On the way to Assisi, a weary man on horseback wondered about his future. He had seen in a dream a splendid palace, full of arms and shields, a reflection of the deeds and fame he expected to receive in Apulia, where he planned to become a knight in the service of a certain Count Gentile1. Moreover, historical sources tell that Francis had already experienced warfare. A few years earlier, in 1202, he had fought for his city and the Ghibellines against his lifelong enemy, the Guelph Perugia2. With the Battle of Collestrada, the adventure had ended in a personal defeat as well. The Perugians took prisoner Francis of Assisi and thrown him into a dungeon for a year until peace returned between the rival communes.
This time, however, we can imagine that he was convinced he was on the right track. Dressed in full dress and with every armament, as the wealthy merchant family had granted him, he had headed south. But on reaching Spoleto a voice had disturbed him to the core:
Legend of the Three Companions, 1241-12465.
“Wherefore then dost thou leave the lord for the servant, and a rich lord for the poor?”.
Only then Francis realized that his life was destined for another mission. Hence, having pulled the reins of his horse, he reversed direction to return home. Eternal fame would finally come indeed, but not for glory and deeds in battle, not for worldly pleasures and pride. In fact, for humility of heart Francis became the great saint mentioned in Medieval hagiographies. For obedience he will turn to God, the true and only Master: to that voice which along the path of life had asked him to serve him.
Francis of Assisi in historical sources
The image we have of Francis of Assisi today depends on the historical sources about him and his personal story. Some were written in his own hand, such as the note for Friar Leone preserved at Spoleto Cathedral or the Chartula fr. Leoni data. This contains a praise to God and a blessing for the same friar. Francis’ Latin autographs reveal a resolute personality. Nevertheless, the writing is uncertain and clumsy, an indication that he was not very literate.
The biographies by Thomas of Celano
Those who had shared part of their lives with him composed other writings. Among them was Thomas of Celano. Pope Gregory IX commissioned him to write a biography of Francis after the process of his canonization. Francis of Assisi died on October 3, 1226, and on July 16, 1228, the pope proclaimed him saint. That Francis was a great saint and it was already extremely clear to everyone from the time he was alive. With little time to spare, Thomas recounted in the Vita prima what he remembered: facts, miracles and anecdotes6. This contains perhaps the most authentic portrait of Francis, showing a complex personality, sometimes gentle and sometimes harsh and uncompromising. Doubts and fears shine through in the work and an unwavering and resolute faith is revealed.
The Vita prima was a great success but was too long to be read during the Liturgy of the Hours. So the Order’s minister general, Elias of Cortona, commissioned Thomas of Celano to write a shorter version. By 1239 the religious drafted a biographical compendium of Francis, the Vita brevior5.
The General Chapter of 1244, chaired by minister Crescentius of Jesi, chose Thomas of Celano for another biography. This was to include all the events and miracles of the saint handed down orally, so as to supplement the previous ones. To this end, the friars and citizens of Assisi were invited to put their memories of Francis in writing and send them to the Order to be scrutinized. On the basis of the varied corpus of collected testimonies Thomas of Celano produced a Vita secunda6.
The Legend of the Three Companions
Some writings became part of the Legend of the Three Companions7. According to tradition, this biography was compiled in the same years from the accounts of the older friars Leone, Angelo and Rufino, who had known Francis best. However, historiography has ascertained that it is a later work by unknown citizens of Assisi8.
The Testament by Francis of Assisi
The first biographies by Thomas of Celano were written to go along with the great enthusiasm and popular devotion that had developed after Francis’ death. An attempt was thus made to record a memory of the saint, as accurate as possible. The aim was for everyone to know his gestures and thoughts. But as the years passed, the religious order he founded, the Franciscans, at first composed of a few very humble mendicants, had become a large and powerful entity throughout Europe. By 1260 the friars had become partly clerical, had built numerous convents, and numbered in the thousands. In addition, many had decided to study, own books and teach at universities. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, minister general of the Order, was one of them.
Instead, a minority group of friars requested respect for the Testament that Francis had left before he died9. Above all, they asked to follow that radical asceticism that Thomas of Celano had recounted in the Vitae.
“The brothers must be careful not to accept any churches, poor dwellings, or anything else constructed for them unless these buildings reflect the holy poverty promised by us in the rule. We should always live in these places as strangers and pilgrims”.
From the Testament of Francis, 122610.
