Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best historical biographies txt) π
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plan at the last moment.[22] I have already so far described this Rule that there is no need to return to the subject here.
It was approved November 25, 1223.[23] Many memories appear to have clustered about the journey of Francis to Rome. One day Cardinal Ugolini, whose hospitality he had accepted, was much surprised, and his guests as well, to find him absent as they were about to sit down at table, but they soon saw him coming, carrying a quantity of pieces of dry bread, which he joyfully distributed to all the noble company. His host, somewhat abashed by the proceeding, having undertaken after the meal to reproach him a little, Francis explained that he had no right to forget, for a sumptuous feast, the bread of charity on which he was fed every day, and that he desired thus to show his brethren that the richest table is not worth so much to the poor in spirit as this table of the Lord.[24]
We have seen that during the earlier years the Brothers Minor had been in the habit of earning their bread by going out as servants. Some of them, a very small number, had continued to do so. Little by little, in this matter also all had been changed. Under color of serving, the friars entered the families of the highest personages of the pontifical court, and became their confidential attendants; instead of submitting themselves to all, as the Rule of 1221 ordained, they were above everyone.
Entirely losing sight of the apostolic life, they became courtiers of a special type; their character, half ecclesiastic and half lay, rendered them capable of carrying out a number of delicate missions and of playing a part in the varied intrigues for which the greater number of Roman prelates have always seemed to live.[25] By way of protest Francis had only one weapon, his example.
One day, the Speculum relates, the Blessed Francis came to Rome
to see the Bishop of Ostia (Ugolini), and after having remained
some time at his house, he went also to visit Cardinal Leo, who
had a great devotion for him.
It was winter; the cold, the wind, the rain made any journey
impossible, so the cardinal begged him to pass a few days in his
house and to take his food there, like the other poor folk who
came there to eat. ... "I will give you," he added, "a good
lodging, quite retired, where if you like you may pray and eat."
Then Brother Angelo, one of the twelve first disciples, who
lived with the cardinal, said to Francis: "There is, close by
here, a great tower standing by itself and very quiet; you will
be there as in a hermitage." Francis went to see it and it
pleased him. Then, returning to the cardinal, "Monsignor," he
said, "it is possible that I may pass a few days with you." The
latter was very joyful, and Brother Angelo went to prepare the
tower for the Blessed Francis and his companion.
But the very first night, when he would have slept, the demons
came and smote him. Calling then to his companion, "Brother," he
said, "the demons have come and smitten me with violence; remain
near me, I beg, for I am afraid here alone."
He was trembling in all his members, like one who has a fever.
They passed the night both without sleeping. "The demons are
commissioned with the chastisements of God," said Francis; "as a
podestΓ sends his executioner to punish the criminal, so God
sends demons, who in this are his ministers.... Why has he sent
them to me? Perhaps this is the reason: The cardinal desired to
be kind to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the
Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a
thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in
hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn
with a cardinal will be moved to repine. 'We endure all
privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can
desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example--that is my
true mission." ...
Early next morning, therefore he quitted the tower, and having
told the cardinal all, took leave of him and returned to the
hermitage of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. "They think me a holy
man," he said, "and see, it needed demons to cast me out of
prison."[26]
This story, notwithstanding its strange coloring, shows plainly how strong was his instinct for independence. To compare the hospitality of a cardinal to an imprisonment! He spoke better than he knew, characterizing in one word the relation of the Church to his Order.
The lark was not dead; in spite of cold and the north wind it gayly took its flight to the vale of Rieti.
It was mid-December. An ardent desire to observe to the life the memories of Christmas had taken possession of Francis. He opened his heart to one of his friends, the knight Giovanni di Greccio, who undertook the necessary preparations.
The imitation of Jesus has in all times been the very centre of Christianity; but one must be singularly spiritual to be satisfied with the imitation of the heart. With most men there is need that this should be preceded and sustained by an external imitation. It is indeed the spirit that gives life, but it is only in the country of the angels that one can say that the flesh profiteth nothing.
In the Middle Ages a religious festival was before all things else a representation, more or less faithful, of the event which it recalled; hence the santons of Provence, the processions of the Palmesel , the Holy Supper of Maundy Thursday, the Road to the Cross of Good Friday, the drama of the Resurrection of Easter, and the flaming tow of Whitsunday. Francis was too thoroughly Italian not to love these festivals where every visible thing speaks of God and of his love.
The population of Greccio and its environs was, therefore, convoked, as well as the Brothers from the neighboring monasteries. On the evening of the vigil of Christmas one might have seen the faithful hastening to the hermitage by every path with torches in their hands, making the forests ring with their joyful hymns.
Everyone was rejoicing--Francis most of all. The knight had prepared a stable with straw, and brought an ox and an ass, whose breath seemed to give warmth to the poor bambino , benumbed with the cold. At the sight the saint felt tears of pity bedew his face; he was no longer in Greccio, his heart was in Bethlehem.
