|
|
By Father Candide Chalippe
BOOK I
His birth--Prediction of his future greatness--His studies--He applies
himself to commerce--His purity, and affection for the poor--He is
taken prisoner--He falls sick--His charity increases towards the
poor--He has a mysterious dream--He wishes to go to the war--Jesus
Christ dissuades him--He is rapt in spirit--
His conversion--He kisses
a leper--Jesus Christ crucified appears to him--Salutary effects of
this apparition--He goes to Rome--Mingles with the poor--Is tempted
by the devil--A voice from heaven commands him to restore the Church
of S. Peter Damian--His devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ--He
takes some pieces of cloth from his father's house, and sells them,
to restore the Church of S. Damian--He escapes from the anger of his
father, and retires to a cave--
He appears in Assisi, where he is
ill-treated--His father confines him--His mother delivers him, and he
returns to S. Damian--He manifests his intention to his father, who
appeals to justice, and cites him before the Bishop of Assisi--He
renounces his inheritance, and gives back his clothes to his father--The
poverty of his clothing--He is beaten by robbers--
Retires to a
monastery--They give him a hermit's habit--He devotes himself to the
leprous--Receives the gift of healing, and returns to Assisi, where
he searches for stone to restore the Church of Assisi--He toils at
building as a laborer--He lives on alms--His father and brother exercise
his patience--The victories he gains over himself--People begin to
esteem and honor him--He predicts something which is fulfilled--He
restores the Church of S. Peter and that of S. Mary of the Angels, or
the Portiuncula--Dwells at S. Mary of the Angels, and is favored there
with heavenly apparitions--
He is called to the apostolical
life--Renounces money and goes discalced--His poor and humble habit--God
inspires him to preach--He weeps bitterly over the sufferings of Jesus
Christ--Receives three disciples, and retires with them to a deserted
cottage--He goes on a mission, and his disciples accompany him--the
way they are treated--He receives three other disciples--He makes them
beg for alms--
What he said to the Bishop of Assisi, on renouncing all
his possessions--He predicts to the Emperor Otho the short duration
of his glory--It is revealed to him that his sins are remitted--He is
rapt in ecstasy, and predicts the extension of his Order--He makes
several other predictions, and receives a seventh disciple--He proposes
a new mission to them--The address he makes them on their preparation
for, and conduct during, the mission--
He returns near to Assisi, where
he receives four more disciples--He assembles all his
disciples--Composes a Rule, and goes to obtain the Pope's approval--He
makes a marvellous conversion--He knows miraculously what will happen
to him at Rome--He is at first repulsed by Pope Innocent III., but is
afterwards received favorably--
Difficulties on the approbation of his
Rule--He overcomes them by an address he makes the Pope--The Pope
approves his Rule, and accumulates favors on it--He leaves Rome with
his friars for the valley of Spoleto--God provides for his
necessities--He stops at a deserted church--Consults God on his mission,
and returns to the cottage of Rivo-torto--His sufferings there--The
instructions he gives--God shows him to his brethren under a most
marvellous aspect--The church of S. Mary of the Angels is given to
him--He establishes himself there with his Friars
He receives many novices--Instructs and models them--Sends them to
different provinces of Italy--What he says on this occasion--He departs
for Tuscany, and passes by Perugia, where he makes a prediction which
is accomplished--Many young men enter his Order--They build a house
for him near Cortona--His miraculous fast during Lent--He commands the
devils, and they obey him--He cures many miraculously--He preaches at
Florence--Makes a prediction--Preaches in various places in
Tuscany--What his friars are doing in other places--He preaches the
Lent at Assisi, with great fruit--He consecrates, to Jesus Christ,
Clare, and, Agnes, her sister--Establishes Clare and Agnes in the
Church of S. Damian--He erects a monastery there, the first one of his
second Order, which he then instituted--He is troubled by a serious
doubt, on which he consults his brethren--His doubt is cleared up by
an oracle from heaven--He goes out to preach--Restores a blind girl
to sight, and converts many worldly people--He sighs for martyrdom--Asks
permission of the Pope to preach to the infidels--Makes conversions
at Rome, and establishes his Order there--Returns to Assisi and leaves
for the Levant--Embarks, but is obliged to put into a harbor in
Sclavonia--Goes by sea to Ancona--A miracle which God performs in his
favor--He converts a celebrated poet--Returns to Tuscany, and to S.
