Mystics_Paul_Lachance
o.f.m. & Père Damien Côté o.f.m.
The Franciscan Mystics.....Biography
Father Damien Côté o.f.m.
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13-03-1909-1989
Thank you on behalf of your spiritual
children
The Father Damien liked to look for forever in the
Franciscan documents to give us instructions of
Saint François of foundation so that us also
we transmit on our turn this information to our
brothers and sisters in the worldMrs.
Denise Christiaenssens o.f.s.erm.
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|  The
Father Damien lived its life man and of priest to the service
of God and his/her/its spiritual children without counting
his/her/its time and his/her/its efforts and his/her/its fatigues,
his/her/its only desire was to save some souls, it was always
in holding of service like Jesus the holy Thursday. I am anxious
to thank the Father Damien Côté for his/her/its tireless work
that he/it gave to the Secular Franciscan order and the Franciscan
order of the Minor brothers. He/it was a spiritual director,
a co-founding, the family's friend, an adviser for all, now
that he/it is at the sky, we have the certainty that he/it
continues to watch over us and us guider.Ce site makes for
him, is a recognition that we testify him like thanks for
everything that he/it made for us; he/it was a man of prayer,
to meditation, of loyalty towards his/her/its rule, he/it
was as happy with people of his/her/its age and with the young
also, and gave his/her/its time always for the people who
came to knock at his/her/its door to ask for an advice. He/it
was stern, but honest, he/it was demanding but just, and one
liked it a lot. The emptiness created in us since his/her/its
departure and his/her/its entry to not even happy the sky
As Jesus, to the holy Thursday, he/it put his/its apron of
service and only arranged it March 13, 1989Quand he/it knocked
at the door of Saint Pierre and that Saint François, Saint
Angèle of Foligno Marguerite etSte of Cortone, his/her/its
favorite saints, welcomed it to arm ouverts.Mme Denise Christiaenssens
o.f.s er.
Biography
Father Damien Côté o.f.m. |
In Lennoxville (Sherbrooke), August 12 1931 temporary vSux to
the convent of the Assumption, in Lennoxville, August 14,
1932;
V solemn Suxes to the convent of the Resurrection, in Montreal,
August 8, 1935
Ministration:
June 29, 1937, to the cathedral of Montreal.
STAGES OF HIS/HER/ITS MINISTERIAL LIFE AND APOSTOLIQUE1937-1938;
Sorel. St. convent Pierre-Baptist Professor of the Franciscan
Missionary College. 1938-1939:
Montreal, Convent of the Resurrection.
Regional commissioner of the Secular Franciscan order.
Prédicateur.1939-1945:Québec, Convent of the Sacred Stigmata.
Commissioner Régional of the Secular OrdreFranciscain.
Prédicateur.1945-1953:Baie Saint-Paul, Saint-Claire.Aumônier
residence of the patients of the hospital Saint-Anne,;
Chaplain of the beginners and juvénistes (1946-1945, 1950-1953);
Chaplain of profess them, of the beginners and juvénistes
(1949-1950),
To the house-mother of the Small Franciscans of Marie.1953-1954:
Châteauguay, House of the Christ Roi, Vicaire.Prédicateur
of the retirements fermées.1954-1959:
Healthy bay - Paul. Saint-Claire.Aumônier residence at the
Small Franciscans of Marie of the sSurs professes (1954-1957)
and of the juvénistes (1854-1959)
Chaplain of the patients of the hospital Saint-Anne (1957-1959)1959-1960:
Lachute. Qc. Residence Notre-Dame of Lourdes, rest and service
dominicals of October 11, 1959 to January 6, 19601960-1963:
Ottawa, Saint-Savior Convent Confessor etConférencier of Marie's
Missionary Franciscans.
Helper-confessor in the LaSalle academy, Preacher of retirements
fermées.1964-1989:
Lennoxville, Convent of the Assumption. Temporary lecturer
to the novitiate (1963-1969).
Preacher, Chaplain of the Clarisseses and lecturer at the
Missionnais - res Our Des-Anges. Attending spiritual of the
fraternity Saint-Colette of Sherbrooke. Preacher.
Hospitalized since December 28, 1988,
to the provincial infirmary of Rosemont, in Montreal, him
March 13, 1989 died there to 5h45.
I often imagined it in father trappiste, transplanting his/her/its
affected head of a strong baldness on the black and white
costume of the sons of the abbot of Rancé.Ce was not a raving
fantasy, because a trappiste of the Almanchses the P. Damien
Côté had the profile étique, the gaunt features and the austere
look. With, he/it seems me, a certain spontaneous taste of
the erasing. When I began this article, anxious to cool me
a little my man's picture, I thumbed some of our publications
of once where I knew how to be able to find numerous photos
of various groups of brothers. It was about, in the species,
of the I volumes and II of Our Province is fifty years old
and of the number memory of the Franciscan Magazine of January
1960. I recovered the face of the P. Damien there nowhere.
It was not merely accidental, I think.
Because to get in the limelight was well the last thing that
preoccupied our dear extinct and he/it was not man to run
after the opportunities to make itself/themselves photograph.
Ama nesciri and pro nihilo reputari would have commented here
I don't know what favorite saint of the old Tanquerey.Il anymore
was not yet of all morose. The first time that I saw it that
was in 1939, to the convent of Quebec, where he/it came to
take possession of a station of regional commissioner of the
Third party - Order. To this time, there was to the Averne
several of his/her/its ex - schoolmates of the theology scolasticat
who made there their pastorale. The P. Damien paved joyously
with all these young enthusiastic fathers and avant-gardists
on the sides. When someone threw a good joke, I hear his/her/its
straightforward and resonant laughter again to explode without
any inhibition, putting you, by contagion, full of sun in
the soul; on the occasion of meal of feast, I hear it, him,
to join his/her/its big male and virile voice to those of
the colleagues as the PP. Aurèle Villeneuve, Léandre Peartree
or Achille Lavoie, that executed to the refectory of the songs
in parts. His/her/its voice of bass, a few rough and craggy,
didn't certainly have the sumptuous velvety of the one of
the terrific baritone of then, the P. Laurent Pelletier: but,
powerful like a hose of organ, she/it brought the legato and
material to the voices of his/her/its buddies and gave to
the small chSur a magnificent resonant fullness.
It was a true joy to hear to sing this beautiful Franciscan
youths gleefully: of the top of the sky Saint-François himself
had to appreciate in connaisseur.Puis, during forty years,
I didn't recover anymore than every now and then the P. Damien.
It was especially on the occasion of retirements or journeys
that him or me we made. Less laughing than previously, but
always as polite and agreeable, he/it exhibited again, when
he/it derided himself, this juvenile smile and accomplice
who radiated his/her/its usually meditative and stern features
completely. He/it never received me with this deaf resentment
species that haunted such or such of his/her/its colleagues
preachers, incapable, when they met a professor, to greet
it otherwise that by some whopper éculée on the intellectuals
and the scientists (always "lost in the clouds", evidently).
