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FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST
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See also:FRANCIS OF See also:ASSISI, ST . (1181 or 1182–1226), founder of the See also:Franciscans (q.v.), was See also:born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one of the See also:independent municipal towns of See also:Umbria. He came from the upper See also:middle class, his See also:father, named Pietro Bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of the See also:city. Bernardone's commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, and it was from the fact that the father was in See also:France at the See also:time of. his son's See also:birth that the latter was called See also:Francesco. His See also:education appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days It is difficult to decide whether words of the See also:early biographers imply that his youth was not See also:free from irregularities; in any See also:case, he was the recognized See also:leader of the See also:young men of the See also:town in their See also:revels; he was, however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. When he was twenty (1201) the neighbouring and See also:rival city of See also:Perugia attempted to restore by force 'of arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by the burghers and the populace, and Francis took See also:part in the See also:battle fought in the See also:plain that lies between the two cities; the men of Assisi were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. He spent a See also:year in See also:prison at Perugia, and when See also:peace was made at the end of 1202 he returned to Assisi and recommenced his old See also:life.
Soon a serious and prolonged illness See also:fell upon him, during which he entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. On his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the first See also:day's See also: Finding the usual See also:crowd of beggars before St See also:Peter's, he exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering joy in spending the day begging among the See also:rest. The determining See also:episode of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as he was See also:riding he met a leper who begged an See also:alms; Francis had always had a See also:special horror of lepers, and turning his See also:face he rode on; but immediately an heroic See also:act of self-See also:conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, gave the leper all the See also:money he had about him, and kissed his See also:hand. From that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the hospitals. To the confusion of his father and See also:brothers he went 'about dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud.
Things soon came to a See also:climax with his father: in consequence of his profuse alms to the poor and to the restoration of the ruined See also: He at once See also:felt that this was his vocation, and the next day, layman as he was, he went up to Assisi and began to preach to the poor (1209). Disciples joined him, and when they were twelve in number Francis said: " Let us go to our See also:Mother, the See also:holy See also:Roman Church, and tell the See also:pope what the See also:Lord has begun to do through us, and carry it out with his See also:sanction." They obtained the sanction of See also:Innocent III., and returning' to Assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic See also:preaching and See also:work among the poor.
The See also:character and development of the See also:order are traced in the See also:article FRANCISCANS; here the See also:story of Francis's own life and the portrayal of his See also:personality will be attempted. To delineate in a few words the character of the Poverello of Assisi is indeed a difficult task. There is such a many-sided richness, such a tenderness, such a See also:poetry, such an originality, such a distinction revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in the See also:memoirs, of his disciples, that his personality is brought See also:home to us as one of the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. It is probably true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to imitate the life of See also:Christ and to carry out so literally Christ's work in Christ's own way. This was the See also:secret of his love of poverty as manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed to our Lord: " Poverty was in the See also:crib and like a faithful See also:squire she kept herself armed in the great combat See also:Thou didst wage for our redemption. During Thy See also:passion she alone did not forsake Thee. Mary Thy Mother stopped at the See also:foot of the See also:Cross, but poverty mounted it with Thee and clasped Thee in her embrace unto the end; and when Thou wast dying of thirst, as a watchful See also:spouse she prepared for Thee the See also:gall. Thou didst expire in the ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave Thee when dead, 0 Lord Jesus, for she allowed not Thy See also:body to rest elsewhere than in a borrowed See also:grave. 0 poorest Jesus, the See also:grace I beg of Thee is to bestow on me the treasure of the highest poverty. See also: This enthusiastic love of poverty is certainly the keynote of St Francis's spirit; and so one of his disciples in an allegorical poem (translated into See also:English as The See also:Lady of Poverty by See also:Montgomery See also:Carmichael, 1901), and See also:Giotto in one of the frescoes at Assisi, celebrated the " holy nuptials of Francis with Ladythe birds is a favourite See also:representation of St Francis in art. All creatures he called his " brothers " or " sisters "—the See also:chief example is the poem of the " Praises of the Creatures," wherein " See also:brother Sun," See also:sister See also:Moon," brother See also:Wind," and " sister See also:Water " are called on to praise God. In his last illness he was cauterized, and on seeing the burning See also:iron he addressed " brother See also:Fire," reminding him how he had always loved him and asking him to See also:deal kindly with him. It would be an See also:anachronism to think of Francis as a philanthropist or a " social worker " or a revivalist preacher, though he fulfilled the best functions of all these. Before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic—an ascetic who, though See also:gentle to others, wore out his body by self-denial, so much so that