Finally they began to chant matins; then the mass was begun, and Francis, as deacon, read the Gospel. Already hearts were touched by the simple recital of the sacred legend in a voice so gentle and so fervent, but when he preached, his emotion soon overcame the audience; his voice had so unutterable a tenderness that they also forgot everything, and were living over again the feeling of the shepherds of Judea who in those old days went to adore the God made man, born in a stable.[27]
Toward the close of the thirteenth century, the author of the Stabat Mater dolorosa , Giacopone dei Todi, that Franciscan of genius who spent a part of his life in dungeons, inspired by the memory of Greccio, composed another Stabat, that of joy, Stabat Mater speciosa . This hymn of Mary beside the manger is not less noble than that of Mary at the foot of the cross. The sentiment is even more tender, and it is hard to explain its neglect except by an unjust caprice of fate.
Stabat Mater speciosa
Juxtum foenum gaudiosa
Dum jacebat parvulus.
Quæ gaudebat et ridebat
Exsultabat cum videbat
Nati partum inclyti.
Fac me vere congaudere
Jesulino cohærere
Donec ego vixero.[28]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] All this took place with prodigious rapidity. The dimensions
of the Basilica of Assisi, the plans of which were made in 1228,
no more permits it to be considered as a conventual chapel than
Santa-Croce in Florence, San Francesco in Sienna, or the
Basilica San Antonio at Padua, monuments commenced between 1230
and 1240. Already before 1245 one party of the episcopate utters
a cry of alarm, in which he speaks of nothing less than of
closing the door of the secular churches, which have become
useless. He complains with incredible bitterness that the Minor
and Preaching Friars have absolutely supplanted the parochial
clergy. This letter may be found in Pierre de la Vigne,
addressed at once to Frederick II. and the Council of Lyons:
Epistolæ , Basle, 1740, 2 vols., vol. i., pp. 220-222. It is
much to be desired that a critical text should be given. See
also the satire against the two new Orders, done in rhyme about
1242 by Pierre de la Vigne, and of which, allowing for possible
exaggerations, the greater number of the incidents cannot have
been invented: E. du MΓ©ril, PoΓ©sies pop. lat. , pp. 153-177,
Paris, 8vo, 1847.
[2] And not of the 29th, as Sbaralea will have it. Bull. fr. ,
vol. i., n. 10. Horoy, vol. iv., col. 129; the original, still
in the archives of Assisi, bears the title: Datum Anagnie 11
Kalendas Aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto .
[3] Potthast, 6809; Horoy, iv., col. 129. See also the bull
Ecce Venit Deus of July 14, 1227; L. Auvray: Registres de
GrΓ©goire IX. , no. 129; cf. 153; Potthast, 8027 and 8028, 8189.
[4] He had finished his mission as
It was approved November 25, 1223.[23] Many memories appear to have clustered about the journey of Francis to Rome. One day Cardinal Ugolini, whose hospitality he had accepted, was much surprised, and his guests as well, to find him absent as they were about to sit down at table, but they soon saw him coming, carrying a quantity of pieces of dry bread, which he joyfully distributed to all the noble company. His host, somewhat abashed by the proceeding, having undertaken after the meal to reproach him a little, Francis explained that he had no right to forget, for a sumptuous feast, the bread of charity on which he was fed every day, and that he desired thus to show his brethren that the richest table is not worth so much to the poor in spirit as this table of the Lord.[24]
We have seen that during the earlier years the Brothers Minor had been in the habit of earning their bread by going out as servants. Some of them, a very small number, had continued to do so. Little by little, in this matter also all had been changed. Under color of serving, the friars entered the families of the highest personages of the pontifical court, and became their confidential attendants; instead of submitting themselves to all, as the Rule of 1221 ordained, they were above everyone.
Entirely losing sight of the apostolic life, they became courtiers of a special type; their character, half ecclesiastic and half lay, rendered them capable of carrying out a number of delicate missions and of playing a part in the varied intrigues for which the greater number of Roman prelates have always seemed to live.[25] By way of protest Francis had only one weapon, his example.
One day, the Speculum relates, the Blessed Francis came to Rome
to see the Bishop of Ostia (Ugolini), and after having remained
some time at his house, he went also to visit Cardinal Leo, who
had a great devotion for him.
It was winter; the cold, the wind, the rain made any journey
impossible, so the cardinal begged him to pass a few days in his
house and to take his food there, like the other poor folk who
came there to eat. ... "I will give you," he added, "a good
lodging, quite retired, where if you like you may pray and eat."
Then Brother Angelo, one of the twelve first disciples, who
lived with the cardinal, said to Francis: "There is, close by
here, a great tower standing by itself and very quiet; you will
be there as in a hermitage." Francis went to see it and it
pleased him. Then, returning to the cardinal, "Monsignor," he
said, "it is possible that I may pass a few days with you." The
latter was very joyful, and Brother Angelo went to prepare the
tower for the Blessed Francis and his companion.
But the very first night, when he would have slept, the demons
came and smote him. Calling then to his companion, "Brother," he
said, "the demons have come and smitten me with violence; remain
near me, I beg, for I am afraid here alone."
He was trembling in all his members, like one who has a fever.