On the contrary, he/it was interested seriously in the works
of the students in philosophy and caused the articles that
they wrote intelligently, especially those that emanated their
seminaries. It was the reaction of a strong son of the soil,
to that nothing human was not foreign. Knowing what his/her/its
ascetic habits were, I only had more of admiration of them
for his/her/its moderation and his/her/its beautiful intellectuel.En
balance makes his/her/its entregent and his/her/its serenity
took their source in one exceptional interior life.
Because the P. Damien was to the strong sense a man of prayer.
Our were only - him regular to the public and private prayer,
but, anxious not to let itself/themselves distract God's presence
by what Pascal called entertain "it ", he also practiced the
care of the imagination and the cSur and made his/her/its
delights of reading the the gospel and of the Writings of
François saint. Nothing astonishing to what he/it acquired,
to these companies, a deep sense of mercy and the love of
the Lord and an indulgent affection for all his/her/its frères.Ces
arrangements all supernatural, joined to an excellent mind
of discernment, made of him an appreciated spiritual director
and used abundantly. The P. Damien certainly has much Suvrés
in the parochial predication and the promotion of the Third
party - Order. But when one redoes the sum of his/her/its
obediences, one perceives that he/it dedicated more time again
to the spiritual animation by the nuns, of the Franciscan
nuns especially.
The beneficiary first of his/her/its good offices were Marie's
Small Franciscans the Bay Saint-Paul's. In two successive
practicums (1947-1953 and 1954-1958), he/it dedicated them
a good ten years, taking care by turns of the juvénistes,
of the beginners, of profess them and of the patients of the
hospital Saint-Anne.
Transferred to Ottawa, he/it fills analogous functions by
another community of the third Order, Marie's Franciscans
Missionary. In Lennoxville finally, where he/it had to spend
the last 25 years of his/her/its life, there was again, next
to the secular Franciscans, of the Franciscans in his/her/its
field of action,: until his/her/its death he/it was indeed,
chaplain of the Clarisseses and lecturer among the Missionaries
Our Lady-Des-Anges.Ses Franciscan colleagues had intelligence
to keep some of the texts carefully prepared that served him
of basis for the talks that he/it gave to his/her/its brothers
and his/her/its sSurs of the first, second, third Orders.
One finds there a first set of texts titles Portraits of François
saint, that he/it wrote in 1982, on the occasion of the eighth
centenary of the birth of the Seraphic Father. Life and the
spiritual physiognomy of François saint are exposed there
in 52 brief pictures but substantial, that denote a regular
trade with the Franciscan sources. Another compilation title
Seven jugglings for the meeting of the brothers of Lennoxville
had to constitute a good in any case for one retirement of
eight days. Finally, another more considerable group of texts,
title 28 admonitions commented of François saint, our Father,
contain sufficient matter for a strong retirement of thirty
days. These typed texts, stuff references, show to what point
our colleague had studied and meditated life and the writings
of his/her/its seraphic father. They attest the literary fertility
of his/her/its stay to Lennoxville.
But for the P. Damien, Lennoxville was more that a calm haven
where he could prepare to his/its joy of the Franciscan texts
for his/her/its brothers and sSurs. It was above all for him
a high place of contemplation, one oasis of silence and prayer
where he/it can achieve to his/its taste the dreams of life
érémitique that he/it carried in him since always. The transformations
of the site encouraged this experience maybe little banal.
When I made my novitiate there in 1937-1938, the convent of
Lennoxville stood on the site of a former farm whose green
prairies had not been nibbled again by the neighboring forest;
the grassy spaces were vast and open. Close to the big elm,
the old Father Pacific Forest appropriated its garden of copious
harvests of beans, of tomatoes and of but, that, in the month
of August, made the delights of the beginners newly entered,
ravenous as ogres. The slope that brings up the highway at
the monastery was herself covered of splendid lawn, carefully
kept by the P.Joseph-Alfred Wolfe and his/her/its candidates
in small tunic. When to the big island of the river Saint
- François and to the slopes that stacked up on the other
side of the river, they were occupied by verdant farms or
grazed rich herds of Ayrshire and Holstein. It was, for the
sure, a superb site. But, less majestic than bucolic, he/it
constituted a rustic decor evoking the pictures of Alfred
Desrochers more that the "thick and wild woods" of the Largo
of Haendel.
In the spring, nothing was there more rejoicing that to listen
to the crows, the blackbirds and the starlings there to squeal
to that better through the meadows. At the end of fifty years
however, the reclaimed spaces had shrunk like a skin of grief,
constantly compressed by the forest come back in strength.
The big trees enclosed meadows more and more the church and
the convent, regaining the lawns of the slopes and raising
their heavy screen of foliage between the buildings of stone
and the landscape that coped them. The Mount-Saint-Antoine,
where the supporters of the Thirteen Tuesdays ran in crowd,
had become a finicky hermitage that, very meaningfully, had
changed name and was called the Bastard dittany now. This
new setting was as built to order for a P. Damien Côté last
manner, of which the aspirations of the érémitisme could bloom
better than everywhere else. It is necessary to read the few
pages where he/it consigned his/its Franciscan hermitage project.
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Birth:
August 2, 1909 to Saint Pierre of Montmagny (Quebec), of Alphonse
Côté and Marie Lavoie
STUDY:
Primary to the Saint-Savior academy, to Quebec (1914-1923),
Classic Court to the Seminary of Quebec (19232-1929);
philosophical to the Seminary of Quebec (1929-1931)
and to the Franciscan Seminary of philosophy to Quebec (1932-1933);
theologies to the Franciscan Seminary of theology of Rosemont
in Montreal (1933-1937). Entered at the Franciscans: |
Here it is how he/it conceives what must be what he/it calls the
"house of prayer
" HOUSE OF PRAYER ÉRÉMITIQUE |
The house of prayer or hermitage regroups minor brothers decided
to live at a time according to the Rule of 1223 and the
Rules of the hermitages. The chapters 5 and 10 of the Rule
of 1223 are the inspiration of basis of it.
These texts possess as their clean reality: better than
the other, they underline that what the brothers must strive
all over it, it is "to have the mind of the Lord and his/her/its
holy operation." The religious that come to the hermitage
are therefore of the contemplative regrouped above all to
pray; "they want to rise above all to God by the prayer
of a pure cSur." In this sense, these are "récollets."
All their day turns around the Eucharist, that is the sun, rest,
the joy of their life, and the liturgical and private prayer.
They must keep of all pride of the desire and the solicitude
of this century. They will like the outside silence, banishing
the chat and the makes noise and fleeing everything that
distracts the mind: disks, television, radio, newspapers
and movies. They will practice more again the interior silence,
submitting their imaginations and their desires, their emotional
life and their intellectual life to their life théologale.
