Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best historical biographies txt) π
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his bed, and, conforming to his wishes, they again sang to him the Canticle of the Sun.
At times he added his voice to those of his Brothers,[21] and came back with preference to Psalm 142, Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi .[22]
With my voice I cry unto the Lord,
With my voice I implore the Lord,
I pour out my complaint before him,
I tell him all my distress.
When my spirit is cast down within me,
Thou knowest my path.
Upon the way where I walk
They have laid a snare for me,
Cast thine eyes to the right and look!
No one recognizes me;
All refuge is lost for me,
No one takes thought for my soul.
Lord, unto thee I cry;
I say: Thou art my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
Be attentive to my cries!
For I am very unhappy.
Deliver me from those who pursue me!
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of its prison
That I may praise thy name.
The righteous shall compass me about
When thou hast done good unto me!
The visits of death are always solemn, but the end of the just is the most moving sursum corda that we can hear on earth. The hours flowed by and the Brothers would not leave him. "Alas, good Father," said one of them to him, unable longer to contain himself, "your children are going to lose you, and be deprived of the true light which lightened them: think of the orphans you are leaving and forgive all their faults, give to them all, present and absent, the joy of your holy benediction."
"See," replied the dying man, "God is calling me. I forgive all my Brothers, present and absent, their offences and faults, and absolve them according to my power. Tell them so, and bless them all in my name."[23]
Then crossing his arms he laid his hands upon those who surrounded him. He did this with peculiar emotion to Bernard of Quintavalle: "I desire," he said, "and with all my power I urge whomsoever shall be minister-general of the Order, to love and honor him as myself; let the provincials and all the Brothers act toward him as toward me."[24]
He thought not only of the absent Brothers but of the future ones; love so abounded in him that it wrung from him a groan of regret for not seeing all those who should enter the Order down to the end of time, that he might lay his hand upon their brows, and make them feel those things that may only be spoken by the eyes of him who loves in God.[25]
He had lost the notion of time; believing that it was still Thursday he desired to take a last meal with his disciples. Some bread was brought, he broke it and gave it to them, and there in the poor cabin of Portiuncula, without altar and without a priest, was celebrated the Lord's Supper.[26]
A Brother read the Gospel for Holy Thursday, Ante diem festum Paschæ : "Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come to go from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world he loved them unto the end."
The sun was gilding the crests of the mountains with his last rays, there was silence around the dying one. All was ready. The angel of death might come.
Saturday, October 3, 1226, at nightfall, without pain, without struggle, he breathed the last sigh.
The Brothers were still gazing on his face, hoping yet to catch some sign of life, when innumerable larks alighted, singing, on the thatch of his cell,[27] as if to salute the soul which had just taken flight and give the Little Poor Man the canonization of which he was most worthy, the only one, doubtless, which he would ever have coveted.
On the morrow, at dawn, the Assisans came down to take possession of his body and give it a triumphant funeral.
By a pious inspiration, instead of going straight to the city they went around by St. Damian, and thus was realized the promise made by Francis to the Sisters a few weeks before, to come once more to see them.
Their grief was heart-rending.
These women's hearts revolted against the absurdity of death;[28] but there were tears on that day at St. Damian only. The Brothers forgot their sadness on seeing the stigmata, and the inhabitants of Assisi manifested an indescribable joy on having their relic at last. They deposited it in the Church St. George.[29]
Less than two years after, Sunday, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. came to Assisi to preside in person over the ceremonies of canonization, and to lay, on the morrow, the first stone of the new church dedicated to the Stigmatized.
Built under the inspiration of Gregory IX. and the direction of Brother Elias, this marvellous basilica is also one of the documents of this history, and perhaps I have been wrong in neglecting it.
Go and look upon it, proud, rich, powerful, then go down to Portiuncula, pass over to St. Damian, hasten to the Carceri, and you will understand the abyss that separates the ideal of Francis from that of the pontiff who canonized him.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mortem cantando suscepit. 2 Cel., 3, 139.
[2] The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS.,
338 (f^o 16a-18a). It is also to be found in Firmamentum , f^o
19, col. 4; Speculum , Morin, tract. iii., 8a; Wadding, ann.
1226 , 35; A. SS., p. 663; Amoni, Legenda Trium Sociorum ;
Appendix, p. 110. Everything in this document proclaims its
authenticity, but we are not reduced to internal proof. It is
expressly cited in 1 Cel., 17 (before 1230); by the Three
Companions (1246), 3 Soc., 11; 26; 29; by 2 Cel., 3, 99 (1247).
These proofs would be more than sufficient, but there is another
of even greater value: the bull Quo elongati of September 28,
1230, where Gregory IX. cites it textually and declares that the
friars are not bound to observe it.
[3] Promittet Franciscus obedientiam ... papæ ... et
successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis præcipere
aliquid quod sit contra animam et regulam. Archiv. , i , p.
563.
