with the Sacrifice
of the Mass, but we also see him sweeping
out poor churches, questing sacred vessels
for them, and providing them with altar-breads
made by himself. So great, indeed, was
Francis's reverence for the priesthood,
because of its relation to the Adorable
Sacrament, that in his humility he never
dared to aspire to that dignity.
Humility
Humility was, no doubt, the saint's ruling
virtue. The idol of an enthusiastic popular
devotion, he ever truly believed himself
less than the least. Equally admirable
was Francis's prompt and docile obedience
to the voice of grace within him, even
in the early days of his ill-defined ambition,
when the spirit of interpretation failed
him. Later on, the saint, with as clear
as a sense of his message as any prophet
ever had, yielded ungrudging submission
to what constituted ecclesiastical authority.
No reformer, moreover, was ever, less
aggressive than Francis. His apostolate
embodied the very noblest spirit of reform;
he strove to correct abuses by holding
up an ideal. He stretched out his arms
in yearning towards those who longed for
the "better gifts". The others he left
alone. And thus, without strife or schism,
God's Poor Little Man of Assisi became
the means of renewing the youth of the
Church and of imitating the most potent
and popular religious movement since the
beginnings of Christianity. No doubt this
movement had its social as well as its
religious side. That the Third Order of
St. Francis went far towards re-Christianizing
medieval society is a matter of history.
However, Francis's foremost aim was a
religious one. To rekindle the love of
God in the world and reanimate the life
of the spirit in the hearts of men --
such was his mission. But because St.
Francis sought first the Kingdom of God
and His justice, many other things were
added unto him. And his own exquisite
Franciscan spirit, as it is called, passing
out into the wide world, became an abiding
source of inspiration. Perhaps it savours
of exaggeration to say, as has been said,
that "all the threads of civilization
in the subsequent centuries seem to hark
back to Francis", and that since his day
"the character of the whole Roman Catholic
Church is visibly Umbrian". It would be
difficult, none the less, to overestimate
the effect produced by Francis upon the
mind of his time, or the quickening power
he wielded on the generations which have
succeeded him. To mention two aspects
only of his all-pervading influence, Francis
must surely be reckoned among those to
whom the world of art and letters is deeply
indebted.
Poetry
Prose, as Arnold observes, could not satisfy
the saint's ardent soul, so he made poetry.
He was, indeed, too little versed in the
laws of composition to advance far in
that direction. But his was the first
cry of a nascent poetry which found its
highest expression in the "Divine Comedy";
wherefore Francis has been styled the
precursor of Dante. What the saint did
was to teach a people "accustomed to the
artificial versification of courtly Latin
and Provencal poets, the use of their
native tongue in simple spontaneous hymns,
which became even more popular with the
Laudi and Cantici of his poet-follower
Jacopone of Todi". In so far, moreover,
as Francis's repraesentatio, as Salimbene
calls it, of the stable at Bethlehem is
the first mystery-play we hear of in Italy,
he is said to have borne a part in the
revival of the drama. However this may
be, if Francis's love of song called forth
the beginnings of Italian verse, his life
no less brought about the birth of Italian
art. His story, says Ruskin, became a
passionate tradition painted everywhere
with delight. Full of colour, dramatic
possibilities, and human interest, the
early Franciscan legend afforded the most
popular material for painters since the
life of Christ. No sooner, indeed did
Francis's figure make an appearance in
art than it became at once a favourite
subject, especially with the mystical
Umbrian School. So true is this that it
has been said we might by following his
familiar figure "construct a history of
Christian art, from the predecessors of
Cimabue down to Guido Reni, Rubens, and
Van Dyck". Probably the oldest likeness
of Francis that has come down to us is
that preserved in the Sacro Speco at Subiaco.
It is said that it was painted by a Benedictine
monk during the saint's visit there, which
may have been in 1218. The absence of
the stigmata, halo, and title of saint
in this fresco form its chief claim to
be considered a contemporary picture;
it is not, however, a real portrait in
the modern sense of the word, and we are
dependent for the traditional presentment
of Francis rather on artists' ideals,
like the Della Robbia statue at the Porziuncola,
which is surely the saint's vera effigies,
as no Byzantine so-called portrait can
ever be, and the graphic description of
Francis given by Celano (Vita Prima, c.lxxxiii).
Of less than middle height, we are told,
and frail in form, Francis had a long
yet cheerful face and soft but strong
voice, small brilliant black eyes, dark
brown hair, and a sparse beard. His person
was in no way imposing, yet there was
about the saint a delicacy, grace, and
distinction which made him most attractive.
