Talk given by Rev. Dom Damian Kearney, O.S.B., '45, at the Oblate Conference: October 11, 2009
Francis of Assisi (1182 - 1226)
8th Centenary of the Foundation of the Franciscan Order
This year the Church commemorates the 8th centenary of the founding of the Franciscan movement, when, in 1209, Francis of Assisi sought papal approval of a way of life he and a small group of disciples intended to follow.
When we think of a Franciscan friar, it is more than likely we will conjure up a picture of a jolly, rotund man, not young but robust, clad in a brown habit with a rope girdle around his paunchy waist: a Friar Tuck figure out of the Robin Hood legend. Or else, we may think of a favorite statue of Francis preaching to the birds which is found in many gardens, not for any religious purpose, but to add a romantic, nature-friendly note to the garden, a la Rousseau or William Wordsworth. Most people don't realize that there are three distinct orders of Franciscan, all stemming from the same man but emphasizing different degrees and qualities of the life he lived and sought to perpetuate. The first and original form, the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) is the one which Francis originally founded, but within this body, there are three distinct divisions, based on interpretations and reforms which quickly surfaced in the Order. The most familiar group, and what we normally think of when we use the term, Franciscan, is the OFM, the Order of Friars Minor. The second group is called the Friars Minor Conventual, since these friars live a more traditional conventual life that is in a community without the itinerant element characteristic of the first friars and with a different interpretation of poverty, no longer as strict and more practical or realistic. A third group are the reformed friars, those who seek to live as close to the primitive rule as possible, emphasizing the contemplative and eremitical dimension as well as the strict observance of poverty; these are called Friars Minor Capuchins (capuchin, meaning little hood, referring to their distinctive habit, and who originated in the sixteenth century, as an expression of the Counter-Reformation movement. These three groups have split into different congregations, although they stem from the same founder, in much the same way as the Cistercians, the Trappists and Benedictines all follow the same Rule of Saint Benedict. Francis' Rule is purposely brief, simple and focused on Jesus' instructions to his disciples as they go forth to preach penitence and the good news of salvation. Whereas Benedict's Rule, what has been called a mysterious abridgement of the New Testament, is dependent on previous monastic Rules and is 73 chapters long, Francis' second, emended Rule of 1223 is only 10 short chapters long, which stress poverty, chastity and obedience (the evangelical counsels), humility, prayer, work, peace and preaching penitence and the gospel.
The 12 precepts of his Rule indicate what he considered essential:
1) Observance of the evangelical counsels and complete obedience to the Pope & his successors and the Superior of the Order of Friars Minor (Francis & his successors).
2) How to receive Aspirants to the Order
3) Divine Office, Fasting, Ministry in the World
4) No acceptance of money
5) The Manner of working (no money but payment in kind for one's bodily needs)
6) No personal possessions; begging alms for their subsistence; concern for the sick
7) Penance for the brothers who sin
8) Election of a Superior (Minister General)
9) Preachers
10) Correction of Brothers
11) No contact with women, nor entry into convents of nuns
12) Permission needed for missionary work among Saracens
Conclusion: no one to alter or oppose the Rule
Summary:
Emphasis on poverty and lack of personal possessions; a mendicant order
Divine Office not elaborate nor lengthy, allowing time for ministry
Stability: rejected since ministry is to preach to those in the world
Like the later Jesuits, special obedience to the Pope.
