Life of St. Francis of Assisi

It happened one time that the Brothers were serving the lepers and the sick in a hospital, near to the place where St. Francis was. Among them was a leper who was so impatient, so cross-grained, so unendurable, that everyone believed him to be possessed by the devil, and rightly enough, for he heaped insults and blows upon those who waited upon him, and what was worse, he continually insulted and blasphemed the blessed Christ and his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, so that there was no longer anyone who could or would wait upon him. The Brothers would willingly have endured the insults and abuse which he lavished upon them, in order to augment the merit of their patience, but their souls could not consent to hear those which he uttered against Christ and his Mother. They therefore resolved to abandon this leper, but not without having told the whole story exactly to St. Francis, who at that time was dwelling not far away. When they told him St. Francis betook himself to the wicked leper; "May God give thee peace, my most dear brother," he said to him as he drew near. "And what peace," asked the leper, "can I receive from God, who has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my body a mass of stinking and corruption?" St. Francis said to him: "My brother, be patient, for God gives us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great merit to us." "How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and do not take care of me as they ought." Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to pray for him. Then returning he said to him: "My son, since you are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you." "That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than they?" "I will do whatever you wish." "Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell so badly that I disgust myself." Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his might: "Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for my impatience and my blasphemies." One day, Brother John, whose simplicity we have already seen, and who had been especially put in charge of a certain leper, took him for a walk to Portiuncula, as if he had not been the victim of a contagious malady. Reproaches were not spared him; the leper heard them and could not hide his sadness and distress; it seemed to him like being a second time banished from the world. Francis was quick to remark all this and to feel sharp remorse for it; the thought of having saddened one of _God's patients_ was unendurable; he not only begged his pardon, but he caused food to be served, and sitting down beside him he shared his repast, eating from the same porringer.[40] We see with what perseverance he pursued by every means the realization of his ideal. The details just given show the Umbrian movement, as it appears to me, to be one of the most humble and at the same time the most sincere and practical attempts to realize the kingdom of God on earth. How far removed we are here from the superstitious vulgarity of the mechanical devotion, the deceitful miracle-working of certain Catholics; how far also from the commonplace, complacent, quibbling, theorizing Christianity of certain Protestants! Francis is of the race of mystics, for no intermediary comes between God and his soul; but his mysticism is that of Jesus leading his disciples to the Tabor of contemplation; but when, overflooded with joy, they long to build tabernacles that they may remain on the heights and satiate themselves with the raptures of ecstasy, "Fools," he says to them, "ye know not what ye ask," and directing their gaze to the crowds wandering like sheep having no shepherd, he leads them back to the plain, to the midst of those who moan, who suffer, who blaspheme. The higher the moral stature of Francis the more he was exposed to the danger of being understood only by the very few, and disappointed by those who were nearest to him. Reading the Franciscan authors, one feels every moment how the radiant beauty of the model is marred by the awkwardness of the disciple. It could not have been otherwise, and this difference between this master and the companions is evident from the very beginnings of the Order. The greater number of the biographers have drawn the veil of oblivion over the difficulties created by certain Brothers as well as those which came from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by this almost universal silence. Here and there we find indications all the more precious for being, so to say, involuntary. Brother Rufino, for example, the same who was destined to become one of the intimates of Francis's later days, assumed an attitude of revolt shortly after his entrance into the Order. He thought it foolish in Francis when, instead of leaving the friars to give themselves unceasingly to prayer, he sent them out in all directions to wait upon lepers.[41] His own ideal was the life of the hermits of the Thebaide, as it is related in the then popular legends of St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Paconius, and twenty others. He once passed Lent in one of the grottos of the Carceri. Holy Thursday having arrived, Francis, who was also there, summoned all the brethren who were dispersed about the neighborhood, whether in grottos or huts, to observe with him the memories to which this day was consecrated. Rufino refused to come; "For that matter," he added, "I have decided to follow him no longer; I mean to remain here and live solitary, for in this way I shall be more surely saved than by submitting myself to this man and his nonsense." Young and enthusiastic for the most part, it was not always without difficulty that the Brothers formed the habit of keeping their work in the background. Agreeing with their master as to fundamentals, they would have liked to make more of a stir, attract public attention by more obvious devotion; there were some among them whom it did not satisfy to be saints, but who also wished to appear such. FOOTNOTES: [1] 1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55. [2] 3 Soc., 56; _Spec._, 32b; _Conform._, 217b, 1; _Fior. Bibl. Angel._, Amoni, p. 378. [3] This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41. [4] Vide Angelo Clareno, _Tribul._ cod. Laur., 3b. [5] 2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite textually 97 as coming from the _Legenda Antiqua_. Cf. _Spec._, 64b.--2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf. _Conform._, 171a, 1; _Spec._, 19b. See especially Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7; Rule of 1223, _cap._ 5; the Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage, _liceat eis habere ferramenta et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria_, sufficiently proves that certain friars had real trades. [6] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248; _Fior. Vita d'Egidio_; _Spec._, 158 ff; _Conform._, 53-60. [7] Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall here his sally: "The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she is what she is!" A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 234. [8] The passage of the Will, _firmiter volo quod omnes laborent_, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39; _Conform._, 219b. 1: _Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei._ _Spec._, 34; 69. Vide also _Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2 Cel., 1, 12. [9] _Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset in Domino possidere._ B. de Besse, 102a. [10] Their concord and their joyous semblances The love, the wonder and the sweet regard They made to be the cause of holy thought. DANTE: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation. [11] _Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad horam patitur non esse muritus._ 2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35; 51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87; _Fior._ 13. [12] Bon., 93.--_Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quae debebat dare fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino._ _Spec._, 15. [13] 2 Cel., 3, 50. [14] _Cap._, 21. Cf. _Fior., I. consid._, 18; 30; _Conform._, 103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Mueller, _Anfaenge_, p. 187. [15] Vide his _Opera omnia postillis illustrata_, by Father de la Haye, 1739, f^o. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliotheque Nationale gives one which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of Paris: _Saint Antoine de Padone, sa legende primitive_, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Pres, 1890, 1 vol., 8vo. Cf. _Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii saeculo xiii concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniae bibliothecae_ a P.M. Antonio Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo. [16] This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25; 34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93. [17] _Spec._, 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128. [18] The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle, _Archiv._, iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from northern countries which has especially changed it in this matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that laymen should be excluded from all charges; _laicos ad officia inhabilitavit, quae usque tunc ut clerici exercebant_. (_Chron._ xxiv. _gen._ cod. Gadd. relig., 53, f^o 110a). Among the early Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain all the cases. There were also with certain of them revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that of the priests: _Fior._, 27. _Frate Pellegrino non volle mai