CHAPTER XIX
THE LAST YEAR
September, 1225—End of September, 1226
- 308 -What did Ugolini think when they told him that Francis was planning to
send his friars, transformed into Joculatores Domini, to sing up and
down the country the Canticle of Brother Sun? Perhaps he never heard of
it. His protégé finally decided to accept his invitation and left St.
Damian in the course of the month of September.
The landscape which lies before the eyes of the traveller from Assisi,
when he suddenly emerges upon the plain of Rieti, is one of the most
beautiful in Europe. From Terni the road follows the sinuous course of
the Velino, passes not far from the famous cascades, whose clouds of
mist are visible, and then plunges into the defiles in whose depths the
torrent rushes noisily, choked by a vegetation as luxuriant as that of a
virgin forest. On all sides uprise walls of perpendicular rocks, and on
their crests, several hundred yards above your head, are feudal
fortresses, among others the Castle of Miranda, more giddy, more
fantastic than any which Gustave Doré's fancy ever dreamed.
After four hours of walking, the defile opens out and you find yourself
without transition in a broad valley, sparkling with light.
Rieti, the only city in this plain of several leagues, appears far away
at the other extremity, commanded by- 309 - hills of a thoroughly tropical
aspect, behind which rise the mighty Apennines, almost always covered
with snow.
The highway goes directly toward this town, passing between tiny lakes;
here and there roads lead off to little villages which you see, on the
hillside, between the cultivated fields and the edge of the forests;
there are Stroncone, Greccio, Cantalice, Poggio-Buscone, and ten other
small towns, which have given more saints to the Church than a whole
province of France.
Between the inhabitants of the district and their neighbors of Umbria,
properly so called, the difference is extreme. They are all of the
striking type of the Sabine peasants, and they remain to this day entire
strangers to new customs. One is born a Capuchin there as elsewhere one
is born a soldier, and the traveller needs to have his wits about him
not to address every man he meets as Reverend Father.
Francis had often gone over this district in every direction. Like its
neighbor, the hilly March of Ancona, it was peculiarly prepared to
receive the new gospel. In these hermitages, with their almost
impossible simplicity, perched near the villages on every side, without
the least care for material comfort, but always where there is the
widest possible view, was perpetuated a race of Brothers Minor,
impassioned, proud, stubborn, almost wild, who did not wholly understand
their master, who did not catch his exquisite simplicity, his
impossibility of hating, his dreams of social and political renovation,
his poetry and delicacy, but who did understand the lover of nature and
of poverty.1 They did more than understand him;- 310 - they lived his
life, and from that Christmas festival observed in the woods of Greccio
down to to-day they have remained the simple and popular representatives
of the Strict Observance. From them comes to us the Legend of the Three
Companions, the most life-like and true of all the portraits of the
Poverello, and it was there, in a cell three paces long, that Giovanni
di Parma had his apocalyptic visions.
The news of Francis's arrival quickly spread, and long before he reached
Rieti the population had come out to meet him.
To avoid this noisy welcome he craved the hospitality of the priest of
St. Fabian. This little church, now known under the name of Our Lady of
the Forest, is somewhat aside from the road upon a grassy mound about a
league from the city. He was heartily welcomed, and desiring to remain
there for a little, prelates and devotees began to flock thither in the
next few days.
It was the time of the early grapes. It is easy to imagine the
disquietude of the priest on perceiving the ravages made by these
visitors among his vines, his best source of revenue, but he probably
exaggerated the damage. Francis one day heard him giving vent to his bad
humor. "Father," he said, "it is useless for you to disturb yourself for
what you cannot hinder; but, tell me, how much wine do you get on an
average?"
"Fourteen measures," replied the priest.
"Very well, if you have less than twenty, I undertake to make up the
difference."
This promise reassured the worthy man, and when at the vintage he
received twenty measures, he had no hesitation in believing in a
miracle.2
Upon Ugolini's entreaties Francis had accepted the- 311 - hospitality of the
bishop's palace in Rieti. Thomas of Celano enlarges with delight upon
the marks of devotion lavished on Francis by this prince of the Church.
Unhappily all this is written in that pompous and confused style of
which diplomats and ecclesiastics appear to have by nature the secret.
