By Fr. Joy Prakash, OFM –
The question by Masseo “why after you,” Three times he asked the question: why does the whole world run after you: the whole world is running after you, you are not a handsome man, you do not come from noble family, no great learning. The whole world is running after you. Indeed, the whole world ran after Francis that already six year before the friars could illustrate a point in his sermon with a reference to St. Francis – which means he was already known in England.
When Francis died the land he loved most and from which he took his name, France – Francesco – Francis – mourned his loss. King Louis and his mother Blanche used his pillow he had used in his sickness. And the professors of Paris honoured this unlettered man. The friend of true simplicity and complete sincerity. In every age, Francis has touched the heart and inspired the soul. Cimabue, Giotto, Bellini, E1 Greco, Rembrandt, sought to portray him, Dante, Wordsworth, Longfellow, Tennyson, Hopkins – the bards sought to sing his praises. Chesterton, Guardini, Merton, Kazantzakis have shared their reflections. Lenin lamented the blood he left on the steps of Russia, and thought of the love left by St. Francis. 10 Francises of Assisi and we could have saved Russia.
Pope John II prayed to St. Francis that he should not only save Russia, but the entire world.
Worldly Man
If we had to look back at the year 1201, we would have noticed a band of youth, eating and carousing, and behind them came their leader, a 20-year old youth, Francesco, son of Pietro Bernardone, who by day an entrepreneur, by night master of revelry. He being the merchant’s son he was the best dressed in the group and he had the reputation in leading the crowd in curious pranks. “Do you like my new mantle, as he swung his golden cloth, inside out, to show a lining of rags. Even the priests were aware of some of his tricks; his parents complained that he squandered money like a prince. And his friends elected him Lord of the Revels again and again, and they knew he would pick up tab.
But he was not just a reveller; he was indeed the Lord of the revels if he was most enterprising merchant by day, by night he was the most chivalrous of his companions. Master of magnanimity, Lord of largesse. No son of a noble man was more generous. Moreover there was something – captivating about him. A sensitivity that set above all his fellows.
This lad had a soul. From infancy this lad had in his heart a strange compassion for the poor. He tried to hide it, not readily revealing it to his fellow companions. He once pursued a beggar with alms, with apology after he had rudely dismissed him because he was intent on a sale. There was something else in the midst of outrageous pranks. And mischievous ways, he felt for people, and laughter had its limits. His sensitive soul would not say anything to hurt anyone. His language was never coarse. He was deaf to suggestions that went beyond decency. The beggars who watched from the sidelines were a little amused. Some of them probably knew that there were two Francises. One was the leader of revels, one was the sensitive almsgiver. One night a beggar joined in the jest, taking a cloak he put in the gutter, for my Lord to step on. Lest my lord should soil his feet.
A Cut Above The Rest
Francis’s mother like all Italian mothers expected much of her son, and the neighbours also noticed that Francis was a cut above his fellows. And wondered what would become of him.
The Family was very much of a mystery. His father Pietro de Bernardone, cloth merchant and business man, absorbed in making money. They were quite successful at it looking at the property his nephews inherited. It is strange that such a populous person left no trace in the civil records of Assisi. A tradition says that the family was not long in Assisi before Francis birth. But they had come from Levucca. A recent theory – not totally impossible – the family might not have been of Jewish origin. Equally obscure is Francis Mother. Whose appears late in the 13th century, as Lady Pica. It is a nick name for magpie. French scholars on the other hand said. It is Picke – a native of Piccady.
They see her as prize brought to Italy during his business trip to France. They point to Francis knowledge of French, which Francis might have learnt from the lips of his mother or perhaps he accompanied his father on his trips to France, or from the French knights who passed through Assisi, for their Norman cousins in Apulia. Whether she was French or Italian, why was she called the Lady Pica? Was she Indeed of noble blood? Or was it because she inherited vast wealth from her husband? Was it because she was mother of a saint?