The Legenda Maior
In this situation of contrasts, the General Chapter, meeting in Narbonne in 1260, decided the need of an official and definitive biography of the holy founder, suitable for the “new times”. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio took on the task and drafted the Legenda Maior11, from that time the only recognized text. But what to make of all the previous biographies on Francis? They were so straightforward in showing his uncompromising personality and circulated in numerous copies in the friars’ libraries. Not without upsets, Bonaventure had to make a drastic decision for the good of the Order. So the friar, in a circular, ordered to destroy all of them. In this way there would be no more interpretations of the saint’s wishes!
We could not known so many aspects of Francis if some manuscripts with the Vitae of Thomas of Celano had not escaped the flames. For centuries historians ignored the existence of these texts. In fact, they were relegated to the dusty corners of some monasteries and rediscovered only since the 19th century.
The story of Francis of Assisi
Historical sources do not dwell much on Francis’ early years. Brief mentions inform us that he was born in Assisi-around 1181/1182-and that his mother had him baptized John in the absence of his father, the merchant Pietro di Bernardone12. It is also unclear where the name Francis, unusual for the time, came from. However, it is plausible that it was a tribute to France, a land that was making the fortune of the family trade.
Instead, biographies describe Francis’ reckless youth, who thought and acted according to the customs of the world and his time:
“[…] He was the admiration of all; and in pomp of vainglory he strove to surpass the rest in frolics, freaks, sallies of wit and idle talk, songs, and soft and flowing attire, for he was very rich. He was not miserly but prodigal, not a hoarder of money but a ‘iquanderer of his substance, a shrewd trader but a most ostentatious spender; a man, however, very kindly in his dealings, very easy and affable”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Prima, 1228-122913.
But here suddenly was the call, a pivotal moment that shook Francis’ life: “wherefore then dost thou leave the lord for the servant?”14. On the way to Apulia he heard a different voice, a suggestion to think contrary to that world that had engulfed him, to con-version. Francis was reversing the course of his horse not only in a material sense but especially in a metaphorical one. He renounced the glory of the knight, the desires of power and wealth to return to Assisi, the chosen place of his sanctity.
The encounter with the leper and conversion
However, it was not yet the actual conversion. Instead, Francis of Assisi himself, in the Testamentum dictated before his death, indicated the precise moment that definitively changed his life. Namely, it was his encounter with the leper:
“This is how the Lord gave me, brother Francis, the power to do penance. When I was in sin the sight of lepers was too bitter for me. And the Lord himself led me among them, and I pitied and helped them. And when I left them I discovered that what had seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness in my soul and body”.
From the Testament of Francis, 122615. Translation by D. Burr, 1996.
Such an event marked the overcoming of all personal, physical and moral limitations to turn to the other in the totality of love. Because “if he were fain to become the soldier of Christ, he leapt from his horse and ran to embrace him”16.
“for among all the wretched spectacles of the world Francis naturally shrank from lepers; and one day while he was riding near Assisi he met a leper and though the leper caused him no small disgust and horror, still, lest like a transgressor of the commandment he should break the obligation of his plighted faith, he dismounted and hastened to the leper in order kiss him”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124717.
Francis’ existence could no longer be the same as before; something within him had changed profoundly. Above all, the kiss of the leper signified his rejection of the world’s logic and its certainties. With his gesture of rebellion, the saint took the side of the last, the weak and the lepers, considering the risk of infection by the disease less important. He crossed an irreversible boundary, revealing the first signs of the radical charity that would guide him throughout his life.
San Damiano Crucifix
In 1205, while praying in the derelict church of San Damiano, Francis heard again the voice. It was the same that had moved him a few years earlier on his way to Apulia. Hagiographic sources relate that the Christ painted on the crucifix, moving his lips, began to speak:
“Francis – it said – go repair my House, which as thou seest is wholly falling into ruin”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124718.
Francis of Assisi took, of course, the command literally. Having sold a quantity of his father’s cloth and his horse, he offered the money to the priest of San Damiano to restore the building. When the latter refused for fear of his parents, Francis himself set to work to put it back together, stone by stone19. Nevertheless, the saint realized only later that there was another house that the Lord had asked him to repair. It was the Church itself, increasingly ruined by the corruption, political contrasts and heresies of the time.
The house in ruins
The story of Francis of Assisi takes place in a context of great change. In the 13th century there is the rise of free communes and the bourgeoisie. It is also a period of great economic growth and population expansion. Universities, important cultural centers of philosophical and theological debate, also develop. The Church is not immune to this ferment and many conflicting thrusts animated it. Indeed, the 13th century marks the culmination of papal theocracy under Innocent III. Nonetheless, there is also a widespread decadence of customs that intellectuals do not hesitate to denounce. It is then the epoch of the Crusades in the Holy Land, initiated by Urban II in 1095, as well as of the heresies that shook Europe, first and foremost that of the French Cathars.