[4] Quod si quando a quocumque ... pontifice aliquid ...
mandaretur quod esset contra fidem ... et caritatem et fructus
ejus tunc obediet Deo magis quam hominibus. Ib., p. 561.
[5] Est [Regula] et stat et intelligitur super eos ... Cum spei
fiducia pace fruemur cum conscientiæ et Christi spiritus
testimonio certo. Ib., pp. 563 and 565.
[6] Archiv. , ii., p. 274.
[7] Ad mandatum illud vos dicimus non teneri: quod sine
consensu Fratrum maxime ministrorum, quos universos tangebat
obligare nequivit nec successorem suum quomodolibet obligavit;
cum non habeat imperium par in parem. The sophism is barely
specious; Francis was not on a par with his successors; he did
not act as minister-general, but as founder.
[8] Arbor vit. cruc. , lib. v., cap. 3 and 5. See above, p.
185.
[9] Tribul. , Laur., 25b; Archiv. , i., p. 532.
[10] At the summit of the Apennines, about half way between
Camerino and Nocera (Umbria). Tribul. , Laur., 26b; Magl.,
135b.
[11] Declaratio Ubertini , Archiv. , iii., p. 168. This fact
is not to be questioned, since it is alleged in a piece
addressed to the pope, in response to the liberal friars, to
whom it was to be communicated.
[12] Feci moram cum illis. , MS., 338. Most of the printed
texts give miseracordiam , which gives a less satisfactory
meaning. Cf. Miscellanea iii. (1888), p. 70; 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc.,
11.
[13] It is evident that heresy is not here in question. The
Brothers who were infected with it were to be delivered to the
Church.
[14] Urban IV. published, October 18, 1263, Potthast (18680), a
Rule for the Clarisses which completely changed the character of
this Order. Its author was the cardinal protector Giovanni degli
Ursini (the future Nicholas III.), who by way of precaution
forbade the Brothers Minor under the severest penalties to
dissuade the Sisters from accepting it. "It differs as much from
the first Rule," said Ubertini di Casali "as black and white,
the savory and the insipid." Arbor. vit. cruc. lib. v., cap.
vi.
[15] V. Test. B. Claræ ; Conform. , 185a 1; Spec., 117b.
[16] 2 Cel., 3, 132.
[17] Bon., 112.
[18] The Bollandists deny this whole story, which they find in
opposition to the prescriptions of Francis himself. A. SS., p.
664 ff. But it is difficult to see for what object authors who
take great pains to explain it could have had for inventing it.
Spec. , 133a; Fior. iv.; consid. ; Conform. , 240a. I have
borrowed the whole account from Bernard
At times he added his voice to those of his Brothers,[21] and came back with preference to Psalm 142, Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi .[22]
With my voice I cry unto the Lord,
With my voice I implore the Lord,
I pour out my complaint before him,
I tell him all my distress.
When my spirit is cast down within me,
Thou knowest my path.
Upon the way where I walk
They have laid a snare for me,
Cast thine eyes to the right and look!
No one recognizes me;
All refuge is lost for me,
No one takes thought for my soul.
Lord, unto thee I cry;
I say: Thou art my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
Be attentive to my cries!
For I am very unhappy.
Deliver me from those who pursue me!
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of its prison
That I may praise thy name.
The righteous shall compass me about
When thou hast done good unto me!
The visits of death are always solemn, but the end of the just is the most moving sursum corda that we can hear on earth. The hours flowed by and the Brothers would not leave him. "Alas, good Father," said one of them to him, unable longer to contain himself, "your children are going to lose you, and be deprived of the true light which lightened them: think of the orphans you are leaving and forgive all their faults, give to them all, present and absent, the joy of your holy benediction."
"See," replied the dying man, "God is calling me. I forgive all my Brothers, present and absent, their offences and faults, and absolve them according to my power. Tell them so, and bless them all in my name."[23]
Then crossing his arms he laid his hands upon those who surrounded him. He did this with peculiar emotion to Bernard of Quintavalle: "I desire," he said, "and with all my power I urge whomsoever shall be minister-general of the Order, to love and honor him as myself; let the provincials and all the Brothers act toward him as toward me."[24]
He thought not only of the absent Brothers but of the future ones; love so abounded in him that it wrung from him a groan of regret for not seeing all those who should enter the Order down to the end of time, that he might lay his hand upon their brows, and make them feel those things that may only be spoken by the eyes of him who loves in God.[25]
He had lost the notion of time; believing that it was still Thursday he desired to take a last meal with his disciples. Some bread was brought, he broke it and gave it to them, and there in the poor cabin of Portiuncula, without altar and without a priest, was celebrated the Lord's Supper.[26]
A Brother read the Gospel for Holy Thursday, Ante diem festum Paschæ : "Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come to go from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world he loved them unto the end."
The sun was gilding the crests of the mountains with his last rays, there was silence around the dying one. All was ready. The angel of death might come.
Saturday, October 3, 1226, at nightfall, without pain, without struggle, he breathed the last sigh.