Mary of the Angels--He falls sick--Wonderfully humbles himself--Tries
a vocation--Falls sick again and writes to all Christians--Departs for
Spain and Africa, in search of martyrdom--His miracles and other
particulars of his journey--His profound humility--He raises the
dead--Count Orlando gives him Mount Alverna--God miraculously protects
him--He preaches in Piedmont and passes into Spain--Works a miraculous
cure there--The king, Alphonso IX, permits him to establish his Order
there--He receives houses there--A violent sickness prevents him going
to Morocco--His actions whilst he is delayed in Spain--He returns to
Italy--His route thither--He arrives at S. Mary of the Angels, and
disapproves a building there--He goes to Mount Alverna--Is beaten by
devils--Mortifies his sense, and taste--Makes water spring from a
rock--Visits the mountain--Converts there a celebrated brigand--Leaves
for Rome--Discovers some relics by revelation--Makes predictions, and
performs miracles and conversions--Arrives at Rome whilst the Council
of Lateran is sitting--The Pope declares to the Council that he has
approved the Rule--He appoints a general chapter at S. Mary of the
Angels, whither he returns--He holds the chapter and sends his friars
to various countries--He thinks of going to Paris--Reunites an
illustrious family that had been divided--Rejoices in his poverty and
asks of God a greater love of holy poverty--SS. Peter and Paul appear
to him at Rome--His alliance with S. Dominic--He goes to Florence,
where Cardinal Hugolin dissuades him from going to Paris--He returns
to the Valley of Spoleto, and sends three of his disciples to France--A
celestial vision induces him to ask of the Pope a cardinal protector
for his Order--What he says on this subject--He preaches before the
Pope--What happened to him in the pulpit--The Pope gives him Cardinal
Hugolin, as protector of the Order--He preaches in the Valley of
Rieti--Delivers the country from two plagues, and makes some conversions
there--The houses he builds there--He appoints a general chapter at
S. Mary of the Angels, for the year 1219--What he did during the year
1218--Efficacy of his prayers--He wishes to pull down a new house which
he found at S. Mary of the Angels
He goes to Perugia, to consult the cardinal protector--His opinion on
the promotion of his friars to ecclesiastical dignities--He returns
to S. Mary of the Angels--His thoughts on these dignities--More than
five thousand Friars Minors are present at the chapter he had
appointed--He addresses the assembly, and forbids them troubling
themselves about their food--Assistance comes to him from all sides--He
receives more than five hundred novices during this chapter--He forbids
indiscreet mortifications--The devils are incensed against him and his
Order--He cautions his friars, and upon that gives them some
instruction--He humbles them to preserve them from vainglory--He
confounds those who wish the Rule mitigated--He wishes not for
privileges which can engender disputes--He gives his friars instructions
about their conduct to ecclesiastics--He obtains from the Pope letters
apostolical confirming the approval of the Order--What he decrees in
the chapter--He sends his friars through the whole world--The travels
of his Friars in various parts of the world--In Greece--In Africa--In
Spain and Portugal--In France--In the Low Countries--He himself prepares
to go to the Levant--On the government of the monastery of S. Damian,
and other houses of the same order--He sends six of his friars to
Morocco--What he says to them--He starts on his voyage to Syria, with
twelve companions--He rejects a postulant too much attached to his
parents--A house at Ancona is given to him--He appoints, by means of
a child inspired by God, those who are to accompany him to Syria--He
embarks at Ancona and anchors at the isle of Cyprus--Arrives at
Acre--Distributes his companions in different parts of Syria, and comes
to the army before Damietta--He arrives at the camp before Damietta,
and predicts the ill-success of the battle the Crusaders are about to
give--His prediction is accomplished--He finds out the sultan of
Egypt--Announces to him the truths of the faith, and offers to throw
himself into the fire to prove them--He refuses the sultan's