They passed the night both without sleeping. "The demons are
commissioned with the chastisements of God," said Francis; "as a
podestΓ sends his executioner to punish the criminal, so God
sends demons, who in this are his ministers.... Why has he sent
them to me? Perhaps this is the reason: The cardinal desired to
be kind to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the
Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a
thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in
hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn
with a cardinal will be moved to repine. 'We endure all
privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can
desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example--that is my
true mission." ...
Early next morning, therefore he quitted the tower, and having
told the cardinal all, took leave of him and returned to the
hermitage of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. "They think me a holy
man," he said, "and see, it needed demons to cast me out of
prison."[26]
This story, notwithstanding its strange coloring, shows plainly how strong was his instinct for independence. To compare the hospitality of a cardinal to an imprisonment! He spoke better than he knew, characterizing in one word the relation of the Church to his Order.
The lark was not dead; in spite of cold and the north wind it gayly took its flight to the vale of Rieti.
It was mid-December. An ardent desire to observe to the life the memories of Christmas had taken possession of Francis. He opened his heart to one of his friends, the knight Giovanni di Greccio, who undertook the necessary preparations.
The imitation of Jesus has in all times been the very centre of Christianity; but one must be singularly spiritual to be satisfied with the imitation of the heart. With most men there is need that this should be preceded and sustained by an external imitation. It is indeed the spirit that gives life, but it is only in the country of the angels that one can say that the flesh profiteth nothing.
In the Middle Ages a religious festival was before all things else a representation, more or less faithful, of the event which it recalled; hence the santons of Provence, the processions of the Palmesel , the Holy Supper of Maundy Thursday, the Road to the Cross of Good Friday, the drama of the Resurrection of Easter, and the flaming tow of Whitsunday. Francis was too thoroughly Italian not to love these festivals where every visible thing speaks of God and of his love.
The population of Greccio and its environs was, therefore, convoked, as well as the Brothers from the neighboring monasteries. On the evening of the vigil of Christmas one might have seen the faithful hastening to the hermitage by every path with torches in their hands, making the forests ring with their joyful hymns.
Everyone was rejoicing--Francis most of all. The knight had prepared a stable with straw, and brought an ox and an ass, whose breath seemed to give warmth to the poor bambino , benumbed with the cold. At the sight the saint felt tears of pity bedew his face; he was no longer in Greccio, his heart was in Bethlehem.
Finally they began to chant matins; then the mass was begun, and Francis, as deacon, read the Gospel. Already hearts were touched by the simple recital of the sacred legend in a voice so gentle and so fervent, but when he preached, his emotion soon overcame the audience; his voice had so unutterable a tenderness that they also forgot everything, and were living over again the feeling of the shepherds of Judea who in those old days went to adore the God made man, born in a stable.[27]
Toward the close of the thirteenth century, the author of the Stabat Mater dolorosa , Giacopone dei Todi, that Franciscan of genius who spent a part of his life in dungeons, inspired by the memory of Greccio, composed another Stabat, that of joy, Stabat Mater speciosa . This hymn of Mary beside the manger is not less noble than that of Mary at the foot of the cross. The sentiment is even more tender, and it is hard to explain its neglect except by an unjust caprice of fate.
Stabat Mater speciosa
Juxtum foenum gaudiosa
Dum jacebat parvulus.
Quæ gaudebat et ridebat
Exsultabat cum videbat
Nati partum inclyti.
Fac me vere congaudere
Jesulino cohærere
Donec ego vixero.[28]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] All this took place with prodigious rapidity. The dimensions
of the Basilica of Assisi, the plans of which were made in 1228,
no more permits it to be considered as a conventual chapel than
Santa-Croce in Florence, San Francesco in Sienna, or the
Basilica San Antonio at Padua, monuments commenced between 1230
and 1240. Already before 1245 one party of the episcopate utters
a cry of alarm, in which he speaks of nothing less than of
closing the door of the secular churches, which have become
useless. He complains with incredible bitterness that the Minor
and Preaching Friars have absolutely supplanted the parochial
clergy. This letter may be found in Pierre de la Vigne,
addressed at once to Frederick II. and the Council of Lyons:
Epistolæ , Basle, 1740, 2 vols., vol. i., pp. 220-222. It is
much to be desired that a critical text should be given. See
also the satire against the two new Orders, done in rhyme about
1242 by Pierre de la Vigne, and of which, allowing for possible
exaggerations, the greater number of the incidents cannot have
been invented: E. du MΓ©ril, PoΓ©sies pop. lat. , pp. 153-177,
Paris, 8vo, 1847.
[2] And not of the 29th, as Sbaralea will have it. Bull. fr. ,
vol. i., n. 10. Horoy, vol. iv., col. 129; the original, still
in the archives of Assisi, bears the title: Datum Anagnie 11
Kalendas Aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto .
[3] Potthast, 6809; Horoy, iv., col. 129. See also the bull
Ecce Venit Deus of July 14, 1227; L. Auvray: Registres de
GrΓ©goire IX. , no. 129; cf. 153; Potthast, 8027 and 8028, 8189.
[4] He had finished his mission as
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