The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

the trembling dwelling shook.
‘What wretch forlorn,’ the poor Amyclas cries,
‘Driven by the raging seas, and stormy skies,
To my poor lowly roof for shelter flies?’

“O happy poverty! thou greatest good,
Bestowed by Heaven, but seldom understood!
Here nor the cruel spoiler seeks his prey,
Nor ruthless armies take their dreadful way:
Security thy narrow limits keeps,
Safe are thy cottages, and sound thy sleeps.
Behold! ye dangerous dwellings of the great,
Where gods and godlike princes choose their seat;
See in what peace the poor Amyclas lies,
Nor starts, though Caesar’s call commands to rise.”

Dante also writes, Convito, IV 13:⁠—

“And therefore the wise man says, that the traveller empty-handed on his way would sing in the very presence of robbers. And that is what Lucan refers to in his fifth book, when he commends the security of poverty, saying: O safe condition of poverty! O narrow habitations and hovels! O riches of the Gods not yet understood! At what times and at what walls could it happen, the not being afraid of any noise, when the hand of Caesar was knocking? And this says Lucan, when he describes how Caesar came by night to the hut of the fisherman Amyclas, to pass the Adrian Sea.”

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St. Francis, according to Butler, Lives of the Saints, X 78, used to say that “he possessed nothing of earthly goods, being a disciple of Him who, for our sakes, was born a stranger in an open stable, lived without a place of his own wherein to lay his head, subsisting by the charity of good people, and died naked on a cross in the close embraces of holy poverty.” ↩

Bernard of Quintavalle, the first follower of St. Francis. Butler, Lives of the Saints, X 75, says:⁠—

“Many began to admire the heroic and uniform virtue of this great servant of God, and some desired to be his companions and disciples. The first of these was Bernard of Quintaval, a rich tradesman of Assisium, a person of singular prudence, and of great authority in that city, which had been long directed by his counsels. Seeing the extraordinary conduct of St. Francis, he invited him to sup at his house, and had a good bed made ready for him near his own. When Bernard seemed to be fallen asleep, the servant of God arose, and falling on his knees, with his eyes lifted up, and his arms across, repeated very slow, with abundance of tears, the whole night, Deus meus et Omnia, ‘My God and my All.’⁠ ⁠… Bernard secretly watched the saint all night, by the light of a lamp, saying to himself, ‘This man is truly a servant of God’; and admiring the happiness of such a one, whose heart is entirely filled with God, and to whom the whole world is nothing. After many other proofs of the sincere and admirable sanctity of Francis, being charmed and vanquished by his example, he begged the saint to make him his companion. Francis recommended the matter to God for some time; they both heard mass together, and took advice that they might learn the will of God. The design being approved, Bernard sold all his effects, and divided the sum among the poor in one day.”

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Giles, or Egidius, the second follower of St. Francis, died at Perugia, in 1272. He was the author of a book called Verba Aurea, Golden Words. Butler, Lives of the Saints, VII 162, note, says of him:⁠—

“None among the first disciples of St. Francis seems to have been more perfectly replenished with his spirit of perfect charity, humility, meekness, and simplicity, as appears from the golden maxims and lessons of piety which he gave to others.”

He gives also this anecdote of him on p. 164:⁠—

“Brother Giles said, ‘Can a dull idiot love God as perfectly as a great scholar?’ St. Bonaventure replied, ‘A poor old woman may love him more than the most learned master and doctor in theology.’ At this Brother Giles, in a sudden fervor and jubilation of spirit, went into a garden, and, standing at a gate toward the city (of Rome), he looked that way, and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Come, the poorest, most simple, and most illiterate old woman, love the Lord our God, and you may attain to an higher degree of eminence and happiness than Brother Bonaventure with all his learning.’ After this he fell into an ecstasy, in which he continued in sweet contemplation without motion for the space of three hours.”

Sylvester, the third disciple, was a priest who sold stone to St. Francis for the repairs of the church of St. Damiano. Some question arising about the payment, St. Francis thrust his hand into Bernard’s bosom and drew forth a handful of gold, which he added to the previous payment. Sylvester, smitten with remorse that he, an old man, should be so greedy of gold, while a young man despised it for the love of God, soon after became a disciple of the saint. ↩

Peter Bernadone, the father of St. Francis, was a wool-merchant. Of this humble origin the saint was not ashamed. ↩

The permission to establish his religious Order, granted by Pope Innocent III, in 1214. ↩

Better here in heaven by the Angels, than on earth by Franciscan friars in their churches, as the custom was. Or perhaps, as Buti interprets it, better above in the glory of Paradise, “where is the College of all the Saints,” than here in the Sun. ↩

The permission to found the Order of Minor Friars, or Francis cans, granted by Pope Innocent III, in 1214, was confirmed by Pope Honorius III, in 1223. ↩

The title of Archimandrite, or Patriarch, was given in the Greek Church to one who had supervision over many convents. ↩

Namely, before the Sultan of Egypt in his camp near Damietta.