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Prayer in the Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano

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Prayer in the Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano PRAYER IN THE LIFE OF SAINT FRANCIS BY THOMAS OF CELANO J.A. Wayne Hellmann Brother Thomas of Celano,1 upon the request of Pope Gregory IX,2 shortly after the 1228 canonization of Francis of Assisi, wrote The Life of St. Francis.3 In the opening lines, Thomas describes the begin- nings of Francis’s conversion. Thomas writes that Francis, secluded in a cave, prayed that “God guide his way.”4 In the closing lines at the end of The Life, Thomas accents the public prayer of the church in the person of pope. After the canonization Pope Gregory went to Francis’s tomb to pray: “by the lower steps he enters the sanc- tuary to offer prayers and sacrifices.”5 From beginning to end, through- out the text of The Life of St. Francis, the author, Brother Thomas, weaves Francis’s life together through an integrative theology of prayer. To shape his vision of Francis, Thomas, as a hagiographer, moves with multiple theological and literary currents, old and new. At the core of his vision, however, Thomas presents the life of a saint that developed from beginning to end in prayer. To do this, he employs 1 Brother Thomas of Celano was born into the noble family of the Conti dei Marsi sometime between the years of 1185–1190. Celano, the place of his birth, is a small city in the Abruzzi region southeast of Aquila. Thomas may have included himself a reference in number 56 of his text that “some literary men and nobles gladly joined” Francis after his return from Spain in 1215. In 1221 Thomas was chosen for the mission to Germany where he was elected custodian of the broth- ers in Worms, Speyer, and Cologne. He died on October 4, 1260 in Tagliacozzo. His literary works regarding Francis of Assisi are the following: The Life of St. Francis (1229), The Legend for Use in Choir, (1230), The Remembrance of the Desire for a Soul (1247), The Treatise on the Miracles (1254). Cf. Engelbert Grau, “Thomas of Celano: Life and Work,” trans. Xavier John Seubert, Greyfriars Review 8.2 (1994), pp. 177–200. 2 Pope Gregory IX, Hugolino dei Conti di Segni, was pope from March 19, 1227 until August 22, 1241. Born in 1170, he was the nephew of Innocent III and after completion of his studies in Bologna and Paris he served his uncle, becoming papal legate for Lombardy and Tuscany. In this context, he met both Francis and Clare and eventually became their protector. 3 This Life of St. Francis is also known as the Vita Prima. 4 1C 6, FAED 1, p. 187; Fontes, p. 282. 5 1C 126, FAED 1, p.296; Fontes, p. 559. 64 j.a. wayne hellmann four different movements or sections in his text,6 and in each of these sections Thomas draws from different sources.7 Each has a unique focus: conversion, mission, transformation, and glory. In the first nar- rative Francis is presented so “that of conversion to God he might be an example”;8 and in the second Francis is the preacher. He was so effective that those who heard him preach became “children of peace.”9 Thirdly, Francis approaching his death during the last two years of his life is presented as one who “had just been taken down from the cross.”10 He is transformed into Christ Crucified. Then, finally, in the fourth and last section, Francis is celebrated and canonized by the church on earth as he “stands by the throne of 6 The Life of St. Francis is usually considered in three sections. This threefold divi- sion is based on Thomas’s own description of his text: “I have divided everything that I was able to gather together about the blessed man into three books . According, the first book follows the historical sequence and is devoted to the purity of his blessed way of life...The second book, on the other hand, tells of his deeds from the next to last year of his life up to his happy death. The third book contains the many miracles...and glory paid to him by the blessed Pope Gregory...when they enrolled him in the catalogue of the saints” 1C prol, FAED 1, p. 180; Fontes, pp. 275–276. However, for the purposes of this essay, I have divided book one into two sections as there are two distinct movements within book one, that of conver- sion (ns. 1–22) and of preaching mission (ns. 23–87). Books two and three respect- fully provided the remaining two sections, namely transformation and glory. Thus, this essay is divided into four parts. (The short listing of miracles, numbers 127–147, serves more as an appendix and will not be considered in the parameters of this essay.) 7 Although not in a totally exclusive manner, each of the four proposed divi- sions represents in broad strokes different theological traditions. In the conversion narrative, Thomas draws from the rich hagiographical tradition. In the preaching mission narrative, the general spirit and scope of church reform as indicated in the bull of canonization, Mira Circa Nos (1228), finds a significant place. Book two, the third section, applies Dionysian, Cistercian, and Victorine mystical/contemplative theology to Francis’s final transformation into Christ. Book three, the fourth and final section reflects an eyewitness account and offers the drama of a great liturgy of the universal church on earth and the church in heaven brought together into one chorus of praise. This source criticism merits further examination, but it is beyond the scope of this essay. However, initial forays into such study are the fol- lowing: J.A. Wayne Hellmann, “The Seraph in Thomas of Celano’s Vita Prima” in That Others May Know and Love: Essays in Honor of Zachary Hayes, OFM, ed. Michael Cusato and Edward Coughlin. (St. Bonaventure, 1997), pp. 23–41; Emanuela Prinzivalli, “A Saint to be Read: Francis of Assisi in the Hagiographic Sources” Greyfriars Review 15 (2001), pp. 253–259; William Short, “Francis, the ‘New’ Saint in the Tradition of Christian Hagiography” in Francis of Assisi: History, Hagiography and Hermeneutics in the Early Documents, ed. Jay M. Hammond (Hyde Park, 2004), pp. 153–156. 8 1C 2, FAED 1, p. 184; Fontes, p. 279. 9 1C 23, FAED 1, p. 203; Fontes, p. 297. 10 1C 114, FAED 1, p. 280; Fontes, p. 390..
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