Life of St. Francis of Assisi
Item Number: 18174
The Life os St. Fancis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure
Francis, go and build up My house, which as thou seest, is falling into ruin." Three times did Our Lord from the crucifix make this command of St. Francis, as he lay prostrate in prayer in the Church of San Damiano. And though he died at only 45, St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) had drawn around him, through the example of his humility and his purity, a vast number of followers, who became the start of the Franciscan Order, and it was through his order that he was to fulfill Our Lord's command. Never ordained to the priesthood, St. Francis nonetheless was a preacher of great renown and he was a miracle-worker of the first order-curing, prophesying, casting out devils, turning water into wine, and raising people from the dead. Even St. Bonaventure (c. 1220-1274), author of this Life of St. Francis of Assisi-which was the first official Franciscan biography of St. Francis-had been cured of a childhood illness by the Saint.
The impression of St. Francis one receives from these pages is indeed that of a seraph-an angel in human flesh. Even the animals delighted in being near him, and they obeyed him, as did inanimate nature. Once a flock of sheep exulted in his presence, gathering around him in joy. He asked a flock of swallows to be silent so he could preach, and they obeyed. He commanded water to flow from a bare rock in the countryside, and it did. Without having studied, he knew theology and the Scriptures-by the science of purity and contemplation-so that he could much better answer the profoundest questions in these fields than could those who had studied them.
He claimed that it was beyond comparison easier for a spiritual man to endure the utmost extremity of cold in his body than the slightest spark of sinful passion in his soul. St. Francis said, "No man is to be praised whose end is uncertain." And, "What a man is in the eyes of God, so much he is, and no more."
Indeed, though not arranged in typical biographical form, The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure conveys a picture of the Saint through his miracles, his sayings and his holy life that renders an indelible impression of a man totally transformed in God and totally transformed by God. From this story one can understand why the beloved and ever-popular St. Francis of Assisi is called the "Seraphic Patriarch;' that is, the "Angelic Father"--for no other word but "angel" can truly describe him.
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