Brief Summary Of Celano's 'Francis Of Assisi'
Francis of Assisi
Background
This week’s text is based around the famous but slightly bizarre character of Francis of Assisi. Francis was born in 1181 into a very affluent family his father being a rich merchant. He became a hermit in his late 20s displeasing both his father and a local bishop when famously he strips naked handing back his clothes to his father. Above everything Francis hated money. He believed that money was “the devil” he believed that his followers should run from as if they were running from the devil itself. The accounts in Thomas’s of Celano’s second life of St Francis of the punishment of his fellow brothers when they come into contact with money reaffirm this claim.
Francis believed that he was called to lead …show more content…
an apostolic life which meant for him absolute poverty. He made sure that he owned nothing. He went off out into the world to proclaim the gospels and preach about repentance. He did not set out to found a monastic order. All he was concerned with was leading a holy life and preaching the gospel but his vision was so attractive that it appealed to many young men like him, comfortable middle- class idealistic lay men. Francis encouraged them to sell all their goods and possessions and set out barefoot into the world.
Attitudes to missionary work
Francis had a burning desire for martyrdom he believed that this was the purpose of his ministry. This leads him to go off as a missionary. Syria is his fixed destination and after a few attempts he finally gets there. Expecting to die in Syria, he stood in front of the Sultan who was amazed and moved by Francis’s contempt for wealth and status. The Sultan said he was a man like no others. Francis believed that he the way to be a missionary was to stay true to the values that founded his faith and to hold strong to God. He instructed his brothers that there were two ways in which they could go out and live on missionaries. They should not cause any conflicts and treat all humans in the same light. Secondly to announce the word of God and the belief in God almighty, son and Holy Spirit, but only when this pleases God. He urges his brothers that they must be prepared to confess their faith.
Francis had a very high regard for nature. Famously he is remembered for preaching to a flock of birds of every species. Francis believed that they were waiting for him and so he spoke to them and shared his love of God with these creatures. Is this a sign of Francis’s state of mind? Does this show a man who is perhaps slightly mad? Or does this show a simple man who is so captivated by God’s creation that he thinks all creatures should share in God’s love?
Stigmata
In 1224 on Mount La Verna it is claimed that Francis received the Stigmata, or what is thought to be a representation of the wounds of Christ.
An angel appeared to Francis in a vision followed by Christ the crucified. Francis was thought to have been overcome with joy but also pain. It left marks on his body. The figures of nails appeared on his hands and feet and his right side showed a blood red wound where the spear is sad to have pierced Christ. It is thought that he tried to hide them and keep it secret although this quickly became impossible.
The accounts we are given of the Stigmata are very different. Thomas of Celano attempts to show the human side of Francis. Explaining how he tried to hide the wounds that had been so mysteriously put upon him. He views them as being very personal to Francis and perhaps something he may have been scared of. In contrast the Little Flowers does the opposite .These stories were originally collected and complied by Brother Ugolino during the early 1300’s. Ugolino attempted to draw put similarities between Jesus and Francis, since both were leaders who taught their followers to deny the things of this world and to instead seek humility and holiness .Ugilino attempts to show how Francis has become Christ like after receiving the wounds that appeared on
Christ.
Spread of the Order
Francis died in 1226. Two years after his death he was canonised. The order spread rapidly across Europe. The order began to flourish and the church of Assisi became a vital pilgrimage place for many of his followers.
St Francis was certainly a very bizarre man. His ideas were strange and unheard of for the time. Preaching to the Birds, publicly renouncing his possessions and his burning desire for martyrdom could all be seen as signs that he was not in a sane frame of mind. Or was he purely just a radical for his day. So full of God’s word and love with a passion to declare it?
