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 FRANCIS

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FRANCIS

year of his age, and tho twentiof.h frnm his pprfrnt, ■ gnnversign to Chris t.

The saint had, in his humihty, it is said, expressed a wish to be buried on the Colle d' Inferno, a despised hill without Assisi, where criminals were executed. However this may be, his body was, on 4 October, borne in triumphant procession to the city, a halt being made at St. Damian's, that St. Clare and her companions might venerate the sacred stigmata now visible to all, and it was placed provisionally in the church of St. George (now within the enclosure of the monastery of St. Clare), where the saint had learned to read and had first preachfcl. Many miracles are recorded to have taken place at his tomb. Francis was snlemnly c.ino nizcil .-it St. Oeorf^e's by Grptrpry TV Ifi .Tilly, 12'2S. On the day following the pope laid the first stone of the great double church of St. Francis, erected in honour of the new saint, and thither on 25 May, 1230, Francis's remains were secretly transferred by Brother Elias and buried far down under the high altar in the lower church. Here, after lying hidden for six centuries, like that of St. Clare's, Francis's coffin was found, 12 December, ISIS, as a result of a toilsome search lasting fifty-two nights. This discovery of the saint's body is commemorated in the order by a special office on 12 December, and that of his translation by another on 25 May. His feast is kept throughout the Church on 4 October, and the impression of the stigmata on his body is celebrated on 17 September.

It has been said with pardonable warmth that Francis entered into glory in his lifetime, and that he is the one saint whom all succeeding generations have agreed in canonizing. Certain it is that those also who care little about the order he founded, and who have but scant sympathy with the Church to which he ever gave his devout allegiance, even those who know not Christianity to be Divine, find themselves, in- stinctively as it were, looking across the ages for guid- ance to the wonderful Umbrian Poverello, and invok- ing his name in grateful remembrance. This unique position Francis doubtless owes in no small meas- ure to his singularly lovable and winsome personality. Few saints ever exhaled "the good odour of Christ" to such a degree as he. There was about Franc is. moreover, a chivalry and a poetry which gave to his other-worjdliness a quite ro mantic charm andlieaut y. Other saints have seemed entirely dead to the world around them, but Francis was ever thoroughly in touch with the spirit of the age. He delighted in the songs of Provence, rejoiced in the new-born freedom of his native city, and cherished what Dante calls the pleasant sound of his dear land. And this exquisite human element in Francis's character was the key to that far-reaching, all-embracing sympathy, which may be almost called his characteristic gift. In his heart, as an old chronicler puts it, the whole world found refuge, the poor, the sick and the fallen being the objects of his solicitude in a more special manner. Heedless as Francis ever was of the world's judgments in his own regard, it was always his constant care to respect the opinions of all and to wound the feelings of none. Wherefore he admonishes the friars to use only low and mean tables, so that " if a beggar were to come to sit down near them he might believe that he was but with his equals and need not blush on account of his poverty". One night, we are told, the friary was aroused by the cry "I am dying". "Who are you", exclaimed Francis arising, "and why are you dying? " " I am dying of hunger", answered the voice of one who had been too prone to fasting. Where- upon Francis had a table laid out and sat down beside the famished friar, and lest the latter might be ashamed to eat alone, ordered all the other brethren to join in the repast. Francis's devotedness in consoling the afflicted made him so condescending that he shrank not from abiding with the lepers in their loathly

lazar-houses and from eating with them out of the .same platter. But above all it is his dealings with the erring that reveal the truly Christian spirit of his charity. "Saintlier than any of the saints", writes Celano, " among sinners he was as one of themselves ". Writing to a certain minister in the order, Francis says: "Should there be a brother anywhere in the world who has sinned, no matter how great soever his fault may be, let him not go away after he has once seen thy face without showing pity towards him ; and if he seek not mercy, ask him if he does not desire it. And by this I will know if you love God and me." Again, to medieval notions of justice the evil-doer was beyond the law and there was no need to keep faith with him. But according to Francis, not only was justice due even to evil-doers, but justice must be preceded by courtesy as by a herald. Courtesy, in- deed, in the saint's quaint concept, was the younger sister of charity and one of the qualities of God Him- self, Who "of His courtesy", he declares, "gives His sun and His rain to the just and the unjust". This habit of courtesy Francis ever sought to enjoin on his

disciples. "Whoever may come to us", he writes, " whether a friend or a foe, a thief or a robber, let him be kindly received", and the feast which he spread for the starving brigands in the forest at Monte Casale sufficed to show that "as he taught so he wrought". Tlie very animals found in Francis a tender friend and protector; thus we find him pleading with the people of Gubbio to feed the fierce wolf that had ravished their flocks, because through hunger "Brother Wolf" had done this wTong. And the early legends have left us many an idyllic picture of how bea.sts and birds alike susceptible to the charm of Fra ncis's gentle wnySj_eritpred into loving co'npaninnship with him; how the hunted leveret sought to attract his notice; how the half-frozen bees crawled towards him in winter to be fed; how the wild falcon fluttered around him; how the nightingale sang with him in sweetest content in the ilex grove at the Carceri, and how his "little brethren the birds" listened so devoutly to his sermon by the roadside near Bevagna that Francis chided himself for not having thought of preaching to them before. Francis's love of nature also stands out in bold relief in the world he moved in. He delighted to coninnine with the wild flowers, the crystal spring, and the friendly fire, and to greet the sun as it rose upon the fair Umbrian vale. In this respect, in- deed, St. Francis's "gift of sympathy" seems to have been wider even than St. Paul's, for we find no