The literary materials for the history
of St. Francis are more than usually copious
and authentic. There are indeed few if
any medieval lives more thoroughly documented.
We have in the first place the saint's
own writings. These are not voluminous
and were never written with a view to
setting forth his ideas systematically,
yet they bear the stamp of his personality
and are marked by the same unvarying features
of his preaching.
Francis's Writings
A few leading thoughts taken "from the
words of the Lord" seemed to him all sufficing,
and these he repeats again and again,
adapting them to the needs of the different
persons whom he addresses. Short, simple,
and informal, Francis's writings breathe
the unstudied love of the Gospel and enforce
the same practical morality, while they
abound in allegories and personification
and reveal an intimate interweaving of
Biblical phraseology. Not all the saint's
writings have come down to us, and not
a few of these formerly attributed to
him are now with greater likelihood ascribed
to others. The extant and authentic opuscula
of Francis comprise, besides the rule
of the Friars Minor and some fragments
of the other Seraphic legislation, several
letters, including one addressed "to all
the Christians who dwell in the whole
world," a series of spiritual counsels
addressed to his disciples, the "Laudes
Creaturarum" or "Canticle of the Sun",
and some lesser praises, an Office of
the Passion compiled for his own use,
and few other orisons which show us Francis
even as Celano saw him, "not so much a
man's praying as prayer itself". In addition
to the saint's writings the sources of
the history of Francis include a number
of early papal bulls and some other diplomatic
documents, as they are called, bearing
upon his life and work. Then come the
biographies properly so called. These
include the lives written 1229-1247 by
Thomas of Celano, one of Francis's followers;
a joint narrative of his life compiled
by Leo, Rufinus, and Angelus, intimate
companions of the saint, in 1246; and
the celebrated legend of St. Bonaventure,
which appeared about 1263; besides a somewhat
more polemic legend called the "Speculum
Perfectionis", attributed to Brother Leo,
the state of which is a matter of controversy.
There are also several important thirteenth-century
chronicles of the order, like those of
Jordan, Eccleston, and Bernard of Besse,
and not a few later works, such as the
"Chronica XXIV. Generalium" and the "Liber
de Conformitate", which are in some sort
a continuation of them. It is upon these
works that all the later biographies of
Francis's life are based. Recent years
have witnessed a truly remarkable upgrowth
of interest in the life and work of St.
Francis, more especially among non-Catholics,
and Assisi has become in consequence the
goal of a new race of pilgrims. This interest,
for the most part literary and academic,
is centered mainly in the study of the
primitive documents relating to the saint's
history and the beginnings of the Franciscan
Order.
New Era in the
study of Francois resources
Although inaugurated some years earlier,
this movement received its greatest impulse
from the publication in 1894 of Paul Sabatier's
"Vie de S. François", a work which was
almost simultaneously crowned by the French
Academy and place upon the Index. In spite
of the author's entire lack of sympathy
with the saint's religious standpoint,
his biography of Francis bespeaks vast
erudition, deep research, and rare critical
insight, and it has opened up a new era
in the study of Franciscan resources.
To further this study an International
Society of Franciscan Studies was founded
at Assisi in 1902, the aim of which is
to collect a complete library of works
on Franciscan history and to compile a
catalogue of scattered Franciscan manuscripts;
several periodicals, devoted to Franciscan
documents and discussions exclusively,
have moreover been established in different
countries. Although a large literature
has grown up around the figure of the
Poverello within a short time, nothing
new of essential value has been added
to what was already known of the saint.
The energetic research work of recent
years has resulted in the recovery of
several important early texts, and has
called forth many really fine critical
studies dealing with the sources, but
the most welcome feature of the modern
interest in Franciscan origins has been
the careful re-editing and translating
of Francis's own writings and of nearly
all the contemporary manuscript authorities
bearing on his life. Not a few of the
controverted questions connected therewith
are of considerable import, even to those
not especially students of the Franciscan
legend, but they could not be made intelligible
within the limits of the present article.
It must suffice, moreover, to indicate
only some of the chief works on the life
of St. Francis.
The writings of St.
Francis have been published in "Opuscula
S. P. Francisci Assisiensis" (Quaracchi,
1904); Böhmer, "Analekten zur Geschichte
des Franciscus von Assisi" (Tübingen,
1904); U. d'Alençon, "Les Opuscules de
S. François d' Assise" (Paris, 1905);
Robinson, "The Writings of St. Francis
of Assisi" (Philadelphia, 1906).
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