Francis entered into the condition of a relic in his lifetime. The mania
for amulets displayed itself around him in all its excesses. People
quarrelled not only over his clothing, but even over his hair and the
parings of his nails.3
Did these merely exterior demonstrations disgust him? Did he sometimes
think of the contrast between these honors offered to his body, which he
picturesquely called Brother Ass, and the subversion of his ideal? We
cannot tell. If he had feelings of this kind those who surrounded him
were not the men to understand them, and it would be idle to expect any
expression of them from his pen.
Soon after he had a relapse, and asked to be removed to
Monte-Colombo,4 a hermitage an hour distant from the city, hidden
amidst trees and scattered rocks. He had already retired thither several
times, notably when he was preparing the Rule of 1223.
The doctors, having exhausted the therapeutic arsenal of the time,
decided to resort to cauterization; it was decided to draw a rod of
white-hot iron across his forehead.
When the poor patient saw them bringing in the brazier and the
instruments he had a moment of terror; but- 312 - immediately making the sign
of the cross over the glowing iron, "Brother fire," he said, "you are
beautiful above all creatures; be favorable to me in this hour; you know
how much I have always loved you; be then courteous to-day."
Afterward, when his companions, who had not had the courage to remain,
came back he said to them, smiling, "Oh, cowardly folk, why did you go
away? I felt no pain. Brother doctor, if it is necessary you may do it
again."
This experiment was no more successful than the other remedies. In vain
they quickened the wound on the forehead, by applying plasters, salves,
and even by making incisions in it; the only result was to increase the
pains of the sufferer.5
One day, at Rieti, whither he had again been carried, he thought that a
little music would relieve his pain. Calling a friar who had formerly
been clever at playing the guitar, he begged him to borrow one; but the
friar was afraid of the scandal which this might cause, and Francis gave
it up.
God took pity upon him; the following night he sent an invisible angel
to give him such a concert as is never heard on earth.6 Francis,
hearing it, lost all bodily feeling, say the Fioretti, and at one moment
the melody was so sweet and penetrating that if the angel had given one
more stroke of the bow, the sick man's soul would have left his
body.7
It seems that there was some amelioration of his state when the doctors
left him; we find him during the- 313 - months of this winter, 1225-1226, in
the most remote hermitages of the district, for as soon as he had a
little strength he was determined to begin preaching again.
He went to Poggio-Buscone8 for the Christmas festival. People
flocked thither in crowds from all the country round to see and hear
him. "You come here," he said, "expecting to find a great saint; what
will you think when I tell you that I ate meat all through Advent?"9
At St. Eleutheria,10 at a time of extreme cold which tried him much,
he had sewn some pieces of stuff into his own tunic and that of his
companion, so as to make their garments a little warmer. One day his
companion came home with a fox-skin, with which in his turn he proposed
to line his master's tunic. Francis rejoiced much over it, but would
permit this excess of consideration for his body only on condition that
the piece of fur should be placed on the outside over his chest.
All these incidents, almost insignificant at a first view, show how he
detested hypocrisy even in the smallest things.
We will not follow him to his dear Greccio,11 nor even to the
hermitage of St. Urbano, perched on one of the highest peaks of the
Sabine.12 The accounts which we- 314 - have of the brief visits he made
there at this time tell us nothing new of his character or of the
history of his life. They simply show that the imaginations of those who
surrounded him were extraordinarily overheated; the least incidents
immediately took on a miraculous coloring.13
The documents do not say how it came about that he decided to go to
Sienna. It appears that there was in that city a physician of great fame
as an oculist. The treatment he prescribed was no more successful than
that of the others; but with the return of spring Francis made a new
effort to return to active life. We find him describing the ideal
Franciscan monastery,14 and another day explaining a passage in the
Bible to a Dominican.
Did the latter, a doctor in theology, desire to bring the rival Order
into ridicule by showing its founder incapable of explaining a somewhat
difficult verse? It appears extremely likely. "My good father," he said,
"how do you understand this saying of the prophet Ezekiel, 'If thou dost
not warn the wicked of his wickedness, I will require his soul of thee?'
I am acquainted with many men whom I know to be in a state of mortal
sin, and yet I am not always reproaching them for their vices. Am I,
then, responsible for their souls?"
