San Francesco d'Assisi

#history #peopletoknow #religion #literature 

In the Italy of the Communes another great man was born, who spoke of peace when everyone spoke of struggles and blood, and who loved poverty in a time when everyone was trying to become rich: St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis broke away from the Benedictine rule and founded one of the two great mendicant orders, the Franciscan one. The other, the Dominican, was founded by St. Dominic Guzman to combat heresy, especially the Cathar one. These two orders were responsible for the two greatest religious intellectuals of the time - but everything in those centuries was steeped in religion and faith: the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.

Francis loved the beautiful works of God and nature: water, fire, moon, stars, wind, clouds, sky, earth and grass. Above all, he also loved animals, which he considered brothers, in a not completely anthropocentric sense. The legend linked to the wolf that terrorized the city of Gubbio is famous. It is said that Francesco managed to tame him with sweetness and words.

And then the said wolf lived two years in Agobbio; and I went through the houses from door to door, without hurting the person and without being hurt; and was courteously fed by the people; and as he went around the land and the houses, never a dog barked after him. (Fioretti, chap. XXI).

The Fioretti were written after the death of Francis and are part of a rich Franciscan literature that developed after his death.

Francesco Bernardone was born in Assisi in 1182. Son of a rich merchant, he was dressed in precious fabrics but took off them to wear a rough tunic, he lived in a beautiful house and chose a cave as accommodation, he abandoned rich friends to live among the poor, to share their sufferings. He had an enjoyable and tumultuous youth, he studied Latin and French. In 1206 he experienced a profound crisis, as a result of which he founded the order of Friars Minor which, like all pauperistic movements, was looked upon with suspicion by the Church, within which he managed, however, to re-channel the evangelical and heretical, thus strengthening their prestige. A bit of what the Argentine pope of the same name is called to do today, elected at a time when scandals were destroying the reputation of the church and there was a need for renewal.

Francis of Assisi went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the sultan and, failing to do so, he retired to Mount La Verna, embittered by the disputes that were beginning to tear the order apart. He received the stigmata in 1224 and in 1226 he died at the Porziuncola.

He wrote works in Latin, while in the vernacular he composed the famous Canticle of Creatures, or Canticle of Brother Sun, on the model of the psalms of David. The Canticle is the oldest poetic text of Italian literature of which the author is known, originally accompanied by a lost music. The cultural precedents are those of mystical thought for which God is mysterious and unknown and makes himself known only through the beauty of creation. If many others, like Jacopone da Todi, sang the contempt of the world, Francesco instead exalted its perfection.

Given the discord of tone between the beginning and the end, the Canticle is thought to have been composed in two parts, with the last part written as the saint's death approaches. It will be only in the romantic context that this text is be re-evaluated in a poetic and not just a historical sense. The audience it addresses is the humble one of the crowds of believers, the same one who learned the stories of the Bible and of the saints from Giotto's frescoes in the basilicas.

Altissimu, onnipotente, bon Signore,

tue so’ le laude, la gloria e l’honore et onne benedictione.

Ad te solo, Altissimo, se konfano,

et nullu homo ène dignu te mentovare.

Laudato sie, mi’ Signore, cum tucte le tue creature,

spetialmente messor lo frate sole,

lo qual è iorno, et allumini noi per lui.

Et ellu è bellu e radiante cum grande splendore:

de te, Altissimo, porta significatione.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sora luna e le stelle:

in celu l’ài formate clarite et pretiose et belle.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per frate vento

et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,

per lo quale a le tue creature dài sustentamento.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sor’aqua,

la quale è multo utile et humile et pretiosa et casta.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per frate focu,

per lo quale ennallumini la nocte:

ed ello è bello et iocundo et robustoso et forte.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sora nostra matre terra,

la quale ne sustenta et governa,

et produce diversi fructi con coloriti flori et herba.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per quelli ke perdonano per lo tuo amore

et sostengo infirmitate et tribulatione.

Beati quelli ke ‘l sosterrano in pace,

ka da te, Altissimo, sirano incoronati.

Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sora nostra morte corporale,

da la quale nullu homo vivente pò skappare:

guai a·cquelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali;

beati quelli ke trovarà ne le tue sanctissime voluntati,

ka la morte secunda no ‘l farrà male.

Laudate e benedicete mi’ Signore et rengratiate

e serviateli cum grande humilitate.