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

place is truly sacred: it is the house of God."[37]

It seemed to him that if the Brothers remained attached to that bit of earth, that chapel ten feet long, those thatched huts, they would there find the living reminder of the poverty of the early days, and could never wander far from it.

One evening he grew worse with frightful rapidity; all the following night he had hemorrhages which left not the slightest hope; the Brothers hastening to him, he dictated a few lines in form of a Will and gave them his blessing: "Adieu, my children; remain all of you in the fear of God, abide always united to Christ; great trials are in store for you, and tribulation draws nigh. Happy are they who persevere as they have begun; for there will be scandals and divisions among you. As for me, I am going to the Lord and my God. Yes, I have the assurance that I am going to him whom I have served."[38]

During the following days, to the great surprise of those who were about him, he again grew somewhat better; no one could understand the resistance to death offered by this body so long worn out by suffering.

He himself began to hope again. A physician of Arezzo whom he knew well, having come to visit him, "Good friend," Francis asked him, "how much longer do you think I have to live?"

"Father," replied the other reassuringly, "this will all pass away, if it pleases God."

"I am not a cuckoo,"[39] replied Francis smiling, using a popular saying, "to be afraid of death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit I am so intimately united to God that I am equally content to live or to die."

"In that case, father, from the medical point of view, your disease is incurable, and I do not think that you can last longer than the beginning of autumn."

At these words the poor invalid stretched out his hands as if to call on God, crying with an indescribable expression of joy, "Welcome, Sister Death!" Then he began to sing, and sent for Brothers Angelo and Leo.

On their arrival they were made, in spite of their emotion, to sing the Canticle of the Sun. They were at the last doxology when Francis, checking them, improvised the greeting to death:

Be praised, Lord, for our Sister the Death of the body,
whom no man may escape;
alas for them who die in a state of mortal sin;
happy they who are found conformed to thy most holy will,
for the second death will do to them no harm.

From this day the palace rang unceasingly with his songs. Continually, even through the night, he would sing the Canticle of the Sun or some other of his favorite compositions. Then, when wearied out, he would beg Angelo and Leo to go on.

One day Brother Elias thought it his duty to make a few remarks on the subject. He feared that the nurses and the people of the neighborhood would be scandalized; ought not a saint to be absorbed in meditation in the face of death, to await it with fear and trembling instead of indulging in a gayety that might be misinterpreted?[40] Perhaps Bishop Guido was not entirely a stranger to these reproaches; it seems not improbable that to have his palace crowded with Brothers Minor all these long weeks had finally put him a little out of humor. But Francis would not yield; his union with God was too sweet for him to consent not to sing it.

They decided at last to remove him to Portiuncula. His desire was to be fulfilled; he was to die beside the humble chapel where he had heard God's voice consecrating him apostle.

His companions, bearing their precious burden, took the way through the olive-yards across the plain. From time to time the invalid, unable to distinguish anything, asked where they were. When they were half way there, at the hospital of the Crucigeri, where long ago he had tended the leper, and from whence there was a full view of all the houses of the city, he begged them to set him upon the ground with his face toward Assisi, and raising his hand he bade adieu to his native place and blessed it.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following is the list of monasteries which, according to
Rodolfo di Tossignano, accepted the ideas of Angelo Clareno
before the end of the thirteenth century: Fermo, Spoleto,
Camerino, Ascoli, Rieti, Foligno, Nursia, Aquila, Amelia:
Historiarum seraphicæ religionis, libri tres , Venice, 1586, 1
vol., f^o, 155a.

[2] Spec. , 129b; Fior. , 19. In some of the stories of this
period the evidence is clear how certain facts have been, little
by little, transformed into miracles. Compare, for example, the
miracle of St. Urbano in Bon., 68, and 1 Cel., 61. See also 2
Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159.

[3] 1 Cel., 87; 2 Cel., 2, 11; Conform. , 148a, 2; Bon., 99.
Upon this visit see 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159; 2 Cel., 2,
11; 2 Cel., 3, 36.

