Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
HIS LOVE OF POVERTY
AND
THE MIRACULOUS FULFILLMENT OF HIS
NEEDS
. Among the gifts of grace which Francis received from God the generous Giver, he merited as a special privilege to grow in the riches of simplicity through his love of the highest poverty.
The holy man saw that poverty was the close companion of the Son of God, and now that it was rejected by the whole world, he was eager to espouse it 2. in everlasting love.
For the sake of poverty
he not only left his father and mother , but also gave away everything he had.
No one was so greedy for gold as he was for poverty; nor was anyone so anxious to guard his treasure as he was in guarding 1.
Cf. Regula II, 6.
Jer.
31:3.
Gen.
2:24; Mark 10:7.
ST. BONAVENTURE
this pearl of the Gospel. 4
In this especially would his sight be offended if he saw in the friars anything which did not accord completely with poverty.
Indeed, from the beginning of his religious life until his death, his only riches were a tunic, a cord and underclothes; and with this much he was content.
He used to frequently call to mind with tears the poverty of Jesus Christ and his mother, claiming that it was the queen of the virtues because it shone forth so preeminently in the King of Kings 5 and in the Queen, his mother.
When the friars asked him at a gathering what virtue does more to make one a friend of Christ, he replied as if opening up the hidden depths of his heart: "Know, brothers, that poverty is the special way to salvation, as the stimulus of humility and the root of perfection, whose fruit is manifold but hidden. This is the Gospel's treasure hidden in afield (Matt.
1 3:44); to buy this we should sell everything, and in comparison to this we should spurn everything we cannot sell." 6
2. Whoever desires to attain the height of poverty should renounce in some way not only worldly wisdom but also learning, that having renounced such a possession, he might enter into the mighty works of the Lord (Ps.
70:15-16) and offer himself naked to the arms of the Crucified. No one can be said to have perfectly renounced the world if he still keeps the purse of his
Cf. Matt.
13:45-46.
1 Tim. 6:15; Apoc.
19:16.
Major sources:
II C 55, 200; minor source:
I C 76; cf.
I C 84; II C 17, 199.
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own opinion in the hidden recesses of his heart.
When speaking about poverty, he often proposed to the friars this text of the Gospel: Thefoxes have their holes and the birds of the air their nests , but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head
(Matt. 8:20; Luke 9:58). For this reason he instructed the friars to build poor houses like those of the poor and to live in these not as their own, but like pilgrims and strangers in the house of another (1 Pet.
2:1 1).
7 For he used to say that the law of pilgrims was to take shelter under another's roof, to thirst for their homeland and to travel peacefully. Sometimes he ordered the friars to tear down a house they had built or to move out of it if he noticed something contrary to Gospel poverty either because they had appropriated it as their possession or because it was too sumptuous. He used to say that poverty was the foundation of the Order, on which the entire structure of their religious life so basically depended that it would stand firm if poverty were firm and collapse completely if poverty were undermined. 8
3. He taught, as he had learned from a revelation, that one entering the holy Order should begin from this text of the , go , sell all that you have , andgive to Gospel: Ifyou wish to be perfect the poor (Matt.
19:2 1).
9 Only those who had given away all possessions and retained absolutely nothing did he admit to the Order, both on account of the text of the Gospel and lest scandal should arise over any possessions kept back. 10 Thus when a man asked to be received into the Order in the Marches of Ancona, the true patriarch of the poor replied: "If you want
10. to join Christ's poor, distribute what you have to the poor of the world." When he heard this, the man went off and, led by a carnal love, left his goods to his relatives, giving nothing to the poor. When the holy man heard him tell of this, he reproached
Cf. Regula II, 6.
Major sources:
II C 194,
140, 56, 59; cf.
II C 57, 58, 59.
Cf. Testamentum , 3 ; Regula I, 1-2; Regula II, 1-2.
We have translated by possessions the Latin term loculus , which means moneybag and which suggests the moneybag of Judas (John
12:6, 13:29).
ST. BONAVENTURE
him harshly and said: "Go on your way, Brother Fly, because you have not yet left your home andyour kindred (Gen.
12:1). You gave your goods to your relatives and you have cheated the poor; you are not worthy of the holy poor. You have begun with the flesh; you have laid a ruinous foundation for a spiritual structure." That carnal man (1 Cor. 2:14) returned to his relatives and reclaimed his goods, which he did not want to give to the poor, and so very quickly abandoned his virtuous intention. 11
4. Another time there was such a lack of resources at St.
Mary of the Portiuncula that it was impossible to provide for the needs of the friars who were visiting there. Francis's vicar came to him, pointed out the destitution of the friars and asked permission to keep aside some of the goods of the novices when they entered so that the friars could have something to fall back on in case of necessity. Not without heavenly guidance, Francis said to him: "Let it be far from us, dearest brother, to sin against the rule for the sake of any man.