They will like to wear the dress of the Minor Brothers,
will submit to a precise timetable, will observe the days
of abstinence and will practice the bodily mortification
as being inspired gladly by the old CUSTOMARY of the Province.Ils
will not at all be arrogant for as much, convinced like
François saint that "we are all born with the sin, putrid,
pestilential poor persons" and toward." They will maintain
in all time the seraphic flame, that is poverty, humility,
recognition and joy. The exposition ends by a daily timetable
project, that is inspired extensively by the CUSTOMARY elder:
the brothers hermits will rise to 5h and will lie down to
9h and makes a large place to the prayer and to the silence.On
recognizes the aspirations there that since centuries didn't
quit to work the cSurs of the sons of François saint; call
of poverty radical of the origins, nostalgia of the simplicity
and the humility of the premièrses brothers, desire to be
collected also and all to God that they were. These feelings
explain the unceasing resurgence of the reforms, that since
seven centuries one left off, like a ferment, to work the
Seraphic order.
One recognizes the trace comfortably of it, for example,
at a Frédéric of Ghyvelde, who dreamed to retire in the
Thabor to pray to his/her/its taste during so many years.
When these tendencies let themselves harden by intolerance
and the passion, they can be generating of graceless factions.
But when, subject to the mind, they know how to remain "soft,
pacific and modest" and attentive to "avoid the problems
and the contestations", they are a precious element of renewal
and spiritual ressourcement. The esteem and the affection
that the brothers of the Province always kept towards the
P. Damien show well that such was well his/her/its discreet
action on tous.Loué is the Lord of all good who gave us
in him a contemplative copy and an incarnation of this admirable
Récolletses, that the blissful Frédéric liked so much. Can
his/her/its prayer, joined to the one of so many our brothers
that left us these last years, to get us a relief of religious
youngsters finally that, as him, "will wish to have the
mind of the Lord and his/her/its holy operation" above all!
Thank you.... Father Constantin-M. Baillargeon o.f.m CF.
Chronicles and Document vol.42-1989 p.169-174
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Province Franciscan Saint-Joseph of
Canada. with the authorization:
& copydu Father Georges A. Robert. o.f.m.
The P.Damien (Fortunat) Côté, Franciscan, is décédéle March
13, 1989
to the provincial infirmary of the Franciscans, in Montreal, |
Prayer during his/her/its funeral ceremony
Born August 2, 1909 to St.-Pierre of Montmagny (Quebec), he/it
made his/its primary studies at the Brothers of the Schools
Christians to Quebec and his/her/its classic studies in the
Seminaries of Quebec. Entered at the Franciscans August 12,
1931, in Lennoxville, he/it pursued philosophical studies
in the Franciscan Seminary of theology of Rosemont, in Montreal,
and was ordered priest June 29, 1937.Après one year of teaching
in the Franciscan Missionary College of Sorel, he/it was affected
to the Franciscan houses of Rosemont (Montreal), Quebec, Bay
Saint-Paul, Lachute, Châteauguay, Ottawa and Lennoxville.Pendant
close to 50 years, he/it expended much energy to the service
of the Franciscan family: as chaplain and lecturer at Marie's
Small Franciscans to Bay-Saint-Paul, at Marie's Missionary
Franciscans in Ottawa, among the Clarisseses and the Missionaries
of Our Lady-Des-Anges in Lennoxville, as spiritual helper
of the Secular Franciscan order in the dioceses of Montreal,
Joliette, Quebec, and Sherbrooke, as preacher of retirements
to the Bastard dittany where he/it led since several years
a life quasi-érémitique. Man of God, regular to the prayer
and to the prayer, his/her/its interior life and his/her/its
apostolic activity nourished themselves to the gospel and
to the writings of François saint on which he/it meditated
for a long time, many preached and writes. Man of discernment
to the austere access but to the understanding welcome, he/it
possessed a deep sense of mercy and the love of the Seigneur.Il
lets in the mourning, a sSur, Miss Yvette Côté, of the nephews
and nièces.La strips is exposed to the convent of the Franciscans
The Bastard dittany to the 319, Rue Queen, in Lennoxville.
Funeral ceremony will take place in the church of the Franciscans,
March 15, to 11h,
and the burial to the cemetery of the community in Châteauguay
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Georges - A. Robert. O.F.M
Merci to the Father Georges A. Robert o.f.m. & copy of
Montreal for this biography |
| "If
wheat he/it doesn't die cannot carry fruit ''
I
return you a particular homage in you offrand this Franciscan
site.Thank
you Father Damien Côté because without you,
I would not be today one hermit Franciscan.
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| Franciscan
calendar 1182-2002 |
- SAINTS(ES)/BIENHEUREUX(SES) / VÉNÉRABLES/MYSTIQUES/ERMITTES
/
The Franciscan calendars serve like references for the
people who make some research in Franciscan genealogy. |
|
 JANUARY
02 Jan. - Bhx.Bentivolio of Profits (1188-11232..
Gérard Cagnoli (1266-1345) - Jesus' holy Name (1580)
04 Jan-Bhx.Angèles Of Foligno (1248-1309)
12-Jan. Bx. Bernard Corléon
16 Jan-Sts Bérards, Pierre, Othon, Priest Adjut
- Brothers First Martyrs (122919
19Jan-Bhx.Thomas of Cori (1655-1729) Charles Of
Sezze Bernard Of Corleone (1607-1667)22 - Bx.Jean
- Baptist Triquerie. m.
27-Jan. Co Angèle Merici v.
28 Jan-Bhxes Odoric priest (1285-133) Roger Of Laurenzona
idiot Todi-Aegis. (1448 -1518)
29 Jan-St. François Of Salt Bishop and Prince of
Geneva (1567-1622)
30 Jan-Co Hyacinth Of Mariscotti Virgin ofs. (1585
- 1640)
31 Jan. - Bhx.Louise Albertoni(1474 - 1533) Paule
Cambara - Costa (1505) |
 FEBRUARY
01-Fév-Bhx Eustochium Clarisse (1430 - 1491) Viridiane
ofs. (1182 - 1242)
03-Fév-Bhx. Mathieu Bishop of Girgenti (+1451)
04 Fév.-St. Josphs Of Leonissa Priest cape. (1556
- 1612)
05 Fév.-St. Pierre - Baptist, Martin of the ascension
François Blanco, Priests, Philipppe Of Jesus clerk
François Of Saint - Michel and Gonzalve Garacia
17 other brothers martyrs in Japan (1597)
06Fév.Bhx Rizziers priest (+1236) Aegis - Marie(1729
- 1812) - Antoine Of Stroncone (1381 - 1461) - Saint
Colette
13-Fév Bhxes. Jean Of Triora Priest (1760 - 1816)
14-Fév.Bhx. Jeanne Of are Worth queen of France
(1464 - 1505)
15-Fév.Bhx. André Of Segni (+ 1302 Transiations
of the relics of Saint Antoine Of Padua (1350)
16-Fév.Bhx. Philippa Of Maréri Virgin Clarisse (+1236)
19-Fév. St.Conrad Of Pleasure, hermit ofs. (1290
- 1351)
20-Fév.Bhx. Pierre Of Tréja priest ofm (1304)
22-Fév.Ste Marguerite Of Cortone,ofs. (1247 - 1297)
24-Fév. Bse Isabelle of France
26-Fév.Bhx.Isabelle Of virgin France (1225 - 1270)
28-Fév.BHx. Antoinnette Of Florence Widowed (1401
- 1472) |
 MARCH
March 02 Bhx. Agnès Of Prague virgin Clarisse (1220
- 1280)
March 05 St. Jean-Joseph Of The Cross Priest (1654
- 1734)
March 06 Co Colette Of virgin Corbie and reformer
(1381 - 1447)
March 09 Co Catherine Of Bologna François vierge(1413-1463)Ste
widowed Roman (1384 -1440)
March 11 Bhx. Jean Baptise Of Fabriano (1469-1530)
Christophe Of Milan (1411 - 1485)
March 13 Bhx.Agnellon Of Pisa Priest (+ 1233)
March 14 Transfer of the relics of the seraphic
Doctor of the Bonaventure ÉgliseSt (1434)
March 18 Bhx Salvator Of orta brothers (1520 - 1567)
March 19 St. Joseph Époux of Virgin Marie and Father
of Jesus
March 20 BhxJean Of Parma Priest (1209-1289) Marc
Of Montegallo Priest (1427-1497. Hippolyte Galantini
(1565-1600)
March 22 St. Beinvenu Bishop of Osimon (+ 1282)
March 24 St. Didace - Joseph of Cadix. p.