when he came to See also:die he begged See also:pardon of " brother See also:Ass the body " for having unduly ill treated it: a mystic irradiated with the love of God, endowed in an extra-See also:ordinary degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his See also:heart by the See also:hour in the tenderest affections to God and our Lord. St Francis was a See also:deacon but not a See also:priest. From the return of Francis and his eleven companions from Rome to Assisi in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful manner. The effect of their preaching, and their example and their work among the poor, made itself felt throughout Umbria and brought about a great religious revival. Great See also:numbers came to join the new order which responded so admirably to the needs of the time. In 1212 Francis invested St See also:Clara (q.v.) with the Franciscan See also:habit, and so instituted the " Second Order," that of the nuns. As the friars became more and more numerous their missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over See also:Italy, and then to other countries. Francis himself set out, probably in 1212, for the Holy See also:Land to preach the Gospel to the See also:Saracens, but he was shipwrecked and had to return. A year or two later he went into See also:Spain to preach to the See also:Moors, but had again to return without accomplishing his See also:object (1215 probably). After another See also:period of preaching in Italy and watching over the development of the order, Francis once again set out for the See also:East (1219). This time he was successful; he made his way to See also:Egypt, where the crusaders were besieging See also:Damietta, got himself taken prisoner and was led before the See also:sultan, to whom he openly preached the Gospel. The sultan sent him back to the See also:Christian See also:camp, and he passed on to the Holy Land. Here he remained until See also:September 1220. During his See also:absence were manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that were to attain to such magnitude after his See also:death. The circumstances under which, at an extraordinary See also:general See also:chapter convoked by him shortly after his return, he resigned the See also:office of See also:minister-general (September 1220) are explained in the article FRANCIS-CANS: here, as illustrating the spirit of the man, it is in See also:place to cite the words in which his See also:abdication was couched: "Lord, I give Thee back this See also:family which Thou didst entrust to me. Thou'knowest, most sweet Jesus, that I have no more the See also:power and the qualities to continue to take care of it. I entrust it, therefore, to the ministers. Let them be responsible before Thee at the Day of See also:Judgment, if any brother by their See also:negligence,.or their See also:bad example, or by a too severepunishment,shall go astray." These words seem to contain the See also:mere truth: Francis's See also:peculiar religious See also:genius was probably not adapted for the See also:government of an enormous society spread over the See also:world, as the Friars See also:Minor had now become. The chief See also:works of the next years were the revision and final redaction of the See also:Rule and the formation or organization of the " Third Order " or " Brothers and Sisters of See also:Penance," a vast confraternity of See also:lay men and See also:women who tried to carry out, without withdrawing from the world, the fundamental principles of Franciscan life (see See also:TERTIARIES). If for no other, reason than the prominent place they hold in art, it would not be right to pass by the Stigmata without a special mention. The story is well known; two years before his death Francis went up Mount Alverno in the See also:Apennines with some of his disciples, and after See also:forty days of See also:fasting and prayer and contemplation, on the See also:morning of the 14th of September 1224 (to use See also:Sabatier's words), " he had a See also:vision: in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a See also:strange Poverty." Another striking feature of Francis's character was his See also:constant joyousness; it was a See also:precept in his rule, and one that he enforced strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the Lord. He retained through life his early love of song, and during his last illness he passed much of his time in singing. His love of nature, animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested itself in ways that appear somewhat naive. His preaching to figure. . A seraph with wings extended' flew towards him from the See also:horizon and inundated him with See also:pleasure unutterable. At the centre of the vision appeared a cross, and. the seraph was nailed to it. When the vision disappeared Francis felt See also:sharp pains mingling with the delights of the first moment. Disturbed to the centre of his being he anxiously sought the meaning of it all, and then he saw on his body the Stigmata of the Crucified." The early authorities represent the Stigmata not as bleeding wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences resembling in See also:form and See also:colour the nails, the See also:head on the See also:palm of the hand, and on the back as it were a See also:nail hammered down. In the first edition of the See also:Vie, Sabatier rejected the Stigmata; but he changed his mind, and in the later See also:editions he accepts their See also:objective reality as an historically established fact; in an appendix he collects the See also:evidence: there exists what is according to all See also:probability an autograph of Br. See also:Leo, the See also:saint's favourite See also:disciple and See also:companion on Mount Alverno at the time, which describes the circumstances of the See also:stigmatization; See also:Elias of See also:Cortona (q.v.), the acting See also:superior, wrote on the day after his death a circular See also:letter wherein he uses See also:language clearly implying that he had himself seen the Stigmata, and there is a considerable amount of contemporary See also:authentic second hand evidence. On the strength of this body of evidence Sabatier rejects all theories of See also:fraud or See also:hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of the phenomena. Francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on Mount Alverno that he had to be carried back to Assisi. The remaining months of his life were passed in great bodily weakness and suffering, and he became almost See also:blind. However, he