Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best historical biographies txt) 📕

only road connecting Celano with Rome, as well as with
all Central and Northern Italy, passes by Aquila, Rieti, and
Terni, where it joins the high-roads leading from the north
toward Rome.

[5] 1 Cel., 36 and 37; 3 Soc., 54; Bon., 45-48.

[6] Isaiah, lv., 2.

[7] This Order deserves to be better known; it was founded under
Alexander III. and rapidly spread all over Central Italy and the
East. In Francis's lifetime it had in Italy and the Holy Land
about forty houses dedicated to the care of lepers. It is very
probable that it was at San Salvatore delle Pareti that
Francis visited these unhappy sufferers. He there made the
particular acquaintance of a Cruciger named Morico . The latter
afterward falling ill, Francis sent him a remedy which would
cure him, informing him at the same time that he was to become
his disciple, which shortly afterward took place. The hospital
San Salvatore has disappeared; it stood in the place now
called Ospedaletto , where a small chapel now stands half way
between Assisi and Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was from there
that the dying Francis blessed Assisi. For Morico vide 3 Soc.,
35; Bon., 49; 2 Cel., 3, 128; Conform. , 63b.--For the hospital
vide Bon., 49; Conform. , 135a, 1; Honorii III. opera , Horoy,
t. i., col. 206. Cf. Potthast, 7746; L. Auvray, Registres de
Grégoire IX. , Paris, 1890, 4to, no. 209. For the Crucigeri in
the time of St. Francis vide the interesting bull Cum tu fili
prior , of July 8, 1203; Migne, Inn. op. , t. ii., col. 125 ff.
Cf. Potthast, 1959, and Cum pastoris , April 5, 1204; Migne,
loc. cit. , 319. Cf. Potthast, 2169 and 4474.

[8] 3 Soc., 55.

[9] All this yet remains in its primitive state. The road which
went from Assisi to the now ruined Abbey of Mount Subasio
(almost on the summit of the mountain) passed the Carceri, where
there was a little chapel built by the Benedictines.

[10] Illi qui religiose volunt stare in eremis sint tres aut
quatuor ad plus. Duo ex ipsis sint matres, et habeant duos
filios, vel unum ad minus. Illi duo teneant vitam Marthæ et alii
duo vitam Mariæ Magdalenæ. Assisi MS., 338, 43a-b; text given
also in Conf. , 143a, 1, from which Wadding borrows it for his
edition of the Opuscules of St. Francis. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 113.
It is possible that we have here a fragment of the Rule, which
must have been composed toward 1217.

[11] 1 Cel., 42 and 43; 3 Soc., 55; Bon., 41.

[12] 1 Cel., 42-44.

[13] 2 Cel., 1, 15; Bon., 65. These two authors do not say where
the event took place; but there appears to be no reason for
suspecting the indication of Rivo-Torto given by the Speculum ,
fo. 21a.

[14] 2 Cel., 3, 110. Cf. Spec. , 22a.

[15] 1 Cel., 47; Bon., 43.

[16] There are few events of the thirteenth century that offer
more documents or are more obscure than this one. The
chroniclers of the most different countries speak of it at
length. Here is one of the shortest but most exact of the
notices, given by an eye-witness (Annals of Genoa of the years
1197-1219, apud Mon. Germ. hist. Script ., t. 18): 1212 in
mense Augusti, die Sabbati, octava Kalendarum Septembris,
intravit civitatem Janue quidam puer Teutonicus nomine Nicholaus
peregrinationis causa, et cum eo multitudo maxima pelegrinorum
defferentes cruces et bordonos atque scarsellas ultra septem
millia arbitratu boni viri inter homines et feminas et puellos
et puellas. Et die dominica sequenti de civitate exierunt .--Cf.
Giacomo di Viraggio: Muratori, t. ix., col. 46: Dicebant quod
mare debebat apud Januam siccari et sic ipsi debebant in
Hierusalem proficisci. Multi autem inter eos erant filii
Nobilium, quos ipsi etiam cum meretricibus destinarunt (! ) The
most tragic account is that of Alberic, who relates the fate of
the company that embarked at Marseilles. Mon. Ger. hist.
Script ., t. 23, p. 894.

[17] The Benedictine chronicler, Albert von Stade ( Mon. Ger.
hist. Script ., t. 16, pp. 271-379), thus closes his notice of
the children's crusade: Adhuc quo devenerint ignorantur sed
plurimi redierunt, a quibus cum quæreretur causa cursus dixerunt
se nescire. Nudæ etiam mulieres circa idem tempus nihil
loquentes per villas et civitates cucurrerunt. Loc. cit. ,
p. 355.

[18] Chron. Veronese, ann. 1238 (Muratori, Scriptores Rer.
Ital. , t. viii., p. 626). Cf. Barbarano de' Mironi: Hist.
Eccles. di Vicenza , t. ii., pp. 79-84.

[19] The Brothers were at first called Viri pænitentiales de
civitate Assisii (3 Soc., 37); it appears that they had a
momentary thought of calling themselves Pauperes de Assisio ,
but they were doubtless dissuaded from this at Rome, as too
closely resembling that of the Pauperes de Lugduno . Vide
Burchardi chronicon. , p. 376; vide Introd., cap. 5.

[20] Vide Rule of 1221, cap. 7. Cf. 1 Cel., 38, and Bon., 78.

[21] 1 Cel., 36.

[22] Storia d'Assisi , t. i., pp. 123-129.

* * * * *


CHAPTER VIII

PORTIUNCULA

1211


It was doubtless toward the spring of 1211 that the Brothers quitted Rivo-Torto. They were engaged in prayer one day, when a peasant appeared with an ass, which he noisily drove before him into the poor shelter.

"Go in, go in!" he cried to his beast; "we shall be most comfortable here." It appeared that he was afraid that if the Brothers remained there much longer they would begin to think this deserted place was their own.[1] Such rudeness was very displeasing to Francis, who immediately arose and departed, followed by his companions.

Now that they were so numerous the Brothers could no longer continue their wandering life in all respects as in the past; they had need of a permanent shelter and above all of a little chapel. They addressed themselves in vain first to the bishop and then to the canons of San Rufino for the loan of what they needed, but were more fortunate with the abbot of the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who ceded to them in perpetuity the use of a chapel already very dear to their hearts, Santa Maria degli Angeli or the Portiuncula.[2]

Francis was enchanted; he saw a mysterious harmony, ordained by God himself, between the name of the humble sanctuary and that of his Order. The brethren quickly built for themselves a few huts; a quickset hedge served as enclosing wall, and thus in three or four days was organized the first Franciscan convent.

For ten years they were satisfied with this. These ten years are the heroic period of the Order. St. Francis, in full possession of his ideal, will seek to inculcate it upon his disciples and will succeed sometimes; but already the too rapid multiplication of the brotherhood will provoke some symptoms of relaxation.

The remembrance of the beginning of this period has drawn from the lips of Thomas of Celano a sort of canticle in honor of the monastic life. It is the burning and untranslatable commentary of the Psalmist's cry: " Behold how sweet and pleasant it is to be brethren and to dwell together. "

Their cloister was the forest which then extended on all sides of Portiuncula, occupying a large part of the plain. There they gathered around their master to receive his spiritual counsels, and thither they retired to meditate and pray.[3] It would be a gross mistake, however, to suppose that contemplation absorbed them completely during the days which were not consecrated to missionary tours: a part of their time was spent in manual labor.

The intentions of St. Francis have been more misapprehended on this point than on any other, but it may be said that nowhere is he more clear than when he ordains that his friars shall gain their livelihood by the work of their hands. He never dreamed of creating a mendicant order, he created a laboring order. It is true we shall often see him begging and urging his disciples to do as much, but these incidents ought not to mislead us; they are meant to teach that when a friar arrived in any locality and there