March 26 Bhx. Dieg Joseph Of Cadix priest (1743
- 1801)
March 28 St. Jean Of Capistran priest (1383 - 1436)
March 29 Bhx. Jeanne Of Shackled baroness of Sillé
(1331 - 1414) |
| APRIL
April 02 Bhx. Léopold Of the Gaiches Priests (1732
- 1815)
April 03 Bhx.gandolphe Of Binasco (+ 1260) Bhx.Jean
Of Penna (+ 1271)
April 04 St. Benoît The More brother (1523 -1589)Bhx.Marie
- Anne Crescence virgin Hoss (1682-1744)
April 07 Bhx.Guillaume Of Sicily hermit (1309 -
1404)
April 08 Bhx. Julian Of Saint - Augustin (+ 1606)
April 09 Bhx. Thomas Of Tolentino Priest Martyr
(+ 1322)
April 10 Bhx. Marc Of Bologna (1405 - 1479)
April 12 Bhx. Angel Of Chivasso priest (1411-1495)
April 16 solemn Commémoraison of the professions
of N.S.P.S.François (1209) St. Benoît-Joseph Labre
(1783)
April 18 Bhx. André Hibernon Frère (1534 - 1602)
April 19 Bhx. Conrad Of ascoli (1234 - 1289)
April 21 Saint Conrad of Parzham
April 22 Bhx. François Of Fabriano, priest (1251
- 1322)
April 23 Bhx. Gilles or Aegis of foundation (+1262)
24 - April St. Fidèle Of Sigmaringen Priest Martyr
(1577 - 1622)
April 27 Bhx. Jacques Of illyrie brother (+ 1490)
April 28 Bhx. Luchésius (1161 - 1241)
April 30 Bhx. Benoît Of Urbino Priest (1560 - 1625)
Bhx. Benoît Joseph Cottolengo Prêtre (1786 1842)
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MAY
-
May 01 Bse Pennelle of Troyes
May 07 Bse Helen Enselmini and Bse Marie - Assunta
May 08 St. Jean Duns Scot
May 09 Co Catherine of Bologna v.
11-mai.Bhx.Julien Of Vallé.. Ladislas Of Gielnow
(+1505) prêtreVivaldo ermite(+1320) St Ignace of
Laconie
May 13. St. Pierre Régalât Priest (1390 - 1456)
St. Didace of Alcala)
14-mai.Bhx. Pétronille Of v troyes. (1290 - 1355)
St. Nicolas Tavelic and his/her/its mates martyrs
May 16 Co Margierite of Cortone ofs.
May 17. Co Pascal Baylon brother (1540 - 1592)
18-mai.Saint Felix Of Cantalice Brother (1513 -
1587) Bse Salomée of Cracow / St. Felix of Cantalice
19-mai.Saint Yves priests (1253 - 1303) St.théophile
of Corte,S.Crispin of Viterbe / St. Théophile of
Corte.St Crispin of Viterbe,
May 20. Saint Bernardin Of Siena Priest (1380 -
1444)
May 21. Bhx Théophile Of Corte priest (1676-1740)Crispin
Of Viterbe (1668 -1750) / Welcome Of Recanati(+1289)
22-maiBhx.Jean Forest priest (1471-1538) Jean Of
Cétine prêtrePierre Of Duenas(+1397)
May 23 Bhx.Barthélémy Pucci prêtre(1330) Gérard
Of Villamagna hermit (+ 1265)
May 24 Bx.Jean Of Prado priest martyr (1560 - 1631)
Ded.Basilique St. François St André Dung - Lake
and his/her/its mates martyrs.
May 25 Bx. Padré Pio
26 May-Bx.Marie-Anne Of Jesus Paredès v. (1618 -
1645)
May 25 S.Bède,St.Grégoie VII, Co Madeleine of Pazzi,
May 28 St Jacques of the Marche
May 29 Bhx.Étienne Of Narbonne and Raymond Of Carbonne
(+1242) / All Saints' Day of the family Franciscan
May 30 Saint Ferdinand II king of Castile and Léon
(1200-1252) Bhx.BaptistaVarano.v.
May 31 Co Angèle Of Mérici (1470-1540) |
JUNE
June 1 Bhx.Ercolano Of Plegali priest (1390-1541)
Felix Of Nicosie(1715 - 1787) Jean Pelingotto (1240
- 1304)
June 02 Bhx.Humiliane v. (1219 - 1246)
June 03 Bhx.André Of Spellon priest (1191 - 1254)
June 07 Bhx. Battista Varani v. (1458 - 1527)
June 08 Bhx.Pacifique Of Cérano Priest (1424 - 1482)
June 12 Bse Yolande
June 13 St. Antoine Of Padua (1195 - 1231)
June 15 Bhx. Yolande v. (1235 - 1298) /
June 16 Bhx. Guy Of Cortone priest (1190 - 1250)
June 20 Bhx. V railcar. (1300-1356)
June 27 Bhx.Bienvenu Of Gubbion (_1232)
June 30 Bhx. Raymond Lulle |
JULY
4-July Bhxes. Raymond Lulle Martyrs (1231-1315)
Co Elisabeth of Portugal /
July Bhx.Raymond Lulle Martyrs (1232-1315)
08-July Bhx.Grégoire Grassis / Co Elisabeth (1271
- 1336) / Co Elisabeth (1271 - 1336)
09-July The Martyrs of Gorcum (1572)
10-July Co Véronique Giuliani
11-July St. Benoît
12-July Ss.Jean Jones and Jean Wall
13-July Bse Angéline Marscianos / St. François Solano
priest (1549-1610)
14-July St. François Solano / St. Bonaventure (1221-1274)
15-July The holy Sépucre of Our Lord Jesus Christ
/ S. Bonaventure
16-July Co & raquo;Marie-Madeleine Postel (1756-1846)
Memory of the canosisatrion of St. François (1228)
19-July St. Vincent Of Paul priest (1576-1660)
21-July Bhx.Angélines Of virgin Marsciano (1377
- 1435)St. Laurent of Brindes
22-July St. Laurent Of Brindes (1559-1619)
24-July Bhx.Cunégonde v. (1224 - 1292) / Bse Louise
to Know
27-July Bhx.Mairies-Madeleine Martinengos (1687-1737)
30-July Bhx.Simons Of Lipnyca (+1482) / Pierre Of
Molliano (1442-1490) Archangel Of alatafimi(1390-1460)
|
AUGUST
August 02 Autographs the N.d church. some angels.