The ecclesiastical hierarchy is involved in an eternal clash with temporal power. Moreover, it appears increasingly distant from the needs of the people. In many circles, defined as pauperistic, disappointment grows over the excessive ostentation of wealth. Further, bishops are elected from among the leading noble families. Monks, closed in their abbeys, seem isolated from the new social dynamics developing in large urban and mercantile centers. Monasticism is confined to the rural environments from which it draws its livelihood and feudal structure marked it. Thus arose the need for a Church in the city, close to the faithful, for a poorer and more popular fraternity, without stabilitas loci. Francis is called to be an interpreter of this need, to renew the Church, to “repair the house,” according to the social dynamics of his time.
The Assisi trial and the renunciation of material goods
When Pietro di Bernardone learned that his son was investing time and money to renovate the church of San Damiano, he became furious. In the secret hope that his son wised up, in January 1206 he denounced him before the city authorities, threatening to take away his inheritance. Francis welcomed the request as a deliverance. Arriving before the bishop of Assisi and, according to popular tradition, the entire citizenry, the saint stripped off all his clothes, throwing them on the ground. Then, in a proud voice, he addressed Pietro di Bernardone directly:
“Hitherto I have called thee my father on earth, but henceforth I can confidently say * Our Father, Which art in heaven,’ with Whom I have laid up my whole treasure, and on Whom I have set my whole trust and hope”.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 126320.
The wolf of Gubbio
After this fact Francis began to live as a beggar, expressing in concrete terms the renunciation of material goods. Finding himself in Gubbio, an old friend recognized him and gave him a tunic made of the poorest materials. The famous episode of the wolf occurred in the same. There was in fact a ferocious beast that terrorized the local inhabitants and lived in a nearby forest. Therefore, they requested Francis’ help: the saint, without thinking twice, went to meet the wolf and tamed it, saying:
“Come hither, Brother Wolf ; I command you in the name of Christ Jesus, that you do no manner of evil either to me or to any other man” .
From the Fioretti di San Francesco, 14th century21.
Saint Mary of the Portiuncula
Back in Assisi, Francis took to repairing with his own hands a small church located in the valley of Mount Subasio, in a place dedicated to Saint Mary of the Angels. The building, which tradition dates back to the 4th century and attributes to hermitic craftsmen from Palestine, stood on a small plot of land. From this is the name Portiuncula. The church belonged to the Benedictines. However, the abbot of the nearby monastery of Saint Benedict at Subasio had no objection to the saint restoring it. A few years later he donated it to the community of friars gathered around Francis, who attended liturgical services here.
On February 24, 1208, the saint of Assisi was listening in the Portiuncula to the passage from Matthew’s gospel, “As you go, make this proclamation: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick22“.
Francis of Assisi mission
Thomas of Celano relates that upon hearing these words, Francis:
“[…] Straightway he puts his shoes off from his feet, and the staff out of his hands, and, content with one tunic, exchanges his leathern girdle for a small cord. Thenceforth he prepares him a tunic displaying the image of the Cross, that therein he may heat off all promptings of the devil; he makes it of the roughest stuff that therein he may crucify the 5csb with [its] vices and sins; lastly he makes it most poor and mean, and such as by no means to excite the worlds covetousness”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Prima, 1228-122923.
It was only then that Francis understood his true vocation, the mission to which the voice of the Lord was calling him. He then put on his habit and, out of obedience to the word he had received, began to preach. Some companions attracted by his example decided to follow him, thus forming an early and genuine Franciscan fraternity. Among them the sources mention the brothers Bernard, Aegidius and Philip24.
The approval of the first rule
By the following year the friars had grown to twelve. Therefore, Francis began to worry that everyone followed the same rules of life in poverty, obedience to the Church and chastity. Taking courage, the saint went to Rome before the Pope to ask for approval of a simple Propositum Vitae. This was the first Rule, that contained some practical and some spiritual precepts.
“Now when the servant of Christ perceived that the number of the Brethren was gradually increasing, he wrote for himself and for his Brethren a Rule for their life, in simple words. Herein the observance of the Holy Gospel was set as the inseparable foundation, and some few other points were added that seemed necessary for a consistent manner of life.”.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 126325.