The most recent development in the Capuchin group was the formation of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, when Father Benedict Groeschel and seven colleagues left the mainstream Capuchins to get closer to the spirit of Saint Francis, what is known in the Benedictine Order as the Primitive Observance. During the past summer three youthful, bearded members of this movement, clad in simple, coarse habits, wearing sandals but no stockings, and a rope belt, spent their retreats at the Abbey prior to making their profession in their mother house in New York. Extreme poverty is their hallmark, in imitation of Jesus' order to his disciples, as He sent them on their mission to spread the Gospel message (in Mark's version), "to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics...to take what is set before you, for the laborer is worthy of his hire." The importance of mendicancy, of being truly and totally poor and dependent on the charity of others for their food and clothing and ordinary needs, is upheld as an ideal insisted upon and always practiced by Francis and his first disciples. Living in the consumerist culture of modern times when luxuries are often seen as necessities, there can result a departure from this strict injunction, and it is for this reason that the newly reformed group, was founded, reminiscent of the reform of the Cistercians in the 17th century begun by the Abbe de Rance of La Trappe, with the emphasis on silence, enclosure, manual labor, greater austerity in diet, and seclusion from the world. Some of the things that most impressed us at Portsmouth by the friars who spent three weeks with us was their youthful enthusiasm, their complete faith, almost naïve in its conviction that God would provide for them, and their evident joy in the life to which they were dedicating themselves in the Bronx amongst the poorest of the poor. Their joy, their laughter, their simplicity in the best sense, were infectious. Father Groeschel, one of fifteen children, was named Benedict Joseph, after the 18th century mendicant, Benedict Joseph Labre, revered in his time as a new Saint Francis and whose love of the poor and identification with them provided Father Groeschel with a more recent model that has informed his whole life. He, too, through his books, television appearances, retreats and seminary classes, but most especially by his example, has provided the Franciscan movement with a revitalized and workable return to the values stressed by Saint Francis throughout his life. On a somewhat smaller scale, Father Groeschel's appeal is a 21st- century version of a similar charismatic effect that Francis exerted on his contemporaries
(Contrast with the "society friar," Father Seed: see review of his book.)
So much for the First Order of Franciscans.
The Second Order of Franciscans is that of the Poor Clares, which is for women, named after Saint Clare, co-founder in 1212, when she indicated to Francis that she wished also to be a member of the new Order. The nuns, however, could only live the more conventional lives of sisters at this time, and remained strictly enclosed, practicing an austere life, dependent on alms for material needs in keeping with the Rule's insistence on poverty.
Finally, the Third Order (Tertiaries), like Benedictine Oblates, is for the laity, both men and women, who wish to adapt the Rule of Francis to their condition of life in the secular world. From the first, laymen from every social class sought a connection with the Franciscan Rule, counting in their ranks King Louis of France, Galileo, Dante, Leonard da Vinci, Cervantes, Columbus, Giotto, and women of royal rank as well as those of humbler birth.
Francis' Mission
Since Francis' reform was to go out into the world and preach to all everywhere, as Jesus had done and as He bid his apostles to do. Francis was deliberately turning his back on the cloister with its insistence on stability and isolation from the world. What the Church needed, he, and his contemporary, Dominic, would supply by creating two Orders of mendicant friars who would preach the gospel to those who were ignorant of Scripture or in error of its message.
We are only concerned today with Francis himself rather than the complex issues that emerged during his lifetime and led to the other types of friar based on the interpretation of poverty and ministry, and the attempts to resolve the conflict between the active and the contemplative life.
Francis and His Rule
In April of 1209, Francis and a small group of companions, perhaps 12 in imitation of the Apostles, presented themselves before Pope Innocent III, under whom the medieval church reached the height of its power throughout Christendom. The hope was to gain approval of a rule of religious life, still in provisional form, which stressed the apostolic life of preaching the gospel to all while practicing literally Jesus' emphasis on Poverty and humility as the chief characteristics of this new order, a long overdue corrective of the monastic orders, which had been corrupted by wealth and privilege, having lost sight of their founders' vision, spoiled, as it were, by worldly success. Pope Innocent, recognizing the sincerity of Francis, acknowledging the worthiness and need for such an initiative, gave his oral assent, but was advised by his practical counselors to postpone formal approval until provision was made for sustaining an Order without material resources for support. The Pope's successor, Honorius II, in 1223 gave official sanction to a second draft of the Rule, eager to enlist the services of what had become an enthusiastic movement of dedicated men which, within ten years of its formation, numbered more than 3000 members.