presents--Is esteemed and respected--The good dispositions with which
he inspires the sultan--He obtains permission to preach in his
States--He receives some disciples from the army of the
Crusaders--Visits the holy places--Some whole monasteries of religious
embrace his Institute--He returns to Italy--Establishes his Order in
various places--Preaches at Bologna with great success--What he says
and does on seeing a house of his Order too much ornamented--He makes
a retreat at Camaldoli--Returns to S. Mary of the Angels--Reads the
thoughts of his companion--Confounds the vanity of Brother
Elias--Abolishes the novelties introduced into the Order by Brother
Elias--In a vision the fortunes of his Order are made known to him--He
holds the chapter in which he deposes Brother Elias, and in his place
substitutes Peter of Catania--He renounces the generalship--Will not
receive anything from novices entering his Order--He learns the news
of the martyrdom of the friars he had sent to Morocco--What he says
on the subject of their martyrdom--The martyrdom of these friars is
the cause of the vocation of S. Antony of Padua--His friars pass into
England--He visits some convents--Receives the Vicar General's
resignation, and re-appoints, by the command of God, Brother Elias to
his place--He holds a chapter, and sends missionaries to Germany
S. Francis begins his Third Order of Penance--Draws up the rule for
it--What his idea was in founding this Order--He returns to S. Mary
of the Angels--Sends Agnes, the sister of Clare, to Florence, to be
Abbess there--He obtains from Jesus Christ the Indulgence of S. Mary
of the Angels or of the Portiuncula--Pope Honorius III. grants him the
same indulgence--Clare and others, hearing him talk of God, are ravished
in ecstasy--He cannot bear the distinction of persons which Brother
Elias made--Makes a terrible prediction--He gives his blessings to
seven of his brethren, to go and preach the faith to the Moors, and
they are martyred--He makes a journey, which is attended with
remarkable circumstances--Cures a cripple--Mixes with the poor, and
eats with them--Foretells of an infant, that he would one day be
Pope--He changes the bed of thorns into which S. Benedict had thrown
himself, into a rose-bush, and performs other great miracles--Goes to
honor the relics of S. Andrew, and those of S. Nicholas--Discovers a
trick of the devil--He visits Mount Garganus--His presence silences
a demoniac--He learns at S. Mary of the Angels the success of the
German mission--Bids Antony preach--Gives Antony permission to teach
theology to the brethren--Alexander Hales enters the Order--Jesus
Christ appoints the day for the Indulgence of the Portiuncula--He
obtains from the Pope a confirmation of the same day--Promulgates it,
with seven bishops--He has a revelation about his Rule--God makes
known to him that he must abridge it--The Holy Spirit dictates it to
him--Some entreat him to moderate it--Jesus Christ tells him it must
be kept to the very letter--His brethren receive it--He declares it
comes from Jesus Christ, and speaks in praise of it--He obtains a bull
from the Pope, in confirmation of the Rule--Is attacked by devils--
Celebrates the feast of Christmas with much fervor--Our Lord appears
to him as an infant--His sentiments on the celebration of
feasts--Discovers a stratagem of the devil--He commands one of his
dead brethren to cease working miracles--Draws up a rule for Clare and
her daughters--Appears with his arms stretched out in the form of a
cross while S. Antony was preaching--Foretells a conversion which
immediately came about--He goes into retreat on Mount Alvernus--His
contemplation and raptures--Jesus Christ promises him special favors--He
fasts rigorously--A piece of his writing delivers his companion from
a temptation--What he had to suffer from the devil--He prepares for
martyrdom--He receives extraordinary favors in prayer--His perfect
conformity to the will of God--Jesus Christ crucified appears to him
under the figure of a Seraphim--Receives the impression of the wounds
of Jesus Christ--He composes canticles full of the love of God--Tells
his brethren of the Stigmata--They are seen and touched--He leaves