[4] The present Italian name of the monastery which has also
been called Monte-Rainerio and Fonte-Palumbo .

[5] 1 Cel., 101; 2 Cel., 3, 102; Bon., 67; Spec. , 134a.

[6] 2 Cel., 3, 66; Bon., 69.

[7] Fior. ii. consid. Cf. Roger Bacon, Opus tertium ( ap. Mon.
Germ. hist. , Script. t. 28, p. 577). B. Franciscus jussit
fratri cythariste ut dulcius personaret, quatenus mens
excitaretur ad harmonias coelestes quas pluries andivit. Mira
enim musicæ super omnes scientias et spectanda potestas.

[8] Village three hours' walk northward from Rieti. Francis's
cell still remains on the mountain, three-quarters of an hour
from the place.

[9] 2 Cel., 3, 71; cf. Spec. , 43a.

[10] Chapel still standing, a few minutes' walk from Rieti. 2
Cel., 3, 70; Spec. , 15a, 43a.

[11] 2 Cel., 2, 14; Bon., 167; 2 Cel., 3, 10; Bon., 58; Spec. ,
122b.

[12] Wadding, ann. 1213 , n. 14, rightly places St. Urbano in
the county of Narni. L'Eremo di S. Urbano is about half an
hour from the village of the same name, on Mount San Pancrazio
(1026 m.), three leagues south of Narni. The panorama is one of
the finest in Central Italy. The Bollandists allowed themselves
to be led into error by an interested assertion when they placed
San Urbano near to Jesi (pp. 623f and 624a). 1 Cel., 61; Bon.,
68. (Vide Bull Cum aliqua of May 15, 1218, where mention is
made of San Urbano.)

[13] As much may be said of the apparition of the three virgins
between Campilia and San Quirico. 2 Cel., 3, 37; Bon., 93.

[14] Spec. , 12b; Conform. , 169a, 1.

[15] 2 Cel., 3, 46; Bon., 153; Spec. , 31b; Ezek., xxxiii., 9.

[16] Two years after, the King of France and all his court
kissed and revered the pillow which Francis had used during his
illness. 1 Cel., 120.

[17] Bagnara is near the sources of the Topino, about an hour
east of Nocera. These two localities were then dependents of
Assisi.

[18] And not Sartiano. Balciano still exists, about half way
between Nocera and Assisi.

[19] 2 Cel., 3, 23; Bon., 98; Spec. , 17b; Conform. , 239a,
2f.

[20] 2 Cel., 3, 33; 1 Cel., 105, is still more explicit: "The
multitude hoped that he would die very soon, and that was the
subject of their joy."

[21] 1 Cel., 103 and 104.

[22] 1 Cel., 102; Spec. , 83b.

[23] 2 Cel., 3, 116; Spec. , 67a; Conform. , 143b, 1, and
225b, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 117; Spec. , 130a.

[24] For the text vide Conform. , 136b, 2; 138b, 2; 142 b, 1.

[25] Tribul., Archiv. , ii., pp. 285 ff.

[26] 2 Cel., 3, 118.

[27] These words are borrowed from a long fragment cited by
Ubertini di Casali, as coming from Brother Leo: Arbor vit.
cruc., lib. v., cap. 3. It is surely a bit of the Legend of
the Three Companions; it may be found textually in the
Tribulations, Laur., f^o 16b, with a few more sentences at the
end. Cf. Conform. , 136a, 2; 143a, 2; Spec. , 8b; 26b; 50a;
130b; 2 Cel., 3, 118.

[28] Tribul. , Laur., 17b.

[29] See, for example, Brother Richer's question as to the
books: Ubertini, Loc. cit. Cf. Archiv. , iii., pp. 75 and
177; Spec. , 8a; Conform. , 71b, 2. See also: Ubertini,
Archiv. , iii., pp. 75 and 177; Tribul. , 13a; Spec. , 9a;
Conform. , 170a, 1. It is curious to compare the account as it
found in the documents with the version of it given in 2 Cel.,
3, 8.