As a young man Francis had been anything but an ascetic, leading the life of a typical member of the propertied class, engaged in the carefree pleasures available in Assisi and serving in the military, a life that in many ways resembled the youthful Ignatius Loyola. Taken prisoner in a war with Perugia, Francis profited by his enforced leisure to reflect on his way of life, determining to give it new, serious direction. Upon his release, he became more aware of the poor and needy as well as the misery of those who suffered from leprosy, and underwent a conversion, confirmed by hearing a voice from the crucifix in the church of San Damiano, which was falling into ruin, Va, Francesco, i ripara mia chiesa, qui va in rovina. (Go, Francis, and repair my church which is falling into ruin.) Taking this literally, Francis immediately set about seeking the means of repairing the church. To do this he sold some of his father's merchandise, offering the money to the priest who wisely refused it. This incident caused the rupture with his father, his disinheritance, and his dedication to absolute poverty, henceforth, depending solely on alms for his livelihood. Francis was also fulfilling, literally, Jesus' injunction to those, necessarily few, who wished to be his disciples in toto: "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." And again, "Anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple." (Luke, 14)
Shortly afterward, Francis came upon the chapel of Saint Mary and the Angels, known as the Portiuncula, ("the little portion") which had been abandoned by the Abbey of San Benedetto and was now derelict. After he had restored it, the Benedictines turned it over to Francis, where he, with his disciples, built a simple convent "of wattles and daub" next to the chapel. This humble dwelling and miniscule church became the cradle of the new order of Franciscan Friars Minor. The tiny oratory can still be seen inside the basilica which was later built over it. It was here, at the Portiuncula, that St. Clare was professed as a Second Order Franciscan. At the age of 44, Francis returned here to die in a simple hut, the age of 44, ending his life in the total poverty to which he had been metaphorically espoused (his Lady Poverty). Ironically, his body now rests in a splendid basilica built shortly after his death, its walls decorated by artists, chiefly Giotto, whose frescos depict his life and the legends that reflect his spirit and charismatic personality. These can be found in the Upper Church. The crypt of the lower church, where Francis' bones have been placed in a sarcophagus, given its present form in 1932, is more in keeping with the simplicity he craved. Around the stone rectangular tomb are four altars where mass can be celebrated by the throngs of priests eager to demonstrate their devotion to Francis' memory. (Shortly after my ordination when I was in Assisi, I celebrated mass at this tomb, a highlight of my visit.) Francis himself was never ordained a priest, preferring in his humility to remain a deacon, which enabled him to preach the Word, to pagans as well as Christians, from the Sultan of Egypt to the outcasts of society, the lepers and indigent.
As a friar, Francis led an adventurous life, even discounting the numerous picturesque legends compiled by a disciple in the Fioretti, a book of memoirs laden with miracles and legends beloved by hagiographers (as seen earlier in the biographical Dialogue of Saint Gregory recounting the life and miracles of Saint Benedict). Among these Little Flowers can be found the naïve story of the Wolf of Gubbio, which Francis persuaded to refrain from terrorizing the villagers and the famous account of his Preaching to the Birds, and later to fish. Supernatural dreams and revelations are mingled with some historical data, but the real value of this book lies in its providing us with numerous examples of authentic Franciscan spirituality, with the emphasis on those virtues especially prized by the saint: humility, prompt, unquestioning obedience, absolute poverty, dedication to peace and open-handed accessibility to everyone. These are what continue to endear him to our own society with all its diversity of class, race, religion, nationality, and perhaps even gender. At a time when travel was perilous and arduous, Francis made two trips to the East in a vain attempt to convert the infidels, the first to Palestine and Morocco, and a second voyage to the Sultan in Egypt, where his reception was marked by courtesy and mutual respect, a lesson for present day ecumenists. His journey was not successful, but it did provide an example of how to deal with those who do not share our beliefs or customs.
The recently beatified Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar, is a spiritual descendant of Francis and blessed with a well authenticated gift of the stigmata, an echo of the first recorded example of this phenomenon. For, two years before his death, Francis received the impression of the five wounds of the crucified Jesus, while at prayer on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a scene depicted by Giotto in one of the frescoes on the life of Francis that adorn the walls of the Upper Church in Assisi. In this country the Frick Collection possesses the Bellini portrayal of this event in a painting of exceptional beauty and inspiration. The most accurate portrait of Francis was by Cimabue of 1278, which conveys all the qualities we associate with Francis without falling into the sentimentality that can so often detract from the likeness of a saint. But Kenneth Clark maintains that this portrait has been considerably altered by repeated restorations, especially in the 19th century. He most authentic image may well be the 13th century fresco in the Benedictine monastery in The Sacro Speco (Holy Grotto) at Subiaco, which was founded by Benedict for his sister, Scholastica. In 1224, shortly before his death, Francis journeyed to the abbey, his visit commemorated by this portrait. So both at the beginning and at the end of his life, there is a Benedictine connection, since Francis returned to die at the Church of the Portiuncula, which had been given him by the monks to serve as his base.