At first Francis excused himself, alleging his ignorance, but urged by
his interlocutor he said at last: "Yes, the true servant unceasingly
rebukes the wicked, but he does it most of all by his conduct, by the
truth which shines forth in his words, by the light of his example, by
all the radiance of his life."15
He soon suffered so grave a relapse that the Brothers- 315 - thought his last
hour had come. They were especially affrighted by the hemorrhages, which
reduced him to a state of extreme prostration. Brother Elias hastened to
him. At his arrival the invalid felt in himself such an improvement that
they could acquiesce in his desire to be taken back to Umbria. Toward
the middle of April they set out, going in the direction of Cortona. It
is the easiest route, and the delightful hermitage of that city was one
of the best ordered to permit of his taking some repose. He doubtless
remained there a very short time: he was in haste to see once more the
skies of his native country, Portiuncula, St. Damian, the Carceri, all
those paths and hamlets which one sees from the terraces of Assisi and
which recalled to him so many sweet memories.
Instead of going by the nearest road, they made a long circuit by Gubbio
and Nocera, to avoid Perugia, fearing some attempt of the inhabitants to
get possession of the Saint. Such a relic as the body of Francis lacked
little of the value of the sacred nail or the sacred lance.16 Battles
were fought for less than that.
They made a short halt near Nocera, at the hermitage of Bagnara, on the
slopes of Monte-Pennino.17 His companions were again very much
disturbed. The swelling which had shown itself in the lower limbs was
rapidly gaining the upper part of the body. The Assisans learned this,
and wishing to be prepared for whatever might happen sent their
men-at-arms to protect the Saint and hasten his return.
Bringing Francis back with them they stopped for food- 316 - at the hamlet of
Balciano,18 but in vain they begged the inhabitants to sell them
provisions. As the escort were confiding their discomfiture to the
friars, Francis, who knew these good peasants, said: "If you had asked
for food without offering to pay, you would have found all you wanted."
He was right, for, following his advice, they received for nothing all
that they desired.19
The arrival of the party at Assisi was hailed with frantic joy. This
time Francis's fellow-citizens were sure that the Saint was not going to
die somewhere else.20
Customs in this matter have changed too much for us to be able
thoroughly to comprehend the good fortune of possessing the body of a
saint. If you are ever so unlucky as to mention St. Andrew before an
inhabitant of Amalfi, you will immediately find him beginning to shout
"Evviva San Andrea! Evviva San Andrea!" Then with extraordinary
volubility he will relate to you the legend of the Grande Protettore,
his miracles past and present, those which he might have done if he had
chosen, but which he refrained from doing out of charity because St.
Januarius of Naples could not do as much. He gesticulates, throws
himself about, hustles you, more enthusiastic over his relic and more
exasperated by your coldness than a soldier of the Old Guard before an
enemy of the Emperor.
In the thirteenth century all Europe was like that.
We shall find here several incidents which we may be tempted to consider
shocking or even ignoble, if we do- 317 - not make an effort to put them all
into their proper surroundings.
Francis was installed in the bishop's palace; he would have preferred to
be at Portiuncula, but the Brothers were obliged to obey the injunctions
of the populace, and to make assurance doubly sure, guards were placed
at all the approaches of the palace.
The abode of the Saint in this place was much longer than had been
anticipated. It perhaps lasted several months (July to September). This
dying man did not consent to die. He rebelled against death; in this
centre of the work his anxieties for the future of the Order, which a
little while before had been in the background, now returned, more
agonizing and terrible than ever.
"We must begin again," he thought, "create a new family who will not
forget humility, who will go and serve lepers and, as in the old times,
put themselves always, not merely in words, but in reality, below all
men."21
To feel that implacable work of destruction going on against which the
most submissive cannot keep from protesting: "My God, my God, why? why
hast thou forsaken me?" To be obliged to look on at the still more
dreaded decomposition of his Order; he, the lark, to be spied upon by
soldiers watching for his corpse—there was quite enough here to make
him mortally sad.
During these last weeks all his sighs were noted. The disappearance of
the greater part of the legend of the Three Companions certainly
deprives us of some touching stories, but most of the incidents have
been preserved for us, notwithstanding, in documents from a second hand.