Obscurity also surrounds the other members of the family. One brother is identified by the early biographers and he is named as Angelo – son of Pica – it is found in the civil documents. And a recent study says that Angelo was a son from a previous marriage.
Chivalrous and Compassionate
At a time when there were no photographs, Celano has described the man Francis and we give here some particulars: He was medium height – closer to shortness. Actually about five foot two, according to the skeletal remains normal height for the 13th century. He was of slight build, his shoulder straight, his beard black, his face a bit elongated. His teeth even and white, his general appearance was cheerful and kindly, his voice was strong, clear sweet and sonorous.
Francis was both chivalrous and compassionate. Despite his desire to possess knighthood Francis was not a robust figure one who knew him says that by nature Francis was delicate and frail, in the world he could live only surrounded by attention. This delicate nature and the attention he received produced rather particular young man. In later life he admitted that in his youth he did not eat anything that he did not like.
But what was really too extreme was his physical revulsion to lepers. He could not stand even look in the direction the direction o the leprosarium, from a distance of two miles, without turning his head and holding his nose. And he could give alms a leper only through an intermediary. Meeting a leper might not have been a pleasant experience for any one. Given the fact that lepers were all over Assisi, Francis aversions seems extraordinary.
Despite his success as a merchant he had an artistic soul. Celano mentions song. The troubadour songs. After his conversion he composed words and music for praises. Songs of praise of God. We have a crude drawing of Francis on the parchment that Francis wrote a blessing for Brother Leo. And in an antependium Francis seems to have drawn images of the sun, moon, and stars. To praise God for the creation. He was sensitive to the beauty of creation, sensitive towards all little glitters of God, sensitive to the sufferings of the human heart.
Dreamer But Also Man of Action
Francis was a dreamer – but not a mere dreamer. He was also a man of action. He was a merchant who knew how to make a profit. When he decided on a course of action he put his plans into effect at once. Thomas of Celano says he was flighty and not a little rash. Certainly when he decided on a course of action, he put his plans into effect. A contemplative, yes! But not an idle dreamer. He had a liking for the flamboyant and the dramatic, which never left him.
The mantle of rich cloth, with the lining of the rag; the pranks played in his youth; coins sent cascading down the tomb of St.Peter when he visited it on a pilgrimage; stripping himself naked in order to return everything to his father; when the young girls wanted to join him he asked her to dress in all finery and go to Mass on Palm Sunday; celebrating Christmas at Grecio by having a manager prepared with an oxen and an ass brought into the chapel so that all could be reminded of the poverty of the Christ Child; he celebrated the last supper with his companions as he lay dying.
Grace sanctifies nature: it does not destroy it. Francis was a born actor. And also a charmer: as a youth he could draw people into his company, and how into his work for God: stone mason to work on the chapel, youth to abandon everything and follow him; the cream of the nobility in Assisi to abandon their finery for the life of the most frugal simplicity in an austere convent. Powerful nobles and at least one Roman matron to support him and when he spoke about it in his Testament, he refers to these days as: “While I was in sin….”
Every Sinner Has a Future
The story of St. Francis is one person’s discovery of God’s love and his total acceptance of all that the discovery implied in his life. Both for Gregory IX who canonized Francis and the biographer who first presented him to the world, Brother Thomas of Celano, did so that through him an assurance might be granted to sinners that they had been restored to grace and that he might become an example to all of conversion to God. L3c speaks about his past grave sin: what were these great sins: first they were the vanities and frivolities of the world, the foolishness of his youth (though the age had tolerated so much of foolishness to an intense Christian life; and indeed the sin was that he was not aspiring for an intense Christian life. His attitude towards money as Celano says, “He was a cautious business man. “ Francis knew how to make money. But the question was how. The manipulations to make a profit, lending money at interests, purchase it at a low price and sell it at a high price; without transporting or improving the wears; these business practices were considered mortal sin by contemporary moralists.
