ST Francis of Assisi

In the Italy of the Municipalities a great man was born, who spoke of peace when everyone spoke of struggles and blood, and who loved poverty at a time when everyone was trying to enrich: St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis broke away from the Benedictine rule and founded one of the two great mendicant orders, the Franciscan one. The other, the Dominican, was founded by St. Dominic Guzman to combat heresy, especially the Cathar one. These two orders were responsible for the two greatest religious intellectuals of the time — but everything in those centuries was steeped in religion and faith: the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.

Francis loved the beautiful works of God and nature: water, fire, moon, stars, wind, clouds, sky, earth and grass. Above all, he also loved animals, which he considered brothers, in a not completely anthropocentric sense. The legend linked to the wolf that terrorized the city of Gubbio is famous. It is said that Francis managed to tame it with sweetness and words.

And then the said wolf lived two years in Agobbio; and he went in at home through the houses from door to door, without hurting the person and without being hurt; and he was kindly fed by the people; and as he went about the land and the houses, never a dog barked after him. (Fioretti, chap. XXI).

The Fioretti were written after the death of Francis and are part of a rich Franciscan literature that developed after his death.

Francesco Bernardone was born in Assisi in 1182. Son of a rich merchant, he was dressed in precious fabrics but took them off to wear a rough tunic, he lived in a beautiful house and chose a cave as accommodation, he abandoned rich friends to live among the poor, to share their sufferings. He had an enjoyable and tumultuous youth, he studied Latin and French. In 1206 he experienced a profound crisis, following which he founded the Order of Friars Minor which, like all pauperistic movements, was looked upon with suspicion by the Church, within which he managed, however, to re-channel the evangelical and heretical, thus strengthening its prestige. A little bit what the Argentine pope of the same name is called to do today, elected at a time when scandals were destroying the reputation of the church and there was a need for renewal.

Francis of Assisi went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the sultan and, failing to do so, he retired to Mount La Verna, embittered by the disputes that were beginning to tear the order apart. He received the stigmata in 1224 and in 1226 he died at the Porziuncola.

He wrote works in Latin, while in the vernacular he composed the famous “Canticle of creatures”, or “Canticle of Brother Sun”, on the model of the psalms of David. The Canticle is the oldest poetic text of Italian literature of which the author is known, originally accompanied by a lost music. The cultural precedents are those of mystical thought for which God is mysterious and unknown and makes himself known only through the beauty of creation. If many others, such as Jacopone da Todi, sang the contempt of the world, Francesco instead exalted its perfection.

Given the discord of tone between the beginning and the end, it is thought that the Canticle was composed in two parts, with the last part written as the saint’s death approached. It will be only in the romantic context that this text will be re-evaluated in a poetic and not just a historical sense. The audience it addresses is the humble one of the crowds of believers, the same one who learned the stories of the Bible and of the saints from Giotto’s frescoes in the basilicas.

Highest, almighty, good Lord,

your are the laude, the glory and the honor et onne benedictione.

To you alone, Most High, if they befit,

et nullu homo ène dignu te mentovare.

Praised bee, my Lord, cum all your creatures,

Especially Messor Lo Friar Sole,

which is iorno, and aluminum us for him.

Et ellu is beautiful and radiant with great splendor:

of you, Most High, carries signification.

Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars:

in celu you have formed them clarite et pretiose et belle.

Praised be, my Lord, through Brother Wind

and through the air and clouds and sky and all time,

for which you give sustenance to your creatures.

Praised be, my Lord, for sister water,

which is very useful and humble and priestly and chaste.

Praised be, my Lord, for brother fire,

for which ennallumini la nocte:

and he is beautiful and fair and robust and strong.

Praised be, my Lord, through our sister mother earth,

which sustains and governs,

et produces various fruits with colorful flowers and herbs.

Praised be, my Lord, for those whom forgive for your love

et sustain infirmitate et tribulatione.

Blessed are those who will support him in peace,

that by you, Most High, are crowned.

Praised be you, my Lord, through our sister bodily death,

from which no living man can skip:

woe to· those that die in mortal sins;

blessed are those who will find in your sanctissime voluntati,

that secunda death will not hurt him.

Praise and bless me Lord et rengratiate

and serve them with great humilitate.