August 04 St. Dominque (1170-1221) / St Jean - Marie
Vianney Curé Of Ars
August 05 Bx. Frédéric Janssoone
August 07 Bhx.Agathange Of Vendome Cassien Of Nantes(+1638)
August 08 St Dominique
August 09 Bhx.Jean Of The Alverne Priest (1259 -
1322). .. Vincent Of Aquila, (1504) Novellon Of
Faenza (1200-1280)
August 11 Bhx.Louise Of Savoie v. (1461-1503) Co
Claire Of foundation
August 12 Co Claire of foundation (1194-1253)
August 13 St. Jean Baptist-Marie Vianney Curé of
Ars(1786-1859)
August 14 Saint François Of Pésaro (1350 Of Urbin
(1340-1390) / St. Roch Of Montpellier (1295-1327)
/
August 14 St. Maximilian
August 17 Co Béatrice of Silva
August 18 Bhx. Paule Of Montaldi v. (1443 - 1514)
August 19 St. Louis of Anjou (1274 - 1297)
August 21 St. Magpie X
August 22 The 7 Rejoicings of the a lot of Co Virgin
Marie
August 25 St. Luis king of France (1215-1270)
August 26 Bhx.Timothée Of Montecchio (1444-1504)...
.
Bernard Of Offida (1604-1694)
August 28 St Augustin |
SEPTEMBER
01.sept. Bhx.Jean Of Pérouse priest Piere of Sasso-Ferrato
(+1231)
02 seven. Bhx.Jean - Françosi Burté/Apollinaire
Morel Sévèrin / Girault Martyrs (September +2, 1792)
04 seven. Pink Co of Viterbe (1235 - 1252)
05 seven. Bhx. Kind Of Mathélica Martyrs (+ 1340)
06 seven. Bhx. Liberal of Lauro (+1260) Pérégrin
(1240)
09 seven. Bhx. Séraphine Sforaza (1434-1478)
10 seven. Bhx. Apollinaire, 17 martys ofsm. 27 o.f.s.
martyrs (1617 - 1632)
11 seven. Bhx. Bonaventure of Barcelona (1684)
12 seven. Bhx. François Of Caldérola (1507)
17 seven. The Sacred Stigma St. François (+1224)
18 seven. St. Joseph Of Cupertino (1603-1663)
20 seven.. St. François Marie of Comporosso
23 seven. Inventin of the body of Saint Claire (1850)
24 seven. St. Pacific Of San Sévèrino (1652 - 1721)
26 seven. Bhx. Lucie of Calatagirone (+1400) / St.
Elzéar of Sabran and Bse. Delphine ofs.
27 seven. St. Elzéar count of Sabran (1285-1325)
28 seven" Bhxes. Bernardin Of Feltre (1439-1494)
|
OCTOBER
01 - Oct.Bhx. Jean Of Dukla(1414-1484).. Nicolas
of Furca (1349-1449)
03 Oct. Bhx. Félicie Méda (1378-1444) Transiation
of the Body of Co Claire(1260)
04 Oct. St. François OF Foundation (1182 - 1226)
06 Oct. Co Marie-François Of the Cinques Wounds
(1715-1791)
08 Oct. Co Brigite (1302 - 1373)
10 Oct. St. Daniel and his/her/its 6 mates Martyrs
(+1227)
12 Oct. St. Seraph Of Montegranario (1540-1604)
13 Oct. Bhx.Honorat Kozminiski
19 Oct. St. Pierre Of Alcantara (1499-1562) /) St.
Pierre Of Alcantara (1499-1562)
20 Oct. Bhx. Contardo Ferrini
21 Oct Bhxes. Jacques Of Strépar (1411)
23 Oct. Bhx. Joséphine Leroux (1747-1794) / St.
Jean of Capistan.
26 Oct. Bhx. Bonaventure Of Potenza (1651-1711)
30 Oct. Bhx. Angel Of Acri (1669-1739)
31 Oct. Bhx.Christophe Of Cahors(1172-1272) / /
Thomas Of Florence (1447)
Bx.Christophe of Romagne |
NOVEMBER
3-Nov.Bse Marguerite of Lorraine / Bhx.Raynier Of
Arezzo (1304)
05 Nov. The Co Relics of the Blissful Saints kept
in the 3 Churches
06 Nov. Bhx. Marguerite Of Loraine (1463-1521)
07 Nov. Bhx. Hèléne Enselmini (1208-1242)
12 Nov. Bhx. Gabriel Ferretti (1385-1456).. Jean
Of The Peace (1353-1433)
13 Nov. St. Didace Of Alcala (1463)
16 Nov. Co Angnès Of foundation (1198-1253)
17-Nov.Bhx. Salomée (1202-1268).. Jeanne Of Signed
(1244-1307) / Co Elisabeth of Hungary
19 Nov. Co Elisabeth Of Honfrie (1207-1231)
26 Nov. St. Leonardo Of Port - Maurice (1676-1751)
27 Nov. Bhx. Bernardin Of Fossa (1420-1503) Humble
Of Bisignano(1582-1637)
29 Nov. St. Jacques Of The Marche (1391-1476) |
DECEMBER
01-Déc. Bhx. Antoine Bonfadini(1400-1482)
2-Déc. Bse Marie-Angèle Astroch
05-Déc. Bhx. Nicolas Of Tavilée (1391)
08-Déc. Immaculeé Conception of the Virgin Marie.