The Brothers were still gazing on his face, hoping yet to catch some sign of life, when innumerable larks alighted, singing, on the thatch of his cell,[27] as if to salute the soul which had just taken flight and give the Little Poor Man the canonization of which he was most worthy, the only one, doubtless, which he would ever have coveted.
On the morrow, at dawn, the Assisans came down to take possession of his body and give it a triumphant funeral.
By a pious inspiration, instead of going straight to the city they went around by St. Damian, and thus was realized the promise made by Francis to the Sisters a few weeks before, to come once more to see them.
Their grief was heart-rending.
These women's hearts revolted against the absurdity of death;[28] but there were tears on that day at St. Damian only. The Brothers forgot their sadness on seeing the stigmata, and the inhabitants of Assisi manifested an indescribable joy on having their relic at last. They deposited it in the Church St. George.[29]
Less than two years after, Sunday, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. came to Assisi to preside in person over the ceremonies of canonization, and to lay, on the morrow, the first stone of the new church dedicated to the Stigmatized.
Built under the inspiration of Gregory IX. and the direction of Brother Elias, this marvellous basilica is also one of the documents of this history, and perhaps I have been wrong in neglecting it.
Go and look upon it, proud, rich, powerful, then go down to Portiuncula, pass over to St. Damian, hasten to the Carceri, and you will understand the abyss that separates the ideal of Francis from that of the pontiff who canonized him.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mortem cantando suscepit. 2 Cel., 3, 139.
[2] The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS.,
338 (f^o 16a-18a). It is also to be found in Firmamentum , f^o
19, col. 4; Speculum , Morin, tract. iii., 8a; Wadding, ann.
1226 , 35; A. SS., p. 663; Amoni, Legenda Trium Sociorum ;
Appendix, p. 110. Everything in this document proclaims its
authenticity, but we are not reduced to internal proof. It is
expressly cited in 1 Cel., 17 (before 1230); by the Three
Companions (1246), 3 Soc., 11; 26; 29; by 2 Cel., 3, 99 (1247).
These proofs would be more than sufficient, but there is another
of even greater value: the bull Quo elongati of September 28,
1230, where Gregory IX. cites it textually and declares that the
friars are not bound to observe it.
[3] Promittet Franciscus obedientiam ... papæ ... et
successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis præcipere
aliquid quod sit contra animam et regulam. Archiv. , i , p.
563.
[4] Quod si quando a quocumque ... pontifice aliquid ...
mandaretur quod esset contra fidem ... et caritatem et fructus
ejus tunc obediet Deo magis quam hominibus. Ib., p. 561.
[5] Est [Regula] et stat et intelligitur super eos ... Cum spei
fiducia pace fruemur cum conscientiæ et Christi spiritus
testimonio certo. Ib., pp. 563 and 565.
[6] Archiv. , ii., p. 274.
[7] Ad mandatum illud vos dicimus non teneri: quod sine
consensu Fratrum maxime ministrorum, quos universos tangebat
obligare nequivit nec successorem suum quomodolibet obligavit;
cum non habeat imperium par in parem. The sophism is barely
specious; Francis was not on a par with his successors; he did
not act as minister-general, but as founder.
[8] Arbor vit. cruc. , lib. v., cap. 3 and 5. See above, p.
185.
[9] Tribul. , Laur., 25b; Archiv. , i., p. 532.
[10] At the summit of the Apennines, about half way between
Camerino and Nocera (Umbria). Tribul. , Laur., 26b; Magl.,
135b.
[11] Declaratio Ubertini , Archiv. , iii., p. 168. This fact
is not to be questioned, since it is alleged in a piece
addressed to the pope, in response to the liberal friars, to
whom it was to be communicated.
[12] Feci moram cum illis. , MS., 338. Most of the printed
texts give miseracordiam , which gives a less satisfactory
meaning. Cf. Miscellanea iii. (1888), p. 70; 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc.,
11.
[13] It is evident that heresy is not here in question. The
Brothers who were infected with it were to be delivered to the
Church.
[14] Urban IV. published, October 18, 1263, Potthast (18680), a
Rule for the Clarisses which completely changed the character of
this Order. Its author was the cardinal protector Giovanni degli
Ursini (the future Nicholas III.), who by way of precaution
forbade the Brothers Minor under the severest penalties to
dissuade the Sisters from accepting it. "It differs as much from
the first Rule," said Ubertini di Casali "as black and white,
the savory and the insipid." Arbor. vit. cruc. lib. v., cap.
vi.
[15] V. Test. B. Claræ ; Conform. , 185a 1; Spec., 117b.
[16] 2 Cel., 3, 132.
[17] Bon., 112.
[18] The Bollandists deny this whole story, which they find in
opposition to the prescriptions of Francis himself. A. SS., p.
664 ff. But it is difficult to see for what object authors who
take great pains to explain it could have had for inventing it.
Spec. , 133a; Fior. iv.; consid. ; Conform. , 240a. I have
borrowed the whole account from Bernard
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