Sources
F. D. Logan A History of the church in the Middle Ages. (Padstow:TJ International LTD, 2002)
J. Thomson The Western Church in the Middle Ages. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 1998)
W. Cook, Francis of Assisi: The way of poverty and Humiliation (Wilmington, Del: M. Glazier, 1989)
Background
This week’s text is based around the famous but slightly bizarre character of Francis of Assisi. Francis was born in 1181 into a very affluent family his father being a rich merchant. He became a hermit in his late 20s displeasing both his father and a local bishop when famously he strips naked handing back his clothes to his father. Above everything Francis hated money. He believed that money was “the devil” he believed that his followers should run from as if they were running from the devil itself. The accounts in Thomas’s of Celano’s second life of St Francis of the punishment of his fellow brothers when they come into contact with money reaffirm this claim.
Francis believed that he was called to lead …show more content…
an apostolic life which meant for him absolute poverty. He made sure that he owned nothing. He went off out into the world to proclaim the gospels and preach about repentance. He did not set out to found a monastic order. All he was concerned with was leading a holy life and preaching the gospel but his vision was so attractive that it appealed to many young men like him, comfortable middle- class idealistic lay men. Francis encouraged them to sell all their goods and possessions and set out barefoot into the world.
Attitudes to missionary work
Francis had a burning desire for martyrdom he believed that this was the purpose of his ministry. This leads him to go off as a missionary. Syria is his fixed destination and after a few attempts he finally gets there. Expecting to die in Syria, he stood in front of the Sultan who was amazed and moved by Francis’s contempt for wealth and status. The Sultan said he was a man like no others. Francis believed that he the way to be a missionary was to stay true to the values that founded his faith and to hold strong to God. He instructed his brothers that there were two ways in which they could go out and live on missionaries. They should not cause any conflicts and treat all humans in the same light. Secondly to announce the word of God and the belief in God almighty, son and Holy Spirit, but only when this pleases God. He urges his brothers that they must be prepared to confess their faith.
Francis had a very high regard for nature. Famously he is remembered for preaching to a flock of birds of every species. Francis believed that they were waiting for him and so he spoke to them and shared his love of God with these creatures. Is this a sign of Francis’s state of mind? Does this show a man who is perhaps slightly mad? Or does this show a simple man who is so captivated by God’s creation that he thinks all creatures should share in God’s love?
Stigmata
In 1224 on Mount La Verna it is claimed that Francis received the Stigmata, or what is thought to be a representation of the wounds of Christ.
An angel appeared to Francis in a vision followed by Christ the crucified. Francis was thought to have been overcome with joy but also pain. It left marks on his body. The figures of nails appeared on his hands and feet and his right side showed a blood red wound where the spear is sad to have pierced Christ. It is thought that he tried to hide them and keep it secret although this quickly became impossible.
The accounts we are given of the Stigmata are very different. Thomas of Celano attempts to show the human side of Francis. Explaining how he tried to hide the wounds that had been so mysteriously put upon him. He views them as being very personal to Francis and perhaps something he may have been scared of. In contrast the Little Flowers does the opposite .These stories were originally collected and complied by Brother Ugolino during the early 1300’s. Ugolino attempted to draw put similarities between Jesus and Francis, since both were leaders who taught their followers to deny the things of this world and to instead seek humility and holiness .Ugilino attempts to show how Francis has become Christ like after receiving the wounds that appeared on
Christ.
Spread of the Order
Francis died in 1226. Two years after his death he was canonised. The order spread rapidly across Europe. The order began to flourish and the church of Assisi became a vital pilgrimage place for many of his followers.
St Francis was certainly a very bizarre man. His ideas were strange and unheard of for the time. Preaching to the Birds, publicly renouncing his possessions and his burning desire for martyrdom could all be seen as signs that he was not in a sane frame of mind. Or was he purely just a radical for his day. So full of God’s word and love with a passion to declare it?
Sources
F. D. Logan A History of the church in the Middle Ages. (Padstow:TJ International LTD, 2002)
J. Thomson The Western Church in the Middle Ages. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 1998)
W. Cook, Francis of Assisi: The way of poverty and Humiliation (Wilmington, Del: M. Glazier, 1989)