09-Déc. Bhx. Elisabeth" the good" (1386-1420) Delphine
Of Glandèves(1284-1358)
Contesse of Sabran
10-Déc. Bhx. Pierre Of Siena (1289)
11-Déc. Bhx. Hugolin Magalotti hermit (1373)
12-Déc. Invention of the Body of Saint François
(1820)
14-Déc. Bhx. Conrad Of Offida (1241-1306) Barthole
(1228-1300)
23-Déc. Bhx. Nicolas factor (1520-1583)
25-Déc. Birth of Jesus and Franciscan Christmas
30-Déc. Bhx. Marguerite Colonna (1284) Mathie Of
Nazarei (1234-1300) |
|
Intro
|
| These pages are reproduced for the 800th birthday of the birth
of Saint-François on this earth. It has been published then
in the newspaper" The Tribune" so that knows it better this
Saint but also his/her/its work. We decided to put back the
52 portraits for leire to know and to like, but to say again
today: God calls us to follow Saint François and to return
him glory for the whole human and spiritual life. |
| 52 portraits of the life of Saint-François
of foundation by Father Damien Côté o.f.m |
1909 1989 has the original
copy given by the Father Côté. oh. f. m.
with the authorization of the Father Damien Côté o.f.m. :
All references come of the Blue Document of the
PP. Théophile Desbonnets Damien Vorreau. o.f.m. |
 1st
Portrait |
The
scholarly historians ignore the day and the month
of the birth of François saint; even, the
some say 1181, the other write 1182. Men and women,
religious and secular, the present Franciscans of
the universe chose 1182
All get ready to celebrate October 4, 1981 the eighth
centenary of the birth of François.1182 saint.
Forty-four years later, October 4, 1226, holy François
died while singing sister the bodily death. The
magnificent feasts celebrated in 1926 in the whole
universe the seventh centenary of the death of our
jubilee brother. Toward 1868, according to brother
Hugolin Lemay, Franciscan, of the French Canadian
colonists built the chapels of Saint-Antoine and
Saint-François. This one elevated to the
mouth of the river already named Saint-Antoine by
Champlain, was probably the reason that the name
of the river was changed in the one of saint-François.Vers
1686… five hundred four years after the birth
of brother François. The Canadians-French
of this time, he/it seems, could not celebrate the
5th centenary. Rather our ancestors bequeathed us
their faith, their churches, their earth and their
river. It is more lasting than of the feasts and
fireworks, even though he/it passed a lot of water
under the bridges since 1686. It is curious, François…,
Albert…, Lucien…, Jeanne…, didn't
have one year the day of their birth. However, the
men and the women, all announce their 24 years at
the end of their 23ième. It is similar pourFrançois
the jubilee, next October 4, he/it will have eight
hundred ans.1982… It is exact, holy François
has eight hundred years.
October 4, 1982, according to the old word, holy
François will be eight hundred years old"
facts". until then, Canadians.., Italian..,
Chinese.., Pole.., English, Spaniards… French,
Japanese.., Africans.., Allemands…,etc. everywhere
where they live, the Franciscans want to celebrate
the eighth centenary of their Father's birth and
spiritual Guide, will be year of grace, of peace
and me joy, of renewed devotion. To Quebec, the
jubilee feasts will begin in the cathedral of Nicolet
October 4, 1981. "The Tribune" also wants
to enter in the centenary's dance. Every Saturday",
The Tribune" will present an article on the
life of François saint, his/her/its writings
and his/her/its beneficent influence on the men,
his/her/its brothers. From now on all Franciscans
of the diocese of Sherbrooke thank the generous
team of" LaTribune" cordially. And holy
François sang: "We are the jugglers
of God and the only reward that we want that is
to see to lead you a really penitent life."
And he/it added: "What are indeed God's Servants
otherwise of the jugglers who try to move the heart
of the men and to send them to the spiritual life"?
Jugglers of God, it is already saint's portrait
weekly François. That all remember themselves
of it, "seraphic juggler "designates holy
François; "jugglers of God" indicate
all Franciscans of the world, religious and séculiers.À
praises it of the King! God's jugglers. By fr. Damien
Côté, o.f.m. |
2st
Portrait |
1182…François
were the firstborn of Messire Pierre Bernadone,
rich merchant of cloths, and of Pica lady, a French.
Like whom did the child look…, to his/her/its
father?…, to his/her/its mother… did
She call it Jean. Come back of one business journey,
Pierre said: "My son, it is his/her/its mother's
portrait!…; he called it François.
The paternal œil stroke proved to be rightly.
Twenty-four years later, Pica lady consisted of
its François and she opened her/its cachot.Alors,
the photographs didn't exist. According to their
fantasy or particular aspect of the life of François
saint that they wanted to illustrate, painters,
sculptors multiplied the pictures and the portraits;
a Franciscan already counted three hundred nineteen
artists of the most famous. The portraits written
by eyewitnesses are préférables.Frère
Thomas of Célano, Franciscan instructs, lived
with brother François. According to brother
Thomas, holy François was a man of the highest
oratory, an open face, to the understanding air,
exempt of softness and morgue. His/her/its size
was middle, rather short, his/her/its small and
round head, his/her/its enough stretched out and
narrow face, his/her/its flat temples, his/her/its
merciful, burning and discerning speech, his/her/its
taking and soft, clear and dark voice, his/her/its
tight, equal and white teeth, his/her/its small
and thin lips, his/her/its black and sparse beard,
his/her/its spindly neck, his/her/its right shoulders,
his/her/its short arms, his/her/its fine hands with
long fingers and the prominent nails, his/her/its
skinny legs, these small feet, his/her/its soft
skin. He/it was emaciated, rudely clothed, slept
little, always had the hand open. (1e.Cel,ch.29)
p.261 besides, brother Thomas wrote: "Sometimes,
we saw it of our eyes, he/it collected a piece of
wood on the ground, placed it then on his/her/its
left arm, taking in his/her/its right hand a stick
that a thread maintained bent, it walked it on wood
as on a viola. By these gestures, he/it seemed to
come with himself, while he/it sang, in French,
God's praises. This exaltation, often finished in
the tears and this joy ended in the contemplation
of the Christ's passion. Then the saint breathed
continual sighs, his/her/its whining doubled and,
forgetting the objects that he had in hands, all
his/her/its being stretched skywards." (2 cel.
Ch.90) p.432. One day that holy François
came back of wood or he had prayed…, brother
Masséo wanted to feel his/her/its humilité…et
says to him like while mocking: "Why to you?
Why to you? Why does everybody run after you? and
why does each seem him to want to see you, and to
hear you and to obey you? Of body you beautiful
man is not, don't you have big science, you are
not noble; from where does he/it therefore come
that everybody runs after you? Hearing it, holy
François quite rejoiced in mind, raised his/her/its
face skywards and remained a long time the soul
raised toward God; and in a big devotion of mind
he/it turned then toward brother Masséo and
says: "… It I get it from God's eyes
very - high, that contemplate the good and the mean
in all places: because these very holy eyes didn't
see among the sinners no one that was viler, more
insufficient, bigger sinner than I,; and as, to
make the marvelous work that he/it heard to make,
he/it didn't find on the earth of viler creature,
he/it has me, for this reason, chosen to confound
the nobility and the size and strength and beauty
and the science of the world… "(Fioreti.