Four Brothers had been especially charged to lavish care upon him: Leo,
Angelo, Rufino, and Masseo. We already know them; they are of those
intimate friends- 318 - of the first days, who had heard in the Franciscan
gospel a call to love and liberty. And they too began to complain of
everything.22
One day one of them said to the sick man: "Father, you are going away to
leave us here; point out to us, then, if you know him, the one to whom
we might in all security confide the burden of the generalship."
Alas, Francis did not know the ideal Brother, capable of assuming such a
duty; but he took advantage of the question to sketch the portrait of
the perfect minister-general.23
We have two impressions of this portrait, the one which has been
retouched by Celano, and the original proof, much shorter and more
vague, but showing us Francis desiring that his successor shall have but
a single weapon, an unalterable love.
It was probably this question which suggested to him the thought of
leaving for his successors, the generals of the Order, a letter which
they should pass on from one to another, and where they should find, not
directions for particular cases, but the very inspiration of their
activity.24
To the Reverend Father in Christ, N ..., Minister-General of the
entire Order of the Brothers Minor. May God bless thee and keep
thee in his holy love. Patience in all things and everywhere, this, my Brother, is what
I specially recommend. Even if they oppose thee, if they strike
thee, thou shouldst be grateful to them and desire that it
should be thus and not otherwise.
In this will be manifest thy love for God and for me, his
servant and thine; that there shall not be a single friar in the
world who, having sinned as much as one can sin, and coming
before- 319 - thee, shall go away without having received thy pardon.
And if he does not ask it, do thou ask it for him, whether he
wills or not.
And if he should return again a thousand times before thee, love
him more than myself, in order to lead him to well-doing. Have
pity always on these Brothers. These words show plainly enough how in former days Francis had directed
the Order; in his dream the ministers-general were to stand in a
relation of pure affection, of tender devotion toward those under them;
but was this possible for one at the head of a family whose branches
extended over the entire world? It would be hazardous to say, for among
his successors have not been wanting distinguished minds and noble
hearts; but save for Giovanni di Parma and two or three others, this
ideal is in sharp contrast with the reality. St. Bonaventura himself
will drag his master and friend, this very Giovanni of Parma, before an
ecclesiastical tribunal, will cause him to be condemned to perpetual
imprisonment, and it will need the intervention of a cardinal outside of
the Order to secure the commutation of this sentence.25
The agonies of grief endured by the dying Francis over the decadence of
the Order would have been less poignant if they had not been mingled
with self-reproaches for his own cowardice. Why had he deserted his
post, given up the direction of his family, if not from idleness and
selfishness? And now it was too late to take back this step; and in
hours of frightful anguish he asked himself if God would not hold him
responsible for this subversion of his ideal.
"Ah, if I could go once again to the chapter-general," he would sigh, "I
would show them what my will is."
Shattered as he was by fever, he would suddenly rise up in his bed,
crying with a despairing intensity:- 320 - "Where are they who have ravished
my brethren from me? Where are they who have stolen away my family?"
Alas, the real criminals were nearer to him than he thought. The
provincial ministers, of whom he appears to have been thinking when he
thus spoke, were only instruments in the hands of the clever Brother
Elias; and he—what else was he doing but putting his intelligence and
address at Cardinal Ugolini's service?
Far from finding any consolation in those around him, Francis was
constantly tortured by the confidences of his companions, who, impelled
by mistaken zeal, aggravated his pain instead of calming it.26
"Forgive me, Father," said one of them to him one day, "but many
people have already thought what I am going to say to you. You
know how, in the early days, by God's grace the Order walked in
the path of perfection; for all that concerns poverty and love,
as well as for all the rest, the Brothers were but one heart and
one soul. But for some time past all that is entirely changed:
it is true that people often excuse the Brothers by saying that
the Order has grown too large to keep up the old observances;
they even go so far as to claim that infidelities to the Rule,
such as the building of great monasteries, are a means of
edification of the people, and so the primitive simplicity and
poverty are held for nothing. Evidently all these abuses are
displeasing to you; but then, people ask, why do you tolerate
them?" "God forgive you, brother." replied Francis. "Why do you lay at
my door things with which I have nothing to do? So long as I had
the direction of the Order, and the Brothers persevered in their
vocation I was able, in spite of weakness, to do what was
needful. But when I saw that, without caring for my example or
my teaching, they walked in the way you have described, I
confided them to the Lord and to the ministers. It is true that
when I relinquished the direction, alleging my incapacity as the
motive, if they had walked in the way of my wishes I should not
have desired that before my death they should have had any other
minister than myself; though ill, though bedridden, even, I
- 321 -
should have found strength to perform the duties of my charge.