I prefer that you strip the altar of the glorious Virgin, when necessity requires it, than to tamper even a little with the vow of poverty and the observance of the Gospel. The Blessed Virgin will be more pleased to have her altar stripped and the Gospel counsel observed perfectly rather than to have her altar adorned and her
Son's counsel neglected when we have promised to keep it." 12
5. One time when the man of God was going through Apulia near Bari with a companion, he found on the road a large purse, of the type they call funda apparently bursting with money. His companion advised him and nagged him to pick up the purse from the ground and give the money to the poor. The man of God refused, claiming there was a trick of the devil in this purse they had found and that the friar was recommending something sinful rather than meritorious, 11.
Major sources:
II C 80-81; minor source:
II C 78.
12.
Major source:
II C 67.
13. The Latin term funda literally means a sling and might be translated as money belt.
THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS
namely to take what belonged to another and give it away.
They left the place and hurried to finish the journey they had begun. But the friar was not yet satisfied, deluded as he was by a false sense of charity; he kept bothering the man of God as if the latter had no concern to relieve the destitution of the poor.
Finally the patient man agreed to return to the place— not to carry out the friar's wish, but to uncover the devil's trickery.
So he returned to the purse with the friar and with a young man who was on the road. After praying, he commanded his companion to pick it up. The friar was dumbfounded and trembled, for now he had a premonition of some diabolic manifestation.
Nevertheless, because of the command of holy obedience, he drove away the doubt in his heart and stretched out his hand toward the purse; and behold, a large snake jumped out of the purse and suddenly disappeared along with it, showing the friar that this was the deception of the devil.
The enemy's trickery and cunning were grasped, and the holy man said to his companion: "To the servants of God, brother, money is the very devil and a poisonous snake." 14
After this a remarkable thing happened to the holy man when he was going to the city of Siena on some necessary business. In a great plain between Campiglia and San Quirico he was met by three poor women who were exactly alike in height, age and appearance. They offered him the gift of a new salutation, saying: "Welcome, Lady Poverty!" When he heard this, the true lover of poverty was filled with unspeakable joy because there was nothing in him that he would rather have people acknowledge than what these women singled out.
They suddenly disappeared, and when his companions considered their remarkable similarity, their novel greeting, 14.
Major source:
II C 68.
ST. BONAVENTURE
their strange meeting and disappearance, they concluded not without reason that this had some mystical meaning for the holy man.
It seemed that these three poor women who were so alike in appearance, who gave such an unusual greeting and disappeared so suddenly, appropriately showed that the beauty of Gospel perfection, in poverty, chastity and obedience, shone forth all perfectly equal in the man of God although he had chosen to glory above all in the privilege of poverty which he used to call his mother, his bride and his lady.
It was in poverty that he desired to surpass others because from it he had learned to regard himself inferior to all.
Therefore whenever he saw anyone more poorly dressed than he, Francis immediately censured himself and roused himself to imitate him, as if he were competing in a rivalry over poverty and feared to be beaten by another.
It once happened that he met a poor man on the road and when he saw how ragged he was, his heart was struck, and he said to his companion sorrowfully: "This man's need puts us to shame, because we have chosen poverty as our wealth; and see, it shines more clearly in him." 15
For love of holy poverty, God's servant more gladly 15.
Major sources:
II C 93, 83-84; cf.
I C 51; II C 55, 70, 72,
82, 84, 215.
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used the alms that had been begged from door to door than those that had been spontaneously offered.
If he were invited by distinguished personages and they served a better table than usual in his honor, he would first beg some pieces of bread from the neighboring houses and then sit down at table, thus enriched by his poverty. He did this once when he had been invited by the lord bishop of Ostia, 16 who held Christ's poor man in special affection. The bishop complained that Francis had disparaged the honor shown him by going out after alms when he was to share his hospitality at table. God's servant replied: "My lord, I have shown you great honor in honoring a greater Lord. For the Lord is pleased with poverty and especially with that poverty which involves voluntary begging for Christ. This is the royal dignity which the Lord Jesus assumed when he became poor for us that he might enrich us by his poverty
(2 Cor. 8:9) and establish us as heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven if we are truly poor in spirit (Matt.
5:3).
I do not wish to relinquish this royal dignity for a fief of false riches loaned to you for only an hour." 17
Sometimes he would exhort the friars to beg for alms with words such as these: "Go forth because in this last hour the Friars Minor have been given to the world that through them the elect might have the opportunity to fulfill what will be commended by the Judge as they hear those most sweet words:
'As long asyou have done it to one of these , the least ofmy brothers , you did ' " (Matt. 25:40). Therefore he used to say that it was a it to me delight to beg with the title of Friars Minor, which the Teacher of Gospel truth had so clearly expressed by his own mouth when rewarding the just. 18 When there was an opportunity, he used to go begging on the principal feasts, saying that the prophecy Man will eat the bread ofAngels (Ps. 77:25) is fulfilled in 16.
Cardinal Hugolino; cf. VI, 5, n.
16, p. 233.
17.
Major sources:
II C 72-73; cf.
I C 101.
18. The Latin text of the Gospel uses the term minimus , the superlative ofparum, meaning small or little, whose comparative form is minor , the source of the name Friar Minor. Cf. VI, 5, n.
14, p. 233.