Ch.10) p. 1084 has the authentic portrait of François
saint. To the King's praise! |
3st
Portrait |
1182-11226…En
that time…, in the time of François
saint, it was not pink!… Notre-Seigneur said
one day: "Go, rançois, to repair my
house that, you see it, tomb in ruin… "In
that time…, several married priests raised
a family. The pope and the national councils fought
all their strengths for the ecclesiastical celibacy;
Brother François wrote in his spiritual Will:
"If I had as much wisdom as Salomon and that
I found poor people small priests of this world,
in the parishes where they stay, I don't want to
preach without their consent… "In that
time…, several Catholics didn't even receive
communion once the year. The 4th council of Latran
(1215) imposed to all supporters the command of
the Easter that we know. In his/her/its Will, holy
François wrote: "I don't see anything
corporally, in this world, of God's very holy Son,
if it is not his/her/its Body and his/her/its Blood
a lot of saints…Or these very holy mysteries
I want than above all that they are honored, venerated
and placed in precious places." (Doc. your.
P. 94)En that time…, Vaudoises, Albigeoises,
and other heretics circulated; they disparaged to
that better the pope, the bishops, the priests,
the monks, and them taught the free love at the
expense of the legal marriage. As when brother François
and his/her/its mates went to consult the pope,
he/it first mistrusted them. A vision encouraged
Innocent III and it received brother François
of good cœur.En that time…, the nobles
and their serfs fought the some against the other.
For them, to take vengeance, to ruin the earths
of the neighboring castle, it live; François
obtained of the armors; it is probably one of his/her/its
sins that he/it regretted all his/her/its life.
Poet and musician, honest and polite juggler, ringleader
of men, François wanted to be a knight and
big. Until twenty-four years (1206), he/it was not
brother, nor holy, he/it lived for him. In that
time…, the emperor opposed the pope and all
the Europe was disturbed. To Foundation, the bourgeoises
quarreled with the nobles; for a long time the podestat
(mayor) didn't agree with the bishop. It was similar
in Arezzo and elsewhere, Brother François
preached the peace by here by-là.En that
time…, The crusaders wanted to crush the Moslems
and to deliver the Earth Saint of their joug…Frère
disarmed François met the Moslem chief who
allowed him to circulate in Earth Saint with his/her/its
brothers to make the good there to all. In that
time…, brother François converted the
bandits, the scientists, the men and the women,
the wolf of Gubbio,; he/it organized 5,000 Franciscans
(o.f.m.), of the Clarisseses with Claire saint,
the third secular order called today the secular
Franciscans (o.f.s.), Brother François got
the indulgence of the Portioncule and has been stigmatized
on the Alverne two years before his/her/its death.
In that time…, printing didn't exist. Brother
sick François wrote his" Letter to all
supporters" and made it copy to distribute
it. In that time…, became the most pacific…,
more rose(expression of the time that meant quieter,
as amorphous to live) |
4Portrait
|
1182
Saint François wrote "The Letter to
all supporters" in 1223. Before, the Juggler
Séraphique sang his most beautiful experiences."
Where there are charity and wisdom he/it didn't
fear there, nor ignorance." (adm. 27) p.52.
Brother Thomas of Célano returns us the
following facts. One day that clothed of vile
and miserable dresses, François crossed
a forest, singing in French God's praises, some
brigands hurried on him while asking him to a
terrifying voice that he was. "I am the herald
of the big King, he/it answered, of an assured
voice. What you want me? But they hit it and hurled
down it in a ditch filled of snow while saying:
"Remain of it, poor herald of God" by
dint of to turn and to turn around, he/it succeeded
in clearing itself/themselves. When the brigands
had moved away, he/it left the ditch and, overflowing
of rejoicing, he/it started making sound the woods
of the praises of the sovereign Créateur.
(1 Cel. Hp 7) p.202. Another day that God's man
left by the city of foundation, begging oil to
maintain the light of the church of Saint-Damien
that he repaired then, he lives a group of men
that had fun before the house where him before
the intention to enter. The red to the forehead,
he moved back. But having raised his/her/its generous
soul skywards, he/it condemned his/its cowardice
and judged itself very severely. He/it comes back
toward the house, and in a high voice, makes know
to all causes his/her/its false shame. Then, the
mind as inebriate he/it asks, in French, of oil
and gets some. (2 Cels. Ch.8) p. 332. Another
day, being alone with the saint a brother tells
to him: " Good father, pray for me, because
if you condescend to make it I believe that I
would be, at once, delivered of my temptations.
I am afflicted my strengths above, and I know
that it doesn't escape to you." Saint François
answered: "Believe well, my son, that I consider
you because of it as God's better servant, and
that, more you are tempted more you I am expensive".
And he/it added: "I tell it to you in truth,
no one must believe itself servant of God if he/it
didn't pass by the temptations and the tribulations,
a defeated temptation is in a way the ring of
marriage by which the Lord unites to his/her/its
servant's soul. Several flatter themselves to
have, during years, acquired of the merits, and
are delighted not to have to surmount any temptation.
But as before the fight, terror would have been
sufficient to defeat them, that they know good
that the Lord took in consideration the weakness
of their mind. There are hardly only those whose
courage is felt that have to sustain rough fights."
(2 cel. C. 83) p 42
|
5
Portrait |
1182…Saint
François sing his beautiful experiences
again to encourage his/her/its disciples."
where there are patience and humility, there is
not anger nor troubled". (Adm. 27) p.52.
His/her/its brother according to the flesh (Angelo)
pursued it, to his/her/its father's example, of
his/her/its poisoned words. One morning of winter
that he/it saw François, clothed of rags
and plunged in the prayer, to tremble of cold
weather, this perverse says to one these fellow
citizens: "Demand therefore to François
to sell you for one coin of sweat." God's
man was filled of joy while hearing it, and he
answered him with a smile: "Certainly, I
will sell it very dear to my Lord." Nothing
truer, because, even in this world, he/it received
not hundred, but one thousand for one, and in
the other, he/it not only got for him, but for
a lot of other, the eternal life. (leg. hp 4)
p. 812. One day that the Saint preached to people
of Tarnished, the bishop of the city, the finished
sermon, rented it before all in these terms: "In
this last time, God illustrated his Church by
this poor man, of miserable, simple aspect and
without letters. As is held us to rent God constantly,
because him in doesn't make as much for all nations".
having heard these words, the Saint is delighted
exceptionally that the bishop had declared in
terms so clean that he was abject. And when they
entered in the church, he/it threw himself/itself
to his/her/its feet while exclaiming: " In
truth, Lord bishop, you made me big honor, while
letting me intact what I belong in essence, and
that the other want to delight. You separated,
I say, in discriminating man, what is precious
of what is vile, returning to God the glory and
letting me the contempt. (2cel. ch.103) p. 443.
One day that, too weak and sick to go to feet,
François traveled gone up on a donkey,
he crossed a peasant's field that exactly worked
there. The man immediately ran to him and asked
him if he was well the brother François.
