In the last article, we talked about Dominique Guzman, one of the anti-heroes of the Crusade against the Albigensians. He founded the monastic Order of "Brothers Preachers", initiated the papal Inquisition, and was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1234. But at the same time, during this cruel time, lived a man who became one of the best Christians in the history of mankind. According to Chesterton, he "loved not humanity, but people, not Christianity, but Christ." His name was Giovanni Bernandone, but he went down in history under the name of St. Francis of Assisi.
Antipode of Dominic Guzman
Information about his life, in addition to canonical sources, is known from the stories collected by the monks of this order in the XIV century ("Flowers of St. Francis").
Giovanni Fidanza, better known by the nickname given to him by Francis, wrote two Lives of St. Francis ("Big" and "Small" legends): blessing the sick boy brought to him, he said: "O buone venture!" ("Oh, happy destiny!")
The future saint was born in 1181 (in 1182, according to other sources) in the Italian city of Assisi (the name comes from the nearby Mount Assi), located in the historical region of Umbria. He was the only son of a wealthy merchant - a member of the guild of cloth merchants (the family also had two daughters).
At baptism, he received the name Giovanni (Latin - John). Francis (more precisely, Francesco) is his middle name, which his father gave him, either in honor of his beloved French wife, or because his trading activity was closely connected with France. This saint is known under the name Francis because the Voice that he heard first in a dream, and then before the Crucifixion, addressed him in this way. Since then, he himself began to call himself only by this name.
Like St. Augustine, in his youth, Giovanni stood out little among his peers, and even in the most respectful lives, the epithets "riotous" and "dissolute" are often used in stories about this period of his life. He did not even think about a spiritual career, thinking more about the military field. In 1202, Giovanni took part in the war between Assisi and Perugia, during which he was captured, and spent about a year in a local prison. Here for the first time the character of the future saint manifested itself: one of his companions in misfortune was considered by the other captives to be a traitor and a coward, and Giovanni was the only person who did not interrupt communication with the outcast.
The voice of heaven
Returning home, Giovanni saw himself in a dream in the middle of a huge hall, the walls of which were hung with weapons, and on each blade or shield was the sign of the Crucifixion. Someone invisible said to him: "This is for you and for your soldiers."
The Neapolitan troops just at this time opposed the army of the emperor (Guelphs and Gibbelins, you remember), and he decided to join them.
Having told his parents that he would return as a hero, on the same day he left the city, but on the way he had another dream: "You did not understand the first vision," said the Voice, "return to Assisi."
Returning home meant shame, but Giovanni dared not disobey. He presented his armor, which cost a fortune at that time, to the ruined knight.
One of the friends, drawing attention to the thoughtfulness unusual for him, asked if he was going to marry? Giovanni replied in the affirmative, saying that he had already chosen "a wife of extraordinary beauty and righteousness." He meant poverty, but then, of course, no one understood him.
Soon before the crucifixion, he again heard a familiar voice calling him Francis: "Go and restore My House, which, as you see, is falling into decay."
Many theologians believe that it was about the Catholic Church, but Francis decided that this "home" - the abandoned church of St. Damian, which he passed by on a recent pilgrimage to Rome. To fix it, the young man sold his horse and several rolls of silk from the family shop. This became the reason for his quarrel with his father, who was supported by the Bishop of Assisi, declaring that good deeds are not done with the help of bad deeds. Giovanni returned the money and left home. Now he begged from the townspeople for stones, which he carried on his shoulders to the dilapidated church in order to repair its walls. Then Francis repaired two more chapels - St. Peter near Assisi and St. Mary and all the Angels in Porziunculus. Near the latter, he built a hut for himself, around which every year on the day of Trinity his followers began to build huts - this was the beginning of the general chapters of the Order.
Tradition states that, like Christ, Saint Francis at the beginning of his journey chose 12 companions, and one of them, like Judas of the New Testament, hanged himself - “that was brother John with a Hat, who himself put a rope around his neck” (“The First Flower”). However, in fact, at the beginning there were three of them: Francis himself, Bernard from Quintavalle and the rector of one of the local churches, Pietro. To understand the purpose and fate of each of them, Francis drew a cross on the Gospel and opened it three times at random: the lines that were opened were taken as a prediction. The first passage spoke of a rich young man, a camel and an eye for a needle - and Bernard, a wealthy merchant and honorary citizen, gave his property to the poor. The second passage turned out to be Christ's advice not to take with him any money, no bag, no change of clothes, no staff - Pietro, canon of one of the cathedrals in Catania, became a wandering monk-preacher, sacrificing his spiritual career. Francis got a text that said that whoever wants to follow Christ must deny himself and carry his cross. Francis fulfilled the command from above. "No one will call him a business man, but he was a man of action," - later said about our hero Chesterton.