But this charge is wholly spiritual; I will not become an
executioner to strike and punish as political governors
must."27
Francis's complaints became so sharp and bitter that, to avoid scandal,
the greatest prudence was exercised with regard to those who were
permitted to see him.28
Disorder was everywhere, and every day brought its contingent of
subjects for sorrow. The confusion of ideas as to the practice of the
Rule was extreme; occult influences, which had been working for several
years, had succeeded in veiling the Franciscan ideal, not only from
distant Brothers, or those who had newly joined the Order, but even from
those who had lived under the influence of the founder.29
Under circumstances such as these, Francis dictated the letter to all
the members of the Order, which, as he thought would be read at the
opening of chapters and perpetuate his spiritual presence in them.30
In this letter he is perfectly true to himself; as in the- 322 - past, he
desires to influence the Brothers, not by reproaches but by fixing their
eyes on the perfect holiness.
To all the revered and well-beloved Brothers Minor, to Brother A
..., 31 minister-general, its Lord, and to the
ministers-general who shall be after him, and to all the
ministers, custodians, and priests of this fraternity, humble in
Christ, and to all the simple and obedient Brothers, the oldest
and the most recent, Brother Francis, a mean and perishing man,
your little servant, gives greeting! Hear, my Lords, you who are my sons and my brothers, give ear to
my words. Open your hearts and obey the voice of the Son of God.
Keep his commandments with all your hearts, and perfectly
observe his counsels. Praise him, for he is good, and glorify
him by your works.
God has sent you through all the world, that by your words and
example you may bear witness of him, and that you may teach all
men that he alone is all powerful. Persevere in discipline and
obedience, and with an honest and firm will keep that which you
have promised. After this opening Francis immediately passes to the essential matter of
the letter, that of the love and respect due to the Sacrament of the
altar; faith in this mystery of love appeared to him indeed as the
salvation of the Order.
Was he wrong? How can a man who truly believes in the real presence of
the God-Man between the fingers of him who lifts up the host, not
consecrate his life to this God and to holiness? One has some difficulty
in imagining.
It is true that legions of devotees profess the most absolute faith in
this dogma, and we do not see that they are less bad; but faith with
them belongs in the intellectual- 323 - sphere; it is the abdication of
reason, and in sacrificing their intelligence to God they are most happy
to offer to him an instrument which they very much prefer not to use.
To Francis the question presented itself quite differently; the thought
that there could be any merit in believing could never enter his mind;
the fact of the real presence was for him of almost concrete evidence.
Therefore his faith in this mystery was an energy of the heart, that the
life of God, mysteriously present upon the altar, might become the soul
of all his actions.
To the eucharistic transubstantiation, effected by the words of the
priest, he added another, that of his own heart.
God offers himself to us as to his children. This is why I beg
you, all of you, my brothers, kissing your feet, and with all
the love of which I am capable, to have all possible respect for
the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then addressing himself particularly to the priests:
Hearken, my brothers, if the blessed Virgin Mary is justly
honored for having carried Jesus in her womb, if John the
Baptist trembled because he dared not touch the Lord's head, if
the sepulchre in which for a little time he lay is regarded with
such great adoration, oh, how holy, pure, and worthy should be
the priest who touches with his hands, who receives into his
mouth and into his heart, and who distributes to others the
living, glorified Jesus, the sight of whom makes angels rejoice!
Understand your dignity, brother priests, and be holy, for he is
holy. Oh! what great wretchedness and what a frightful infirmity
to have him there present before you and to think of other
things. Let each man be struck with amazement, let the whole
earth tremble, let the heavens thrill with joy when the Christ,
the Son of the living God, descends upon the altar into the
hands of the priest. Oh, wonderful profundity! Oh, amazing
grace! Oh, triumph of humility! See, the Master of all things,
God, and the Son of God, humbles himself for our salvation, even
to disguising himself under the appearance of a bit of bread. Contemplate, my brothers, this humility of God, and enlarge your
hearts before him; humble yourselves as well, that you, even
- 324 -
you, may be lifted up by him. Keep nothing for yourselves, that
he may receive you without reserve, who has given himself to you
without reserve. We see with what vigor of love Francis's heart had laid hold upon the
idea of the communion.