But when Innocent III saw that man dressed in rags roaming the halls of the Lateran Palace, he cast him out like an ordinary wretch. So narrates Jerome of Ascoli, Bonaventure’s successor as minister general, in an addition to the Legenda Maior28. The hagiographic account states that the next night a dream disturbed the pontiff: the Lateran Basilica was on the verge of collapsing but a man, poor and of small stature, supported it with his shoulders so that it would not crumble to the ground. In the morning Innocent III immediately had Francis recalled and this time he listened to his requests.
“Verily,” saith he,” he it is that by his work and teaching shall sustain the Church of Christ.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 126327.
The Pope orally approved the Rule of Francis and gave the mandate to preach to all the friars28. Innocent III sensed that welcoming those mendicants into the Church could be a response to the pauperistic movements, promoters of greater poverty, and thus limit the flourishing of heresies among the people. The Ordo fratum minorum thus established began to welcome more and more men who wanted to follow Francis’ example. The friars settled in groups in different cities, serving mainly the weak and lepers.
Humility of the heart according to Francis of Assisi
The way of life Francis demanded of his friars, through that humility of heart, was ascetic and radical. The saint proclaimed absolute poverty, forbidding the possession of any material goods. His companions had to live as pilgrims on earth, in physical precariousness. Francis, for example, forbade the friars to build brick houses. Thomas of Celano reports:
“Once when a chapter was to be held at S. Maria de Portiuncula, and the time was at hand, the people of Assisi, observing that there was no house there, in the man of God’s absence and without his knowledge built with the utmost speed a house for the chapter to be held in. At length on his return he saw the house, and being deeply displeased, complained in no gentle tones. Presently he arose, the foremast to demolish the building, got upon the roof, and with strong hand tore down the slates and tiles”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124729.
Imagine the aversion to money! Francis did not even want the friars to dare touch it, and for this he sometimes scolded them harshly. When one of them took with his hands the offering of a believer:
“The Saint rebuked him, and after chiding him most severely for having touched the money bade him remove it in his mouth from the window-sill, and with his mouth lay it on asses’ dung outside the precincts”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124730.
In the saint’s vision, the vow of poverty also dictated that he should not own books, nor did he recommend too much study, not even to the Order’s minister general “lest he be taking from his office what he is spending by anticipation on study.”31.
“He did not say this because the study of Scripture displeased him, but in order to withdraw the brethren in general from being over-anxious to leam, and because he would have them all accomplished in charity rather than smatterers in research”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124732.
Even liturgical books were no exception. They were to be for the use of the whole community and never belonged to anyone.
“A lay brother who wanted to have a psalter and asked S. francis’ leave was offered ashes instead of a psalter”.
Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 124733.
The vocation of Saint Clare of Assisi
The Gospel proposal of an existence in the service of the least and the needy lit a fire in the soul of a young noblewoman from Assisi, Clare, daughter of Favarone di Offreduccio degli Scifi and Ortolana Fiumi. She became so fascinated by the lifestyle of Francis and his brethren. Unhesitatingly, she wished to follow in his footsteps. An anonymous author, often identified with Thomas of Celano, handed down the biography of the saint in the Legenda S. Clarae Virginis. It was composed in 1255 and commissioned by Pope Alexander IV in the aftermath of her canonization36. Clare began visiting Francis in secret, since at the time a meeting between a noblewoman and a beggar was a scandal. Nor could there be the slightest hope that her family would approve of it. On Francis’ advice, the hagiographic source narrates, Clare fled the house on the night following Palm Sunday.
“Thus leaving behind her, home, city and kindred, Clare hastened to St. Mary of the Porziuncola, where the Friars who were keeping vigil at the little altar with lighted torches received the virgin Clare”.
Legenda S. Clarae Virginis, 125535.
Clare and the Poor Clares
It was March 18, 121236, and on that day the young girl received the religious habit from Francis in the Portiuncula. Clare, as a sign of penance and renunciation of the world, agreed to cut off her long blond hair. Then she stayed as a guest for a time at the church of Saint Paul. Her family of origin did not take kindly to the decision, and her father Favarone tried in every way to bring her back home. But despite repeated attempts, recounts the anonymous Legenda S. Clarae Virginis, Clare did not desist, persevering in her faith. Indeed, other women followed the saint’s example, first among them her sister Agnes, who could thus call themselves Poor Clares.