Sermon by Francis of Assisi
Since 1206, Francis walked around the country, preaching not only to people, but also to animals and birds. Not surprisingly, in 1979, John Paul II “appointed” him as the heavenly patron of ecologists.
He achieved a meeting with the emperor only to ask him not to hunt larks, and "even had a love for worms … and he collected them from the road and took them to a safe place so that the travelers would not crush them." In the stories about the miracles shown by Francis, this saint never gave orders even to animals and birds, but only asked them, for example: "My little sisters, if you said what you wanted, let me tell you too."
As an illustration of Francis's humility, "The Seventh Flower" tells how one day, while fasting, he symbolically tasted bread - "so as not to inadvertently stand on a par with Jesus Christ in terms of fasting." But, to be fair and impartial, in this desire to “voluntarily surrender the primacy to Christ” one can also see carefully hidden pride, since the very idea that one can stand on a par with the Savior of mankind is very doubtful and absolutely unacceptable for any Christian.
Francis was also a poet (“the juggler of God,” as he called himself). He composed his uncomplicated poems and songs not only in the Umbrian dialect of the Italian language, but also in Provençal, the language of the troubadours, who at that time were burned in hundreds in southern France. In addition, both Francis himself and his followers preached the rejection of wealth, led a wandering lifestyle, so that the inquisitors sometimes mistook the Minor brothers for Cathars or Waldensians. As a result of this mistake, five Franciscans were executed in Spain. Some researchers consider it a miracle that the future saint was not burned during his travels. However, it is difficult to say how his fate would have turned out if he had been in Occitania at that time. There, the meeting of the future saints (Francis of Assisi and Dominic Guzmán) might look completely different from how it is presented in this sculptural composition in the royal monastery of St. Thomas (Avila, Spain):
(The semi-legendary meeting of Francis and Dominic in 1215 in Rome was described in an article by Dominic Guzman and Francis of Assisi. "Not peace, but a sword": two faces of the Catholic Church).
And in Italy, at first, not everyone was moved by the preaching of the young ascetic. It is known that once he was beaten and robbed by robbers, and barely managed to get to the nearest monastery, where he washed dishes for some time in exchange for food. But gradually the situation began to change, rumors about the righteousness and even holiness of Francis spread throughout the neighborhood. Everyone was amazed and won over by the sincerity of the future saint: “Everyone, from the Pope to the beggar, from the Sultan to the last thief, looking into his dark glowing eyes, knew that Francesco Bernandone was interested in him … everyone believed that he was taking him to heart, and not enters into the list”(Chesterton).
Francis and Pope Innocent III
Francis managed to get a letter of recommendation from the Assisi abbot Guido to Giovanni di São Paulo (Roman cardinal of St. Paul John), who arranged for him to meet with Pope Innocent III - thereby sending the crusaders to kill the Cathars of southern France. Francis came to the pontiff with the charter of a new monastic Order written by him. The petitioner (unkempt, with a long beard and in rags) made an impression on dad, if it did, it was the most unpleasant one. Innokenty mockingly advised him: “Go, my son, and look for the pigs; you seem to have more in common with them than with people. Roll with them in the mud, pass on to them your charter and exercise on them in your sermons."
Francis did just that. All covered in mud, he returned to the Pope and said: "Vladyka, I have fulfilled your order, now you hear my prayer."
Tradition claims that Innocent III agreed now because he saw in a dream a beggar monk who supported the rickety Lateran Cathedral. But, most likely, intuition prompted Innocent that this strange guest is not so simple, and his preaching of asceticism and love for one's neighbor should be used in the interests of the papal throne - otherwise, a new dangerous heresy like the teachings of the Waldenses may arise in Italy. On the advice of the already mentioned Giovanni di São Paulo, Innocent in 1209 orally approved the founded by Francis in 1207-1208. brotherhood of minorities.
In the fall of 1212, Francis tried to convert the Syrian Saracens to Christianity, but his ship was wrecked off the island of Slavonia. In 1213 he set out for Morocco, but returned ill on the way.
Saint Clara and the Order of the Poor Ladies
In 1212, the first woman joined the Franciscan movement - 18-year-old Chiara (Clara) Offreduccio from a wealthy Assisi family, whom Francis helped to escape from home. Later, at the age of 21, she headed a nunnery, which was located in the house near the first church renovated by Francis (St. Damian). At the end of her life, due to illness, Klara could not participate in the masses, but she had visions in which she saw the mass on the wall of her room. On this basis, in 1958, Pope Pius XII declared her the patroness of television. She died on August 11, 1253 - the day after receiving the papal bull, which approved the charter of the female monastic Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clarisse) written by her. In 1258 she was canonized. And in 1255 in different countries there were already more than 120 monasteries of the Order of the Poor Clarisses.
The successes of Francis and the official approval of the Order of the Minorites
In 1212, a brotherhood of tertiary minorities was formed, which could include laymen. And in 1216, the new Pope Honorius III made an incredible gift to Francis: he granted an indulgence to everyone who visited Porziunkula on August 2, a small Franciscan chapel located on a hill near Assisi (Assisi Forgiveness). Since then, this pilgrimage has become a tradition, and Porciuncula is now hidden under the arches of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi (this is one of the six great temples of the Catholic Church).
Interestingly, the hill near Porciuncula was previously called "Infernal", since criminals were executed on it. But after the construction of the Sacro Convento monastery there (started in 1228), the hill began to be called "Paradise".
The Basilica of St. Francis (frescoes for which Giotto painted) was also erected here, where his body was transferred in 1236. There is an equestrian monument to Francis near the Basilica, which causes some bewilderment. The fact is that in Italy there is a saying “Andare con il cavallo di San Francesco” - “to ride the horse of St. Francis”. And it means "to walk" - like a saint and his disciples.
But let's return to May 1217, when it was decided to organize the Franciscan provinces in Tuscany, Lombardy, Provence, Spain, Germany and France, where Francis's students went, and he himself intended to move to France, but he was dissuaded by Cardinal Ugolino di Seny Ostia (nephew of Innocent III), with whom he went to the Vatican.
Tradition says that in 1218, Cardinal Ugolino of Ostia (the future Pope Gregory IX, who canonizes both Francis and Dominic), invited them to unite their Orders into one, but Francis refused.
That year, Francis's popularity in Italy reached its peak, everywhere he was greeted by real crowds of grateful listeners, the sick were brought to him, some kissed the ground at his feet and asked permission to cut off a piece of his robe as a relic. On the feast of the Trinity in 1219, around the hut of Francis (near Assisi), his followers built about 5 thousand huts.
In 1219, Francis nevertheless made an attempt to convert Muslims by going to Egypt, where just at this time the army of the Crusaders was besieging the port city of Damietta.
Here Francis went to the enemy's camp, where, of course, he was immediately captured, but he was lucky - surprised by the fearless behavior of the strange "franc", the soldiers took him to the sultan. Malik al Kamel accepted him quite favorably, but, of course, did not want to renounce Islam, promising only to deal mercifully with the captive Christians. Francis was with the crusaders until the capture of Damietta. After visiting Palestine, Francis returned to Italy in 1220, where there was already a rumor about his death. While he “walked around the world like God's forgiveness” (Chesterton), one of the “brothers” went to Rome with the charter of a new monastic Order, and Francis's deputy changed the charter of the Order and allowed accepting donations, for “it is not in human nature to give up wealth” … Seeing a rich building built for the Order in Bologna, Francis asked: "Since when has Lady Poverty been insulted?"
But, as you probably guessed, no one began to demolish this building, or abandon it.
In general, Francis did not have the former position and power in the Order, and never will.
At a meeting of members of the Order in Porciuncula and Vitsundin (1220 or 1221), 5000 brothers and 500 candidates, demonstrating all respect for their spiritual leader, demanded that the harsh rules be relaxed. Unable to either meet them or fight them, Francis gave up the post of head of the order to Peter of Cattaneus, who was replaced a year later by "brother Elijah".
Francis no longer intervened in the administrative and economic affairs of the Order, but he had not yet completely retired from business. In 1221, with his active participation, another branch of the Order was created - now it bears the name of the Order of Penitent Brothers and Sisters (Brothers and Sisters of Repentance). It consists of people who cannot leave the World, but help the Franciscans and Clarissas, and observe some restrictions: for example, they do not take up arms, do not participate in litigation. The charter of this Order was approved in 1289.
Using his authority, in 1223 Francis wrote a new set of rules for his brothers, reducing the number of chapters from 23 to 12, which confirmed the three vows - obedience, poverty and chastity. In the same year, this charter was approved by Pope Honorius III.
The already existing organization was now officially recognized by Rome and received the name of the Order of the Minor Brothers, whose members were often called (and are called) Franciscans. It is headed by a "general minister" who is often called a general.
In England, the Minorites were also called "gray brothers" (according to the color of their cassocks). In France - by "cordeliers" (because of the rope with which they were girded - corde, cordage). In Germany, they were "barefoot" (they wore sandals on their bare feet). And in Italy - often just "brothers".
The symbol of the new order was two hands: Christ (naked) and Francis (dressed in a habit - the vestments of a Minorite monk), raised to the coat of arms of Jerusalem. The motto is the phrase "Peace and Goodness".
In the same year, 1223, Francis initiated the restoration of the environment of Bethlehem in the churches on the eve of Christmas and became the founder of the rite of veneration of the Holy Manger.
Francis' Pyrrhic victory
Since Francis and his disciples condemned the acquisitiveness of priests and church hierarchs and did not approve of the Church's possession of material goods, at first they were forbidden to preach to the laity. But soon this ban was lifted, and in 1256 the Franciscans received the right to teach at universities, while they were hired "out of competition", which even caused a "riot" in France by other professors who were not members of this Order. At one time, the Franciscans were popular as confessors of the crowned heads of Europe, but were subsequently ousted from these positions by the Jesuits. Further - more: Franciscan monks began to perform the duties of inquisitors in Wenssen, Provence, Forcalca, Arles, Embrene, cities of central Italy, Dalmatia and Bohemia.
But it was precisely these successes that became fatal for the great cause of Francis.
The tragedy of Francis's life was that his many followers were not saints, but ordinary people, and did not want to be beggars at all. While Francis was around, the power of his example infected people, but when he left the disciples, temptation immediately penetrated their hearts. Even during the life of Francis, the bulk of the monks abandoned his ideas. The seventh general of the Order, Giovanni Fidanzza, became cardinal in 1273, and several bishops appeared in the leadership of the Order.
This was probably for the best: it is easy to imagine what would have awaited flourishing Italy if after the death of Francis there remained a sufficient number of his disciples, equally fanatically devoted to the ideas of "righteous poverty", but less peaceful. Let us recall the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, who actually ruled Florence in 1494-1498: he suggested that women cover their faces, like Muslim women, and instead of carnivals arrange processions of children collecting alms. In Florence, the production of luxury goods was banned and the "burning of vanity" was arranged - paintings, books (including Petrarch and Dante), playing cards, expensive household items. Sandro Botticelli then personally brought unsold paintings to the fire. And John Calvin in Geneva, according to Voltaire, "opened wide the doors of the monasteries, not so that all the monks left them, but in order to drive the whole world there." In “Protestant Rome,” priests regularly came to homes to check whether the nightgowns of their parishioners' wives were modest enough to make sure there were no sweets in the kitchen. Children in Calvinist Geneva were happy to inform about insufficiently godly parents. In general, let the ascetics remain ascetics, and ordinary people, with all their advantages and disadvantages, ordinary people. It will be better for everyone.
Francis, apparently, at the end of his life had neither the strength nor the desire to defend his point of view. Back in 1213, Count Orlando di Chiusi presented him with Mount La Verna in the Tuscan Apennines near the Casentino Valley (1200 meters high): “a pile of rugged rocks at the confluence of the Tiber and Arno” - this is how Dante described it.
Francis went to this mountain with only three companions at the beginning of 1224, in the sky over La Verna he had a vision of a giant cross, after which stigmata appeared on his palms - bleeding marks from nails, signs of five wounds of the crucified Christ.
After that, his condition deteriorated sharply, he suffered from constant pain throughout his body and was almost completely blind. In September 1225, he visited the monastery of Clara for the last time and the first church he renovated, St. Damian. Francis spent the winter of this year in Siena, from there he was transported to Cortona. The already dying Francis was taken with great precautions to Assisi - the escorts were afraid of attacks from traditional rivals from Perugia, who wanted to take possession of the still living ascetic, so that later they could be able to bury him in the cathedral of their city. In Assisi, Francis was settled in the bishop's palace, from where, before his death, he was transferred to Porziuncula.
Francis died on October 3, 1226 at the age of 45.
They say that in the year of his death, the number of monks of the Minorite Order reached 10 thousand people.
Francis was canonized in 1228. And already in September 1230, Pope Gregory IX in the bull "Quo elongati" declared that the "Testament" of the saint (with the requirement to remain poor) "has only spiritual, but not legal significance. In order to legitimize the numerous acquisitions of the Order, at the beginning of the XIV century, its property was declared belonging to the Church, only provided by it to the Franciscans.