He closes with long counsels to the Brothers, and after having conjured
them faithfully to keep their promises, all his mysticism breathes out
and is summed up in a prayer of admirable simplicity.
God Almighty, eternal, righteous, and merciful, give to us poor
wretches to do for thy sake all that we know of thy will, and to
will always what pleases thee; so that inwardly purified,
enlightened, and kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we may
follow in the footprints of thy well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
What separates this prayer from the effort to discern duty made by
choice spirits apart from all revealed religion? Very little in truth;
the words are different, the action is the same.
But Francis's solicitudes reached far beyond the limits of the Order.
His longest epistle is addressed to all Christians; its words are so
living that you fancy you hear a voice speaking behind you; and this
voice, usually as serene as that which from the mountain in Galilee
proclaimed the law of the new times, becomes here and there unutterably
sweet, like that which sounded in the upper chamber on the night of the
first eucharist.
As Jesus forgot the cross that was standing in the shadows, so Francis
forgets his sufferings, and, overcome with a divine sadness, thinks of
humanity, for each member of which he would give his life; he thinks of
his spiritual sons, the Brothers of Penitence, whom he is about to leave
without having been able to make them feel, as he would have had them
feel, the love for them with which he burns: "Father, I have given them
the- 325 - words which thou hast given me.... For them I pray!"
The whole Franciscan gospel is in these words, but to understand the
fascination which it exerted we must have gone through the School of the
Middle Ages, and there listened to the interminable tournaments of
dialectics by which minds were dried up; we must have seen the Church of
the thirteenth century, honeycombed by simony and luxury, and only able,
under the pressure of heresy or revolt, to make a few futile efforts to
scotch the evil.
To all Christians, monks, clerics, or laymen, whether men or
women, to all who dwell in the whole world, Brother Francis,
their most submissive servitor, presents his duty and wishes the
true peace of heaven, and sincere love in the Lord. Being the servitor of all men, I am bound to serve them and to
dispense to them the wholesome words of my Master. This is why,
seeing I am too weak and ill to visit each one of you in
particular, I have resolved to send you my message by this
letter, and to offer you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God, and of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit and life.
It would be puerile to expect here new ideas either in fact or form.
Francis's appeals are of value only by the spirit which animates them.
After having briefly recalled the chief features of the gospel, and
urgently recommended the communion, Francis addresses himself in
particular to certain categories of hearers, with special counsels.
Let the podestàs, governors, and those who are placed in
authority, exercise their functions with mercy, as they would be
judged with mercy by God.... Monks in particular, who have renounced the world, are bound to
do more and better than simple Christians, to renounce all that
is not necessary to them, and to have in hatred the vices and
sins of the body.... They should love their enemies, do good to
them who hate them, observe the precepts and counsels of our
- 326 -
Redeemer, renounce themselves, and subdue their bodies. And no
monk is bound to obedience, if in obeying he would be obliged to
commit a fault or a sin....
Let us not be wise and learned according to the flesh, but
simple, humble, and pure.... We should never desire to be above
others, but rather to be below, and to obey all men.
He closes by showing the foolishness of those who set their hearts on
the possession of earthly goods, and concludes by the very realistic
picture of the death of the wicked.
His money, his title, his learning, all that he believed himself
to possess, all are taken from him; his relatives and his
friends to whom he has given his fortune will come to divide it
among themselves, and will end by saying: "Curses on him, for he
might have given us more and he has not done it; he might have
amassed a larger fortune, and he has done nothing of the kind."
The worms will eat his body and the demons will consume his
soul, and thus he will lose both soul and body. I, Brother Francis, your little servitor, I beg and conjure you
by the love that is in God, ready to kiss your feet, to receive
with humility and love these and all other words of our Lord
Jesus Christ and to conform your conduct to them. And let those
who devoutly receive them and understand them pass them on to
others. And if they thus persevere unto the end, may they be
blessed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.32
If Francis ever made a Rule for the Third Order it must have very nearly
resembled this epistle, and until this problematical document is found,
the letter shows what were originally these associations of Brothers of
Penitence. Everything in these long pages looks toward the development
of the mystic religious life in the heart of each Christian. But even
when Francis dictated them, this high view had become a Utopia, and the
Third Order was only one battalion more in the armies of the papacy.
