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The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

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The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi Translated from the Critical Latin Edition of Fr. Kajetan Esser, O.F.M. [Die opuskula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi. Neue textkritische Edition. Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras aquas, Grottaferrata (Romae) 1976.] A Publication of The Franciscan Archive A WWW Resource on St. Francis and Franciscanism http://home.ici.net/~panther/francis © 1999 THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI Table of Contents Dedication . p. 2 Introduction . p. 3 The Life and Times of St. Francis of Assisi, by Pope Pius XI . p. 6 Translator's Forward . p. 14 A Note on the Translation of Some Common Latin Terms . p. 15 Accepted Abbreviations for each of St. Francis' Writings . p. 17 Abbreviations used in this work . p. 18 The Admonitions . p. 19 The Canticle of Brother Sun . p. 28 The Parchment Given to Friar Leo . p. 29 a. The Praises of God Most High . p. 29 b. The Blessing given to Friar Leo . p. 30 The Letter to Saint Anthony . p. 31 A Letter to Clerics a. First recension . p. 32 b. Later recension . p. 34 The First Letter to the Custodes . p. 34 The Second Letter to the Custodes . p. 36 A Letter to the Faithful a. First recension . p. 37 b. Later recension . p. 39 The Letter to Friar Leo . p. 44 A Letter to a certain Minister provincial . p. 45 The Letter sent to the whole Order . p. 47 A Letter to the Rulers of the Nations . p. 53 An Exhortation to Praise God . p. 54 The Exposition of the Our Father . p. 55 The Form of Living given to St. Clare . p. 56 The Praises to be said at every hour . .p. 57 The Office of the Passion of the Lord . p. 58 A Prayer before the Crucifix . p. 72 The Regula Bullata . p. 72 The Regula non-Bullata . p. 82 The Rule given for those in hermitages . p. 100 A Salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary . p. 101 A Salutation to the Virtues . p. 102 The Testament of Saint Francis . p. 103 St. Francis' last Will for Saint Clare . p. 106 Dictated works . p. 107 a. The Blessing given Friar Bernard . p. 107 b. The Testament given at Siena . p. 108 c. On true and perfect gladness . p. 108 APPENDIX: Fragments of other Rules . p. 110 Page - 2 THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI MARIAE IMMACULATAE VIRGINI GENERIS HUMANI CORREDENTRICI OMNIS GRATIAE MEDIATRICI DEI GENETRICI ANGELORUM HOMINUMQUE REGINAE FRANCISCANORUM ORDINUM PATRONAE AC REGINAE IN PERPETUAM OBLATIONEM To the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Corredemptrix of mankind, Mediatrix of every grace, Mother of God, Queen of Angels and Men, Patroness and Queen of the Franciscan Orders: As a perpetual oblation. Page - 3 THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI Introduction St. Francis of Assisi lived from 1182 to 1226 A.D.. Since his death St. Francis has been acclaimed by the popes as a "thoroughly Catholic and apostolic man," and praised by many of the faithful as one of the greatest saints of the Roman Catholic Church. In recent times Pope Pius XI, in the Encyclical Letter Rite Expiatis (April 13, 1926 A.D.) confirmed this, saying: If some dare to compare one with another the heavenly heroes of sanctity destined by the Holy Ghost each to his own special mission among men—these comparisons, the fruit for the most part of party passions, are valueless and are at the same time an insult to God, the author of sanctity—it seems necessary for Us to affirm that there has never been anyone in whom the image of Jesus Christ and the evangelical manner of life shone forth more lifelike and strikingly than in St. Francis. He who called himself the "Herald of the Great King" was also rightly spoken of as "another Jesus Christ," appearing to his contemporaries and to future generations almost as if he were the Risen Christ. He has always lived as such in the eyes of men and so will continue to live for all future time. Nor is it marvelous that his early biographers, contemporaries of the Saint, in their accounts of his life and works, judged him to be of a nobility almost superior to human nature itself. Our Predecessors who dealt personally with Francis did not hesitate to recognize in him a providential help sent by God for the welfare of Christian peoples and of the Church. (n. 2) St. Francis was born in either the summer or autumn of 1182 A.D., and received the name "John" at his baptism. Being a merchant who frequented France, his father named him "Francis." His mother raised him