In 1260, Giovanni Fidanza (Cardinal Bonaventure), elected head of the order, at the General Chapter he convened, insisted on the adoption of the so-called "Narbonne Constitutions", which condemned "excessive enthusiasm for poverty." There was also condemnation of the opinion widespread among some of the Franciscans that "teaching is useless for the ascent to holiness."
In the Order, opposition to innovations arose, which resulted in a movement of spirituals (mystical Franciscans). And since their protest inevitably took on social forms (condemnation of greedy and unrighteous hierarchs), the standard accusation of heresy was brought against the spiritualists. In 1317, Pope John XXII, on pain of excommunication, ordered them to submit to the authority of the main (conventual) wing of the Order. Many of them refused - they were called fraticelli ("half-brothers"). In 1318 four of them were burned by the Inquisition, and in 1329 Pope John XXII excommunicated the “radicals” from the Church altogether. Spiritual heretics were condemned until 1517, when Pope Leo X divided the Order in a bull “Ite vos”: the Lesser Observants Brothers (who defended their right to “be poor”) and the Lesser Conventual Brothers appeared. And in 1525, some of the monks, under the leadership of Matteo Bassi, separated into the Capuchin Order ("The Lesser Brothers of the Hermit Life"), which in 1528 was recognized as independent by Pope Clement VII.
Only at the end of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII achieved the restoration of the unity of all these groups.
Part of the Franciscan Order are the Women's Order of the Poor Claris and the Order of the Laity of Saint Francis (tertiary), which even once included the French king Louis IX.
By the beginning of the 18th century, the Franciscan Order had 1,700 monasteries under its jurisdiction, in which 25,000 brothers lived.
Six Franciscans became popes (Nicholas IV, Celestine V, Sixtus IV, Sixtus V, Clement XIV, Pius IX).
The names of some Franciscans have remained in the history of science. Here is some of them.
Roger Bacon (nicknamed "The Amazing Doctor"), Oxford professor, philosopher, mathematician and alchemist, invented a magnifying glass and lenses with which he could read and write until old age.
William of Ockham, philosopher and logician, called "invincible" by his students. Among these students was the notorious Jean Buridan.
Berthold Schwartz is considered the European inventor of gunpowder.
Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (1445-1517) became the founder of the principles of modern accounting, the author of a textbook of commercial arithmetic, treatises "The sum of arithmetic, geometry, relations and proportions" and "On the game of chess", and many other works. His treatise "On Divine Proportion" was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci ("with his indescribable left hand" - so Pacioli himself said).
Pacioli and da Vinci were friends, and in October 1499 they fled together from Milan, captured by the troops of Louis XII.
Pay attention to the face of Pacioli's student: we see very similar in a self-portrait painted by Dürer in 1493:
Albrecht Durer met with Jacopo de Barbari in Venice in 1494-1495, and with Pacioli in Bologna in 1501-1507. In one of the letters of that time, Dürer wrote that he went to Bologna "for the sake of art, since there is a person there who will teach me the secret art of perspective." Most likely, we are talking about Pacioli.
Bernardino de Sahagun authored the General History of the Affairs of New Spain, the first work on the Aztecs and their culture. His brother Antonio Ciudad Real compiled a six-volume Mayan dictionary.
Guillaume de Rubruck by order of the French king Louis IX in 1253-1255. traveled from Akka (Acre, Northern Palestine) to Karakorum (via Constantinople and Saray) and wrote a book "Travel to the Eastern Countries."
45 Franciscans were canonized after their execution in Japan during the persecution of Christians in that country.
The Tertiaries of the Order of the Minorites were Dante, Petrarch, Michelangelo and Rabelais.
Antonio Vivaldi was the abbot of a Minorite monastery in Venice and began his career as a musician as a music teacher in an orphanage for girls.
And the Spaniard, Jimeles Malia Seferino, numbered among the blessed (died in 1936 during the Civil War), was “appointed” by John Paul II as the patron saint of the Gypsies.
Among other famous Franciscans, one can recall the legendary brother Took - one of the most famous and popular associates of the no less legendary Robin Hood.
One of the heroes of Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" is brother Lorenzo - a monk of the Verona Franciscan monastery of Saint Zeno, and William of Baskerville is the protagonist of Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose".
Currently, there are about 18 thousand members of the Minorite Order, the Franciscans retain their influence in many Catholic countries. The heirs of the beggar Francis own considerable property, have their own universities, colleges and publishing houses.
Monks of this Order live and preach in Europe and Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia.