And the poet Henri D`avranges did not hide the fact Francis dishonesty with the nose for the import of gain; conducts himself haughtily; most authors agree that Francis was not avaricious like his father; instead they accuse of his prodigality – wastefulness.
He had to cope with his sexuality. In his canonization the pope says that now and then the flesh had deceived Francis. Celano says that God recalled him from his erring senses. Leo his confessor and confidant said that Francis was a virgin. Bonaventure puts it in this way, “Even among want on youth he did not give himself to the drives of the flesh, although he indulged himself in pleasures. Even among greedy merchants did he place his hope in money or pleasures, although he was intend on making a profit. In the next four years the events would forever change the life of Francis.
The first experience that would bring about change was of war, imprisonment, illness, and convalescence. War came in November in 1202, with the death of the emperor Henri the VI in 1197, imperial power collapsed in the Umbrian country side where Assisi lay, the imperial fort had to be turned over to the papal legates; but the Assisi in merchant freed of the imperial taxes were in no mood to pay taxes to the papal states. Especially their arch rival Perugia was a papal city.
The fortress was attacked; and then the attack turned on the Asian nobles many of whom fled to Perugia and induced that city to declare war on Assisi. They fought the battle at a place called Collastrada, in November of 1202. it was a mean defeat for the Assisians. Francis was taken for a noble man because of his out-fittings, imprisoned with the nobility. The optimism of Francis even in prison buoyed the spirit of the other prisoners. And he was able to intervene in a fight between them. But the imprisonment dragged on for a year. And eventually his frail nature gave out and he fell ill. But this made him eligible for ransom. Probably paid by his father. A long debilitating illness followed which robbed Francis of the joy of life. The country side lost its beauty. He began to question the values on which his life was built. As he recovered he became even more sensitive than before to the sufferings of others.
Aiming For Knighthood
He thought seriously about knighthood. In Southern Italy Papal forces were battling with forces loyal to Philip of Swabbia – brother of the late emperor. The Hero of the time was a French knight – Walter of Brienne whose exploitations and reputation was a model of chivalry that made him idol of all who would be knights. Francis from the merchant class was considered the grandest of knights. But the day before his departure from Assisi was a confusing one. First he encountered a real knight going to Apulia, noble in blood, poor in equipment. Francis embarrassed by his own contrasting splendour, perhaps trying to prove himself of noble heart, in a grand gesture exchanged his grand armour with the poor knight. Then he went to bed. Not strangely he dreamt of the expedition before him. But it was a strange and disconcerting dream.
He saw his home filled with armour and blazoned with cross as you find on Crusades. And when he asked for whom it belonged, he was told that it was for him and for his knights. In the morning he rose with the adventure before him. Then he felt depressed and finally he departed with some reluctance. He arrived that night at Spoleto – 20 miles distance. He was not feeling well. He went to bed. In his half wakefulness it seemed to him: the Lord spoke to him, “Francis, who can do more for you? The lord or the Servant? Go home, you will be told what to do. The vision you had seen in Assisi will have spiritual fulfilment.”
Now Francis was stoopy: exteriorly he was the old Francis; except that the was not selling cloth; the old optimism of the prison days was back. He told the people not to bother about his return to Assisi: he would yet be a great prince. He still went on celebrating with his friends at night, but interiorly a great change was taking place. He was intend upon what God wanted him to do. This made him to look for lonely places, chapels, caves and even country side to seek God in prayer. When a friend asked him here he was going he told him he was looking for buried treasure. The friend took him literally. But Francis had stumbled on the Gospel text: the kingdom of heaven is a like a treasure hidden in a field……..and buys that field.
Again the kingdom of Heaven like a merchant…buys. Here is something new. Hither to he felt compassion for the poor – was God asking him to love the poor but to be poor. The merchant sacrificed everything for the pearl of great price, was he asked to do the same? Then what about his previous style of life. Francis felt ashamed – sorrow for the sin. But the thought of being poor caused him the shock and the rest is history.