worked on with his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. At last, on the 3rd of See also:October 1226, he died in the Portiuncula at the See also:age of forty-five. Two years later he was canonized by See also:Gregory IX., whom, as See also:Cardinal Hugolino of See also:Ostia, he had chosen to be the See also:protector of his order. The works of St Francis consist of the Rule (in two redactions), the Testament, spiritual admonitions, See also:canticles and a few letters. They were first edited by See also:Wadding in 1623. Two See also:critical editions were published in 1904, one by the Franciscans of Quaracchi near See also:Florence, the other (in a longer and a shorter form) by See also:Professor H. Boehmer of See also:Bonn. Sabatier and See also:Goetz (see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight See also:variations, are in substantial See also:accord. Besides the works, properly so called, there is a considerable amount of traditional matter—anecdotes, sayings, sermons—preserved in the See also:biographies and in the Fioretti;l a great deal of this See also:matter is no doubt substantially authentic, but it is not possible to subject it to any critical sifting. See also:Note on See also:Sources.—The sources for the life of St Francis and early Franciscan See also:history are very numerous, and an immense literature has grown up around them. Any See also:attempt to indicate even a selection of this literature would here be impossible and also futile; for the See also:discovery of new documents has by no means ceased, and the See also:criticism of the materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said that final results have yet emerged from the discussion. Students will find the chief materials in the following collections: Archie See also:fur Litteralur and Kirchengeschichte See also:des Mittelalters (ed. by Ehrle and Denifle, 1885, &c.); publications of the Franciscans of Quaracchi (See also:list to be obtained from See also:Herder, See also:Freiburg See also:im See also:Breisgau); and the two See also:series edited by See also:Paul Sabatier, Collection d'audes et de documents sur l'histoire religieuse et litteraire du moyen age (5 vols. published up to 1906) and Opuscules de critique historique (12. fascicules) : the easiest and most consecutive way of following the controversy is by the aid of the " Bulletin Hagiographique " in Analecta Bollandiana. Relatively popular accounts of the most important sources are supplied in the See also:introductory chapters of Sabatier's Vie de S. See also:Francois and See also:Speculum perfectionis, and Lempp's See also:Frere See also:Elie de Corton¢..
Concerning the life of St Francis and the beginnings of the order, the chief documents that come under discussion are: the two Lives by See also: His conclusions are substantially the same as those of Pere See also:van Ortroy, the Bollandist,and Friar Lemmens, an Observant Franciscan, and are the See also:direct contrary of Sabatier's: the Legenda 3 Soc. is a See also:forgery; the Speculum perfectionis is a compilation made in the 1,4th See also:century, also in large measure a forgery, but containing an See also:element (not to be precisely determined) derived from Br. Leo; on the other hand, Thomas of Celano's two Lives are free from the " tendencies " ascribed to them by Sabatier, and that of 1248 was written with the collaboration of Leo and the other companions; thus the best sources of See also:information are those portions of the Speculum that can with certainty be carried back to Br. Leo, and the Lives by Thomas of Celano, especially the second Life. Goetz's criticism of the documents is characterized by exceeding carefulness and sobriety. Of course he does not suppose that his conclusions are in all respects final; but his investigations show that the time has not yet come when a See also:biography of St Francis could be produced answering to the demands of See also:modern See also:historical criticism. The See also:official life of St Francis is St See also:Bonaventura's Legenda', published in a convenient form by the Franciscans of Quaracchi (1898); Goetz's estimate of it (op. cit.) is much more favourable than Sabatier's. Paul Sabatier's fascinating and in many ways sympathetic Vie de S. Francois (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; Eng. trans. by L. S. See also:Houghton, 1901) will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the ordinary reader as a substantially correct portrait of St Francis; and yet Goetz declares that the most competent and independent critics have without any exception pronounced that Sabatier has depicted St Francis a great deal too much from the standpoint of modern religiosity, and has exaggerated his attitude in face of the church (op. cit. p. 5). In articles in the Hist. Vierteljahrsschrift (1902, 1903) Goetz has shown that Sabatier's presentation of St Francis's relations with the ecclesiastical authority in general, and with Cardinal Hugolino (Gregory IX.) in particular, is largely based on misconception; that the development of the order was not forced on Francis against his will; and that the See also:differences in the order did not during Francis's lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to cause him during his last years the suffering depicted by Sabatier. This from a See also:Protestant historian like Goetz is most valuable criticism. In truth Sabatier's St Francis is an anachronism—a man at heart, a modern pietistic French Protestant of the most liberal type, with a See also:veneer of 13th century Catholicism. Of lives of St Francis in English may be mentioned those by Mrs See also:Oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by See also:Canon See also:Knox Little (1897). For general information and references to the literature of the subject, see See also:Otto ZSekler, Askese and Monchtum (1897), ii. 470-493, and his article in See also:Herzog's Realencyklopadie (ed. 3), Franz von Assisi " (1899); also Max Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1896), i. § 38. The chapter on St Francis :n Emile Gebhart's Italie mystique (ed. 3, 1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as little ecclesiastically-minded as Sabatier himself, his general picture of the See also:state of See also:religion in Italy at the time is far truer; here also Sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to exalt their See also:hero by depreciating everybody else. (E. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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