to be a devout Roman Catholic. He attended the Cathedral school in Assisi and went on to help his father in his work as a cloth merchant. After a short service in the military on behalf of Assisi, St. Francis was captured by her rival, the city of Perugia, and imprisoned for a year. When released he returned home an invalid. During a long sickness God weaned his heart from this world and soon he took up the habit of spending long hours in prayer. One day in January of 1206 A.D. St. Francis paid a visit to San Damiano, a decrepit church on the outskirts of Assisi. There he knelt in prayer before an ancient icon depicting Christ Crucified, with Our Lady and St. John standing beneath His right arm. 1 Suddenly a voice came forth from the icon and said, "Francis, go and rebuild My Church, which as you can see, is falling into ruin." Afterwards, St. Francis resolved to obey Our Lord and set quickly to work repairing that old church. In the three years that followed St. Francis went on to repair two other churches: San Pietro della Spina, in the countryside south of Assisi, and Santa Maria degli Angeli, also known as the Portiuncula, in the plain below the town. During this time St. Francis lived the life of a hermit. It was at the Portiuncula, on the Feast of St. Matthias, the Apostle (February 24, 1208 A.D.), that St. Francis began the religious life for which he is famous. While attending Mass he 1 For more on the historical verification of this incident, cf. Fr. Kajetan Esser, O.F.M., Gli Scritti di San Franceso d'Assisi, published by Edizioni Messaggero Padova, Italy, 1982 (reprinted 1995, p. 458. Today the original icon is kept at San Rufino; the icon at San Damiano is a copy. Page - 4 THE WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI listened intently to the priest, as he read the Gospel: "Take nothing with you on the way, neither gold, nor silver...". After Mass St. Francis asked the priest to explain the meaning of this reading. Thereupon the cleric described to him the life Christ taught to the Apostles. At this St. Francis exclaimed, "This is what I want; this is what I long for with all my heart!" From that day St. Francis began living simply and literally the religious life which Christ taught in the Gospel. Soon devout Catholic men joined him and they began preaching penance to the people throughout central Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, Palestine, and Hungary. He himself went on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela during these early years. And later in 1219 A.D., moved by a desire for martyrdom, St. Francis journeyed to accompany the soldiers of the Fifth Crusade (1218-1221 A.D.) at Damietta, Egypt. On his return, he did much to improve the discipline of his fledgling order, and in 1223 A.D. retired to the hermitage of Fonte Colombo, in Italy, to write the Rule of the Friars Minor. St. Francis is particularly noted for the extraordinary and singular grace which Jesus Christ gave him on the morning of September 14, 1224 A.D., while he was at prayer on Mt. Alverna, in Italy. He saw a Seraph come down from Heaven, bearing the Image of the Crucified, from the five wounds of which beams of light shone forth upon his own hands and feet and side. It was then he received the stigmata, which bled profusely for the next three years of his life. Of this extraordinary gift, St. John of the Cross, the Carmelite Doctor of the Church, writes in the second redaction of the Living Flame of Love (1586-91 A.D.): Let us return to the work of the Seraphim, for he truly inflicts a sore and wounds inwardly in the spirit. Thus, if God sometimes permits an effect to extend to the bodily senses in the fashion in which it existed interiorly, the wound and sore appears outwardly, as happened when the Seraphim wounded St. Francis. When the soul is wounded with love by the Five Wounds (of Christ), the effect extends to the body and these Wounds are impressed on the body and it is wounded, just as the soul is wounded with love. God usually does not bestow a favor upon the body without bestowing it first and principally upon the soul. Thus the greater the delight and strength of love the wound produces in the soul, so much the greater is that produced by the wound outside on the body, and when there is an increase in one there is an increase in the other. ( II,13) St. Francis passed to his eternal reward on Saturday, October 3, 1226 A.D., during the recitation of Vespers. Both in life and death he worked a great number of miracles, especially for the infirm and those overcome by sudden disasters.
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