Mount Alvernus, to return to S. Mary of the Angels--Cures a child of
dropsy--Other miracles which he performed on the way--He strengthens
himself with new fervor in the service of God--His patience in great
sufferings--His desires for the salvation of souls--His prayer in
suffering--God assures him of his salvation--He thanks Him in a
canticle--He learns the time of his death, and rejoices at it--He has
various illnesses, and suffers extreme pain--He multiplies the grapes
in a vineyard--God gives him sensible consolation--A heated iron is
applied to the temple, and he feels no pain from it--He weeps
incessantly, and says he does so to expiate for his sins--He prefers
the danger of losing his sight to restraining his tears--His gratitude
towards his physician--A miracle is worked by some of his hair, in
favor of this physician--He miraculously heals a canon--His sufferings
diminish--Goes to preach--Drives away a devil--Foretells a sudden
death, and it comes about--Cures St. Bonaventura in his infancy--All
his sufferings increase--Causes to be found for the love of God what
could not be found for money--They take him back to Assisi--They take
him to Sienna--He answers difficult questions, and foretells several
things--He causes the blessing which he gave to his brethren to be
written--They take him to Celles, and thence to Assisi--The bishop has
him taken to his palace--The state of his Order at the time of his
last illness
The violence of his illness does not prevent him from exhorting his
brethren--He is touched at the fatigue which his illness caused them--
Thanks God for the pains he suffered--Dictates a letter to Clare and
her daughters--Rejoices and thanks God for his approaching
death--Blesses his children--Has himself carried to S. Mary of the
Angels--Blesses the town of Assisi--Informs a pious widow of his
approaching death--Blesses his brethren a second time, and makes them
eat a bit of bread, blessed by his hand--Gives a special blessing to
Bernard, the eldest of his children--What we may presume were his
dispositions in receiving the last sacraments--He stretches himself
naked on the bare ground--Desires to be buried in the place of
execution--Exhorts his brethren--He has the praises of God sung when
at the point of death--He speaks to his children, and blesses them for
the last time--Has the passion of Jesus Christ read to him--He recites
the 141st psalm, and dies after the last verse--Miraculous proofs of
his beatitude--State of his body after death--The Stigmata are seen
and touched publicly--His obsequies--Clare and her daughters see and
kiss the Stigmata--He is buried at Assisi, in the church of S.
George--The circular written after his death--His canonization--The
Church of S. Francis at Assisi--He is buried there--Researches are
made to find the sacred body--The mission of St. Francis--The fruits
of his labor.
Devotion of S. Francis towards Jesus Christ crucified--To what a degree
he loved poverty--How great was the austerity of his life--His
humility--His obedience--His gift of prayer and contemplation--His
love of God--His sentiments of filial love on the mystery of the
Incarnation--On the fast of Jesus Christ in the desert--On the mystery
of the Eucharist--S. Francis, in his humility, would not be made
priest--His devotion towards the Mother of God--Towards the angels and
saints--His charity towards his neighbor--His zeal for the salvation
of souls--His affection for the poor--The affection of his heart for
all creatures--The pains he took to lead his brethren to perfection--His
tender charity towards his brethren--His discretion and wisdom in the
government of the Order--His supernatural and acquired knowledge--The
efficacy of his words--His supernatural and miraculous gifts--He drives
away devils--Brings the dead to life--Heals the sick--Has the gift of
prophecy and discernment of spirits--He commands animals, and is
obeyed--He performs many other miraculous actions--The great honors
which were paid to him--His character and appearance--In what sense
he was simple
Table of Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
eBooks Home | Inspirational Articles | General Essays | Sermons | Library - Home | Baselios Church Home
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio
