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

connected with that of St. Clara, the former was soon distinguished in the Order for his visions and ecstasies, but his great timidity checked him as soon as he tried to preach: for this reason he is always to be found in the most isolated hermitages--Carceri, Verna, Greccio.[33]

Masseo, of Marignano, a small village in the environs of Assisi, was his very opposite; handsome, well made, witty, he attracted attention by his fine presence and his great facility of speech; he occupies a special place in popular Franciscan tradition. He deserves it. St. Francis, to test his humility, made him the porter and cook of the hermitage,[34] but in these functions Masseo showed himself to be so perfectly a
Minor that from that time the master particularly loved to have him for companion in his missionary journeys.

One day they were travelling together, when they arrived at the intersection of the roads to Sienna, Arezzo, and Florence.

"Which one shall we take?" asked Masseo.

"Whichever one God wills."

"But how shall we know which one God wills?"

"You shall see. Go and stand at the crossing of the roads, turn round and round as the children do, and do not stop until I bid you."

Brother Masseo began to turn; seized with a vertigo, he was nearly falling, but caught himself up at once. Finally Francis called out, "Stop! which way are you facing?"

"Toward Sienna."

"Very well; God wills that we go to Sienna."[35]

Such a method of making up one's mind is doubtless not for the daily needs of life, but Francis employed still others, like it, if not in form at least in fact.

Up to this time we have seen the brethren living together in their hermitages or roving the highways, preaching repentance. It would, however, be a mistake to think that their whole lives were passed thus. To understand the first Franciscans we must absolutely forget what they may have been since that time, and what monks are in general; if Portiuncula was a monastery it was also a workshop, where each brother practised the trade which had been his before entering the Order; but what is stranger still to our ideas, the Brothers often went out as servants.[36]

Brother Egidio's case was not an exception, it was the rule. This did not last long, for very soon the friars who entered a house as domestics came to be treated as distinguished guests; but in the beginning they were literally servants, and took upon themselves the most menial labors. Among the works which they might undertake Francis recommended above all the care of lepers. We have already seen the important part which these unfortunates played in his conversion; he always retained for them a peculiar pity, which he sought to make his disciples share.

For several years the Brothers Minor may be said to have gone from lazaretto to lazaretto, preaching by day in the towns and villages, and retiring at night to these refuges, where they rendered to these
patients of God the most repugnant services.

The Crucigeri, who took charge of the greater number of leper-houses, always welcomed these kindly disposed aides, who, far from asking any sort of recompense, were willing to eat whatever the patients might have left.[37] In fact, although created solely for the care of lepers, the Brothers of this Order sometimes lost patience when the sufferers were too exacting, and instead of being grateful had only murmurs or even reproaches for their benefactors. In these desperate cases the intervention of Francis and his disciples was especially precious. It often happened that a Brother was put in special charge of a single leper, whose companion and servant he continued to be, sometimes for a long period.[38]

The following narrative shows Francis's love for these unfortunates, and his method with them.[39]

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 Thebaïde, 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