We see that the epistles which we have just examined- 327 - proceed definitely
from a single inspiration. Whether he is leaving instructions for his
successors, the ministers-general, whether he is writing to all the
present and future members of his Order, to all Christians or even to
the clergy,33 Francis has only one aim, to keep on preaching after
his death, and perhaps, too, by putting into writing his message of
peace and love, to provide that he shall not be entirely travestied or
misunderstood.
Considered in connection with those sorrowful hours which saw their
birth, they form a whole whose import and meaning become singularly
energetic. If we would find the Franciscan spirit, it is here, in the
Rule of 1221, and in the Will that we must seek for it.
Neglect, and especially the storms which later overwhelmed the Order,
explain the disappearance of several other documents which would cast a
glimmer of poetry and joy over these sad days;34 Francis had not
forgotten his sister-friend at St. Damian. Hearing that she had been
greatly disquieted by knowing him to be so ill, he desired to reassure
her: he still deceived himself as to his condition, and wrote to her
promising soon to go to see her.
To this assurance he added some affectionate counsels, advising her and
her companions not to go to extremes with their macerations. To set her
an example of cheerfulness- 328 - he added to this letter a Laude in the
vulgar tongue which he had himself set to music.35
In that chamber of the episcopal palace in which he was as it were
imprisoned he had achieved a new victory, and it was doubtless that
which inspired his joy. The Bishop of Assisi, the irritable Guido,
always at war with somebody, was at this time quarrelling with the
podestà of the city; nothing more was needed to excite in the little
town a profound disquiet. Guido had excommunicated the podestà, and the
latter had issued a prohibition against selling and buying or making any
contract with ecclesiastics.
The difference grew more bitter, and no one appeared to dream of
attempting a reconciliation. We can the better understand Francis's
grief over all this by remembering that his very first effort had been
to bring peace into his native city, and that he considered the return
of Italy to union and concord to be the essential aim of his apostolate.
War in Assisi would be the final dissolution of his dream; the voice of
events crying brutally to him, "Thou hast wasted thy life!"
The dregs of this cup were spared him, thanks to an inspiration in which
breaks forth anew his natural play of imagination. To the Canticle of
the Sun he added a new strophe:
Be praised, Lord, for those who forgive for love of thee,
and bear trials and tribulations;
happy they who persevere in peace,
by thee, Most high, shall they be crowned.
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Then, calling a friar, he charged him to beg the governor to betake
himself, with all the notables whom he could assemble, to the paved
square before the bishop's- 329 - palace. The magistrate, to whom legend gives
the nobler part in the whole affair, at once yielded to the saint's
request.
When he arrived and the bishop had come forth from the palace,
two friars came forward and said: "Brother Francis has made to
the praise of God a hymn to which he prays you to listen
piously," and immediately they began to sing the Hymn of Brother
Sun, with its new strophe. The governor listened, standing in an attitude of profound
attention, copiously weeping, for he dearly loved the blessed
Francis.
When the singing was ended, "Know in truth," said he, "that I
desire to forgive the lord bishop, that I wish and ought to look
upon him as my lord, for if one had even assassinated my brother
I should be ready to pardon the murderer." With these words he
threw himself at the bishop's feet, and said: "I am ready to do
whatsoever you would, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and
his servant Francis."
Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, lifted him up and said,
"With my position it would become me to be humble, but since I
am naturally too quick to wrath, thou must pardon me."36
This unexpected reconciliation was immediately looked upon as
miraculous, and increased still more the reverence of the Assisans for
their fellow-citizen.
The summer was drawing to a close. After a few days of relative
improvement Francis's sufferings became greater than ever: incapable of
movement, he even thought that he ought to give up his ardent desire to
see St. Damian and Portiuncula once more, and gave the brothers all his
directions about the latter sanctuary: "Never abandon it," he would
repeat to them, "for that place is truly sacred: it is the house of
God."- 330 -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,- 331 - 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.
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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.- 332 -
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.
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