The young women were housed at the Church of San Damiano, where the Crucifix had spoken to Francis. The Church, however, could not approve of a female mendicant order. After Francis’ death, Pope Gregory IX convinced Clare to accept a monastic rule. So, the Poor Clares could pray in seclusion within the convents.
The Pardon of Assisi and Francis’ missio in the Holy Land
By 1217 the Order founded by Francis had numerous members. It was so large that a subdivision into provinces became necessary. This was the year of the first General Chapter of the Franciscans with normative value, held at the Portiuncula. During the meeting it was also decided to send missionaries to Europe and the Middle East. Francis himself two years later decided to embark for the Holy Land, where the Fifth Crusade was underway. We do not know whether he shared the ideals of overseas warfare, he who had first repudiated chivalric values. Certainly for Francis, the Christian missio was to bring people closer together through faith and not divide them with arms:
“The Lord revealed what greeting we should use: «The Lord give you peace»”.
From the Testament of St. Francis, 122637.
This was also why, in 1216, he had asked the newly elected Honorius III for the Pardon of Assisi. This is the plenary indulgence obtainable at the Portiuncula during the first two days of August. The Pardon constituted an important novelty in that it did not require the payment of an obolus or long pilgrimages such as the missio in the Holy Land. Conditions that, until then, were essential for the Church to grant the indulgence.
“I want, holy Father, if it pleases Your Holiness, that all those who are confessed and contrite, and, as is their duty, absolved by the priest, enter that church be freed from punishment and guilt, in heaven and on earth, […]”.
Francis’ request to Honorius III in the Diploma del vescovo Teobaldo, 131038.
In this way Francis offered a chance for forgiveness even to the weak and especially to those who had no intention of going to fight in Jerusalem. However, it cannot be said that the saint was against the crusade. He had to appreciate its aims, namely the reconquest of holy places and the conversion of Islam, without sharing its violent ways39.
Francis of Assisi’s meeting with the Sultan
In any case, he met the Sultan of Egypt al-Malik al-Kāmil in Damietta in September 1219, before whom he gave a fervent testimony of faith. Francis asked the ruler to convert to Christianity in the secret hope, sources say, of being martyred. After a polite and lengthy dialogue, al-Malik al-Kāmil had a deep admiration for Francis and had him released toward the Crusader encampments40.
The Regula non bullata and the Regula bullata
Back in Assisi, Francis became concerned about the Order he had founded, which was becoming more and more numerous. The saint feared that, as the number of friars increased, the initial spirit might weaken; already at that time the first disagreements arose because many friars wanted to study and live in convents. Moreover, he worried about what would happen after his death, that is, when the charismatic figure guiding the Order would disappear. Under this light we understand both the renunciation of the office of minister general in 1220, when Brother Pietro Cattani replaced Francis, and the desire to draft an official and normative Rule. The following year, during the so-called Chapter of Mats, a text containing the Propositum, to which various biblical quotations were added, was approved.
This Regula non bullata, never subjected to the papal approval41, was contested by a group of friars because it was considered too strict. Francis was then persuaded to issue another and final Rule, less rigid in its norms of life, finally approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223 with the bull Solet Annuere42.
Francis’ fears of a schism in the Order after his death realized. Part of the so-called “spiritual” Franciscans, wanting to follow the radical precariousness of the origins, adopted the Regula non bullata. On the other hand, the “conventuals” were those who adhered to the Regula bullata, namely those friars eager to study and live in convents.
The last years of the life of Francis of Assisi
On September 14, 1224, while praying at the Mount of La Verna, the chosen place for an intimate encounter with God, Francis received the stigmata from him. The saint had a vision of a seraphim on the cross that foretold the appearance of the mystical wounds on his body.
“For forthwith there began to appear in his hands and feet the marks of Sacred the nails, even as he had just beheld them in that Figure of the Crucified”.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 126343.
On Mount La Verna, according to hagiographic sources, Francis became fully, in spirit and flesh, a second Christ. The stigmata represented the manifestation of full holiness. They were the sign of his conformity to the example and mission of the son of God, a painful prelude to the ascent to heaven.
Francis’ legacy: the Canticle of the Creatures
Deep suffering, to which illness and blindness contributed, characterized Francis’ last years. This did not prevent him from giving praise to God until the last moment. It was during this period that the saint dictated the Canticle of the Creatures, a poetic composition that exalts creation as a benign reflection of the creator. Francis, as a final legacy, taught to see the highest good in all things, exalting the divine character of creation. Some heretical doctrines of the time, such as that of the Cathars, rejected the idea that God had created an evil world composed of corruptible beings destined to perish.
Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
From the Canticle of the Creatures, 1224-122644.
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
On the evening of October 3, 122645, Francis of Assisi was caught by sister death while praying at the Portiuncula. Initially, the ancient church of Saint George housed the body and only four years later he was transferred to the present Basilica of Saint Francis.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
From the Canticle of the Creatures, 1224-122646.
from whom no living man can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those who will find Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm.
Just two years later, on July 16, 1228, Pope Gregory IX proclaimed Francis a saint. The following day the same pontiff laid the foundation stone of the Basilica of Assisi, destined to become the mother church of the Franciscan Order.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Note
- Ignoto assisiate, Legenda trium sociorum (Leggenda dei tre compagni), 1241-1246. Già nota e predente negli Acta Sanctorum, octobris, II, Anversa 1768. ↩︎
- Thomas of Celano, Vita Seconda, 1247. Translation by A.G. Ferrers Howell, The Lives of S. Francis of Assisi, Methuen & Co, London, 1908. ↩︎
- Leggenda dei tre compagni, 1241-1246. Translation by E. Gurney Salter, The legend of Saint Francis by the three companions, Harvard University, 1902. ↩︎
- Thomas of Celano, Vita beati Francisci (Vita prima), 1228-1229. A version is present in the manuscript of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Lat. 3817, ff. 255r-282v. Translation by ↩︎
- Thomas of Celano, Vita beati patris nostri Francisci (Vita brevior), 1232-1239. In the manuscript of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Parigi, Nouv. acq. lat., 3245. ↩︎
- Thomas of Celano, Memoriale in desiderio animae de gestis et verbis sanctissimi Patris nostri (Vita secunda), 1247. In the Codex Massiliensis, Archivio Generale dei Frati Minori, Rome. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 1. ↩︎
- J. R. H. Moormann, The sources for the life of St. Francis, Manchester 1940. ↩︎
- Testamentum, 1226. In the manuscript of the Assisi Municipal Library, Fondo antico 338. ↩︎
- Testamento di Francesco, 1226. Translation by D. Burr, 1996. ↩︎
- Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 1263. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Thomas of Celano, Vita Prima, 1228-1229. Translation by A.G. Ferrers Howell, The Lives of S. Francis of Assisi, Methuen & Co, London, 1908. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 3. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 10. ↩︎
- Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior, 1263. Translation by E. Gurney Salter, The life of Saint Francis, J.M.Dent, 1904. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- Anonymous, Fioretti di San Francesco, 14th century. Translation by A. Langdon Alger, The little flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi, Roberts brothers, Boston, 1887. ↩︎
- Gospel of Matthew 10, 7-10. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 13. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 13. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- See FF 1063 in E. Caroli, Leggenda maggiore (FF 1027), Fonti Francescane, Nuova Edizione, 2004. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, Francesco d’Assisi, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1989. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 2. ↩︎
- Anonymous author (Thomas of Celano?), Legenda S. Clarae Virginis, 1255. In the manuscript of the Assisi Municipal Library, Fondo antico 338. ↩︎
- Anonymous author (Thomas of Celano?), Legenda S. Clarae Virginis, 1255. Translation by R. Robinson, The life of Saint Clare, Dolphin Press, Philadelphia, 1910. ↩︎
- We follow here the date proposed in the Fonti Francescane, but according to another computation Clare’s escape occurred on March 29, 1211. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 10. ↩︎
- Diploma del vescovo Teobaldo, 1310. Translation by F. Olgiati, C. Cargnoni, in E. Caroli, Indulgenza della Porziuncola (FF 2706/10), Fonti Francescane, Nuova Edizione, 2004. ↩︎
- F. Cardini, Francesco e il sultano. La storia e il messaggio, in Francesco d’Assisi, otto secoli di storia (1209-2009), Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, 2009. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- Regula non bullata, 1221. Translation by F. Olgiati, C. Paolazzi, in E. Caroli, Regola non bollata (FF 1), Fonti Francescane, Nuova Edizione, 2004. ↩︎
- Regula bullata, 1223. Translation by F. Olgiati, C. Paolazzi, in E. Caroli, Regola bollata (FF 73a), Fonti Francescane, Nuova Edizione, 2004. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 16. ↩︎
- Canticle of the Creatures, 1224-1226. Translation by the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular. ↩︎
- October 4 according to the Medieval calculation that made the day begin at sunset the night before. ↩︎
- Ibidem. ↩︎