ST. BONAVENTURE
the holy poor. For he said that it is indeed the bread of angels that has been begged for the love of God and has been given for his love at the inspiration of the angels and gathered from door to door by holy poverty. 19
9. Once on an Easter Sunday he was staying at a hermitage that was so far from any houses that he could not conveniently go begging. And so in remembrance of him who appeared that very day in the guise of a pilgrim to his disciples on the road to Emmaus, Francis then begged alms from the friars themselves, like a pilgrim and beggar. When he had received it humbly, he informed them with holy eloquence that they should pass through the desert of the world like pilgrims and strangers (1 Pet.
2:11) and like true Hebrews continually celebrate in poverty of spirit the Lord's Pasch, that is his passing overfrom this world to the Father (John 13:1).
Since, when he begged alms, he was motivated not by greed for profit but by liberty of spirit,
God the Father of the poor 2Q seemed to have special care for him.
10. Once when this servant of the Lord was very ill at Nocera, he was brought back to Assisi by a formal embassy sent for that purpose out of devotion by the townspeople.
While they were taking Christ's servant back, they came to a poor little village by the name of Satriano. Since their hunger and the hour called for food, they went out; but, finding nothing for sale, they returned empty-handed. The holy man told them: "You found nothing because you trust more in your flies than in God." (For he called coins flies.) "Go back," he said, "to the houses which you have visited and humbly ask for an alms, offering God's love in place of money. Do not consider this
19.
Cf. Testamentum , 4. Major source:
II C 71. Cf.
I C 26, 35; II C 17.
20. Job 29:16. Major source:
II C 61; cf.
I C 76.
THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS
shameful or cheap out of false esteem, because after man's sin that great Almsgiver has bestowed all things as alms to both the worthy and the unworthy, out of his abundant kindness." The knights put aside their embarrassment, readily begged for alms and bought more with the love of God than with money. Their hearts struck with compunction by God, the poor villagers generously gave not only what they had but also themselves.
And so it happened that Francis's wealthy poverty supplied the need which money could not alleviate. 21
11. At the time when he was lying ill in a hermitage near Rieti, a doctor visited him often to care for him. Since the poor man of Christ was unable to pay him adequately for his services, the most generous God made up for the poor man and repaid the doctor for his devoted care with the following favor, so that he would not go without payment in the present life.
The doctor's new house, which he had just spent all his money building, was threatened with collapse because of a wide crack in the wall, which reached from the top to the bottom (Matt.
27:51)— a collapse which seemed unavoidable by human means. Fully trusting in the merits of the holy man and out of the devotion of his great faith, he asked Francis's companions to give him something which the man of God had touched with his hands. After many requests he obtained a small amount of his hair which he placed one evening in the crack in the wall.
When he rose in the morning, he found that the crack had been so firmly closed that he could not pull out the hairs he had placed there nor could he find any trace of the crack. And so it happened that because he had dutifully ministered to the body of God's servant in its state of collapse, he avoided the danger of the collapse of his house. 22
12.
Another time the man of God wanted to go to a hermitage where he could spend more time in contemplation. Because he was weak, he rode on an ass that belonged to a cer21.
Major source:
II C 77.
22.
This incident is not found in Celano or Julian; minor source:
II C 44.
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tain poor man. Since it was summertime and the man had to climb up the mountain following after God's servant, he became fatigued by the long and grueling journey. Weakened by a burning thirst, he began to cry out urgently to the saint:
"Look, I'll die of thirst if I don't get a drink immediately."
Without delay the man of God jumped off the ass, knelt on the ground, stretched forth his hands to heaven and did not cease praying until he knew that he had been heard. Finally, when he finished his prayer, he told the man: "Hurry to that rock and you will find running water which this very hour Christ has mercifully drawn out of the rock for you to drink." How amazing is God's condescension, which bows so easily to his servants! A thirsty man drank waterfrom the rock (Ps. 77:16) by the power of another's prayer and took a drink from the solid stone (Deut. 32:13). There was no stream of water there before, nor could any be found since, although a careful search was made. 23
13. How Christ multiplied food at sea through the merits of his poor man will be noted below. 24 Here let it suffice to mention that with only a small amount of food which he had been given as alms, he saved the sailors from the danger of starvation and death for a number of days. From this one could clearly see that just as the servant of Almighty God was like
Moses in drawing water from the rock (Ps. 77:16; Exod.
17:1-7) so he was like Elisha in the multiplication of provisions (4 Kings 4: Iff.). 25
Therefore, let all distrust be far from Christ's poor.
For if Francis's poverty was so abundantly sufficient that it supplied by miraculous power the needs of those who came to his aid, 23.
Major sources:
II C 46; III C
15.
24.
IX, 5, pp. 266-267.
25.
Major source:
I C 55; minor source: Jul.
34.
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providing food, drink and housing when money, skill and natural means were lacking, how much more will it merit those things that are given to all in the usual plan of divine providence.
If a dry rock gave drink abundantly to a poor man who was thirsty at the word of another poor man, nothing at all will refuse its service to those who have left all for the Maker of all.