Francis and Franciscans in Literature
In his Paradiso of The Divine Comedy, Dante devotes three cantos to Francis and his close friend and counterpart, Dominic, Founder of the Order of Preachers, whose lives intersected, each with a different mission in response to the urgent needs of the Church of the Middle Ages: reformers within the church, beacons of holiness and promoters of a return to apostolic fervor, reminders to the older monastic orders of the counsels of perfection preached by Jesus: poverty, chastity and obedience. Dante gives Thomas Aquinas the role of first praising Francis and then condemning the laxity that soon set in among his followers. After this, he parallels the words of praise and blame by assigning a similar role to Bonaventure, the great Franciscan theologian and contemporary of Aquinas, extolling Dominic and lamenting the swift fall into laxity of the Order of Preachers. Boccaccio and Chaucer, both writing in the 14th century, satirize the mendicant and the monastic orders, echoing the criticisms in Dante without making room for the genuine holiness that certainly existed. It is worth noting that Shakespeare portrays the Observant Franciscan friars always in a most favorable light in several of his plays (Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Measure for Measure immediately come to mind) daring to take this position at a time when it was dangerous to portray characters in religious orders sympathetically in Protestant England. Observant Franciscans lived exemplary lives and enjoyed a reputation for courage and spirituality among the people, especially during the years of Henry the Eighth's break with Rome. The Friars were among the first to suffer for their refusal to recognize the divorce from Katherine of Aragon and were accordingly suppressed, some suffering martyrdom or exile, or forced to submit to the King's will. A revised view of the state of the church, and especially of the religious orders, in the period just before the split with Rome, can be found in the works of recent historians such as Eamon Duffy.
Impact of Saint Francis on the Modern World
In our own time the spirit of Francis continues, most notably among the recently beatified Padre Pio, and Father Benedict Groeschel, through their personal holiness and dedication to the abject poor, the helpless victims of a society ignorant or indifferent to their desperate plight. This same spirit and concern for the poverty stricken has informed the lives of women like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Dorothy Day, who are reincarnations of the Franciscan ideal.
Francis has also exerted a salutary influence on environmental concerns through an appeal to his love of nature, expressed so eloquently in his "Canticle of the Sun," and rendered into the familiar hymn in the translation by William Draper (1855 - 1933):
All creatures of our God and King, Dear mother earth, who day by day
Lift up your voice and with us sin Unfoldest blessings on our way,
Alleluia, Alleluia! O praise Him, Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam, The flowers and fruits that in Thee grow,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam, Let them His glory also show.
O praise Him, O praise Him,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
All ye men of tender heart, Let all things their Creator bless,
Forgiving others, take your part, And worship Him in humbleness,
O sing ye, Alleluia! O praise Him, Alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear, Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
Praise God and on Him cast your care. And praise the Spirit, Three in One.
And thou, most kind and gentle death,
Waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise Him, Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
And Christ our Lord the way hath trod.
Because of his love of the world of nature, Francis has been named Patron Saint of Ecology by Pope John Paul II. The Nativity crèche, which Francis originated, is almost as much a part of Christmas as the Tree, both of which are now annual holiday features in Saint Peter's Square at Rome. Finally, his commitment to ecumenism, tolerance and peace have inspired numerous conferences, movements and films which continue to keep his presence a world-wide phenomenon amongst Christians and non-Christians alike. In 1986 Pope John Paul II inaugurated a World Day of Prayer at Assisi, to which were invited leading Buddhists, Christians from all denominations, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians and African cult religions, all united in a common desire to promote peace through prayer in a world torn by strife.
But despite his universal appeal and the repeated attempts by those who wish to follow in his footsteps and recapture his spirit, Francis defies imitation. He is unique. He is ageless, he is timeless. He belongs to all periods of history, whether it be as the "troubadour saint" of the Middle Ages, the "holy fool" of the Eastern Church, the "mystic of the saintly contemplatives," or the "environmentalist of the modern world." His popularity extends equally to the old and the young, to those within the church and those outside, to Muslims and Buddhists as well as to Christians of all sects, to the wise and to the unlearned, to the rich and privileged and most of all, to the poor, the humble and the downtrodden derelicts of society.
Obama and Saint Francis
In an Op Ed article in a recent issue of the Providence Journal, Father Dominic Monti, OFM, Vicar Provincial of the Franciscans who serve in the Center in Providence, made some striking parallels between Francis' overtures to the Muslims in his interviews with the Sultan of Egypt and the current attempts by President Obama to come to a better understanding with the Iranian and the Iraqui Muslims and establish peace in war torn Afghanistan. He noted that Obama's outreach may well have been stimulated by the two years he spent as a student in a Catholic elementary school in Indonesia, the Academy of Saint Francis, where the majority of the pupils were Muslims.
And so we should ask ourselves: how can Francis exert a beneficial effect on each one of us? What can we gain from his life, his teaching, his example? And from those who have followed in his footsteps, and exerted a specifically Franciscan effect on the lives of others?
How many of us are willing or are called to or are able to live the life he did: of total commitment to the uncompromising demands of Jesus, as literally as possible fulfilling the ways of imitating Christ in a society which rejects what Francis most valued? That is, Lady Poverty and the living conditions that Francis recommended to his disciples: hovels for shelter, the coarsest of clothing and a diet, meager and of the simplest kind: these are undesirable "evils" found throughout the world among multitudes of the unfortunate and to be eradicated as unwholesome, not embraced as Francis did the leper and as more recently did Damien of Molokai, the leper priest whose canonization is taking place this very day (October 11, 2009). Death Francis presents as a friend and brother, whereas for most of us it can be terrifying, or depressing, or sorrowful, or a blessed release from age or suffering, certainly not something to encounter with eager anticipation.
CONCLUSION
What, then, can we learn from this simple, Christ-like person from the Middle Ages and how can we make our own some of the ideals that made him a person of such universal appeal? How, that is, can we in our particular state of life, embrace the Christian ideal as interpreted by Francis? Or is it impossible, given our complex society, to take a step into the past, and adapt it to the way of life of the 21st century? Are we able, without being saints or saintly or just ordinary, average Church-going Christians, are we able to embrace some of the principles that Francis valued?
If we are really called upon to imitate Christ, as Thomas a Kempis the author of THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, insists that we must, then we should adopt some of Francis' attitudes or habits of thought, while recognizing that his lifestyle is incompatible with our own manner of life. Francis' life and example can teach us the same things that Jesus taught, and that we must accept and put into practice, if we are to be his disciples. Like Jesus, Francis, expects the impossible, even allowing for the fact that with faith, all things are possible. What this means is that we have to aim at the ideal, even with the knowledge that we may not succeed in attaining it. Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Or as Robert Browning phrased it, Our reach should exceed our grasp, or what's a heaven for?
Here is a quick list of what I think Francis can remind us of in the materialistic world that we inhabit, in which the philosophy of the writer Ayn Rand is upheld, a philosophy which prefers "rational selfishness" to altruism, considering greed a virtue and generosity, a vice; what can be referred to euphemistically as "enlightened self-interest."
PRACTICAL WAYS OF BRINGING FRANCIS INTO OUR LIVES
1) That we have a duty to be more conscious of the poor and recognize the need for us to share what we have to a greater extent. The late English economist, Barbara Ward, a devout and influential Catholic, made this point, applying it to the world at large, in her book, THE RICH NATIONS AND THE POOR NATIONS.
2) That we show our solidarity with those who are less fortunate and in need of the help that we are in a position to give.
3) That we look upon work of a menial or manual kind as something which is a necessary component or condition of life, not something degrading and to eradicate as much as possible as an evil. (We recall that Benedict in his Rule extolled manual labor as something that makes a monk true to his calling and like the apostles.)
4) To consider poverty not as a curse or a punishment as the Puritans would hold, but rather as a means by which we can show our Christian concern and provide opportunities for expressing charity and love of neighbor, of philanthropy in the truest sense of the word.
5) That death, which Francis regarded as a friend, is not something fearful, terrible and unmentionable, but as the doorway to heaven, as our faith teaches us. This, admittedly, is a hard thing to accept, since all of us frequently experience a sense of loss in the passing of one who is dear to us, and this can have a devastating effect on our morale, no matter how deep our faith Emily Dickinson, not a conventional Christian, nevertheless, expressed such an attitude perceptively, in one of her poems: "Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell."
6) To promote harmony in our interaction with those whose religious beliefs are different from ours, to cultivate an ecumenical approach to non Christians, to pagans and to those who have not the advantages that we are blessed with in possessing a faith that we believe to be the surest means of our salvation. Prayer is one way, and may be the only way that is available to many of us. But if the opportunity presents itself to do more, then we should be prepared to undergo personal sacrifice, to become active in living our faith, and not confine ourselves to being merely passive believers.
In the primitive Church it was the power of example that was responsible for the rapid spread of Christianity: See what love the Christians have for one another. This, more than anything else, was what made such a profound, lasting and fruitful impression on the pagans of the Roman Empire. And why Saint Francis, and Saint Clare too, were so influential in their own time and continue to be sources of inspiration in ours.
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