And when God's man had answered him with humility,
that it was indeed he: "Make sure, said the
peasant, well to be as good as you have the reputation
of it, because a lot of people put their confidence
in you. As I warn you that anything is never necessary
to make that can deceive our hope." Of his/her/its
donkey descended to this François words,
God's man, prostrate before the peasant, kissed
him the feet humbly and thanked it to have wanted
to exhort it thus. (2 Cels. Hp. 103) p. 443. One
night that he/it was overwhelmed more that of
custom by his/her/its illnesses and various discomforts,
François took himself/itself, in his/her/its
heart, to have compassion of himself. But so that
his/her/its mind full of goodwill didn't make
alliance, even for one hour, with the flesh, it
held farm, while invoking the Christ, the shield
of the patience. And while he/it prayed while
waging this battle, he/it received the Lord the
promise of the eternal salute: " Rejoice
you therefore, because the illness is the pledge
of my kingdom and the patience is worth you to
be able to wait, in all security and certainty,
the inheritance of this kingdom". (2 Cels.
Hp. 161) p.502. To the King's praise!
|
6Portrait
|
1182
brother François experimented it several
times: " Where there is poverty with joy.
There is neither cupidity nor greed." (adm.
27/3) p53Voyant that a certain number among the
brothers didn't answer as their vocation was necessary,
brother François tells to them one day:
"My very dear brothers, whereas God's Son
was nobler than we, he made himself/itself for
us poor in this world. By love for him, we chose
the way of Poverty; we must not be ashamed to
be going to ask for alms. He/it doesn't agree
that the heirs of kingdom blush of the pledge
of the celestial inheritance. I tell you that
a lot of noble and scholarly men will come to
join us, and will watch like a honor to be going
to beg. You therefore that are the beginnings
of the harvest, be full of joy and rejoicing,
and don't refuse to make the actions that must
be given in example to the saints who will follow."
(2 cel. ch.44) p. 387Un other times in the Portioncule,
a brother came back of foundation with aumônes,
when, arrived close to the convent, he started
beginning a hymn and to rent God in a full voice.
As the Saint hearing it shudders, and hurried
outside and kissing him the shoulder, he put the
bag on his/her/its back. "Blessed either,
he/it says, my brother who is going without making
itself/themselves to ask, to beg with humility,
and comes back in the rejoicing. " (2 Cels.
Ch.46) one day to the Those of Cortone, brother
François wore a new coat that the brothers
had given themselves a lot of pain to find. A
poor came to the convent mourning on his/her/its
dead wife and his/her/its poor wretch small family.
The Saint tells to him: "For God's love,
I give you this coat provided that you only give
up it for a good price". The brothers ran
at once to take the coat and to prevent this liberality.
But the poor, encouraged by the presence of the
holy Father, tensed the hands on the coat and
defended it as his/her/its property. The brothers
ended up purchasing him the coat, and the poor
as having touched the price, moved away. (2cel.
Hp. 55) p398La mother of two brothers came to
find the Saint one day and asked him confidently
for alms. Full of compassion, brother François
tells his/her/its priest, Pierre of Catania,;
Can we make an alms to our mother? (Because he/it
said that a brother's mother was his/her/its mother
and the one of all brothers). The brother Pierre
answered to him: "He/it doesn't remain home
anything that one can give to him. But, he/it
added, we possess a New Will, in which due to
a lack of breviary we read to Matins". And
the blessed distributes: "Give to our mother
the New Will so that she/it takes it to relieve
his/her/its misery, because he/it teaches us to
rescue the poor people. I believe that to give
it us will have more merit than to reading".
One gave the book to this woman, and this is how
the first Gospel that the order possessed, was
used to this holy charity. (2 Cels. ch.58) p.400
TO the King's praise!
|
7
Portrait |
1182…Si
holy François came back, he would sing
again even though the men live quickly: "
Where there is quiet and méditation,il
has neither worry nor dissipation" there.
(adm. 22) p.50. Brother François clothed
of an old small tunic, tells one his/her/its mates
that he had chosen to be his/her/its guard one
day: " I would like, my brother, if it is
possible, that you find me of material for a tunic".
That that hearing, the brother looked for in his
mind how he could find the so necessary and asked
material with so much humilité.Le following
day, at dawn, he headed toward the door to go
to city to fetch this material, when a man, who
was held on the doorstep and that waited it to
speak to him, stopped it: "For God's love,
he says, accept me to material for six tunics;
you will keep one of it for you and you will distribute
the other to your manner, for the salute of my
soul". All in full bloom, the brother comes
back toward François and makes him part
of this grant sent of the sky. And the father
tells to him: "Take his/her/its tunics, because
this man has been sent precisely to provide to
my necessity thus. Let's return graces to The
one that only seems to take care of us".
(2 Cels. Hp. 14) p 360. Brother François
and his/her/its mates came back from Rome and
passed by the valley of Spolète. On the
way, they conversed of the received kindness so
precious of very high God, and of the receipt
so gracious that had made them the Christ's priest,
Lord and father of the universal Christendom.
How could they follow his/her/its opinions and
execute his/her/its orders? What were the measures
to take to assure the strict observance of the
Rule that they had received, and to keep it in
his/her/its integrity? How to walk Very Loud before
the in all holiness and devotion?… And while
in this school of humility the Christ's new disciples
discussed thus, did the sun turn and the hours
himself écoulaient.Ils had arrived in a
desolate place, done exhaust by the walk and dying
of hunger; impossible to obtain of food, because
one was far from all dwelling. All of a sudden,
here it is that by the divine intervention, a
man presents himself/itself structural a bread.
He/it gives it to them and leave. As they didn't
know it, they wondered in their heart and exhorted
himself religiously to confide with more of abandonment
in the divine mercy. (1 Cel. Hp 14) p. 220. One
day brother François expressed the desire
to retire in a hermitage to take to more freely
to the contemplation. But as he/it was very weak,
he/it borrowed from a poor man a donkey to make
the road. It was in summer. The peasant who climbed
the mountain following God's man, exhausted by
this difficult and very long road, died of thirst
and fatigue before arriving to the term of the
journey; in hurry he/it calls the saint therefore,
ask it to have mercy of him, and declare that
he/it is going to die if he/it is not comforted
by some beneficent drink. The saint raises the
hands skywards and tells the peasant: "Go,
you will find here the water that the Christ has
just made to come out of this rock to pacify your
thirst" (2 Cels. Ch.17) p.231. To the King's
praise!
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1182
brother François sings again for our time
his/her/its beautiful experiences: "Where
he/it feared the Lord there to keep the house:
the enemy cannot make himself/itself a breach
to enter". (adm. 25 v5) p. 53. One day brother
François with a mate won a church far from
all dwelling and, wanting to pray in the solitude,
he tells the brother: " I would like to stay
alone this night. Go therefore to the inn and
come back at dawn" tomorrow. Remained alone,
he/it made go up toward God of long and fervid
prayers, looked then finally for a place where
he/it could rest his/its head to sleep. But sudden
his/her/its soul was dived in trouble; the fear
and the sadness invaded it and he/it started trembling
of all his/her/its members. He/it felt distinctly
that the diabolic assaults were unleashed against
him, and he/it heard troops of demons to run with
noise on the roof of the house. On the field he/it
rose, left and, drawing on his/her/its forehead
signs it of the cross, he/it exclaimed: "on
behalf of the God Almighty I tell you, demon,
to make my body undergo everything that is permitted
you, I agree there gladly because I don't have
a bigger enemy that my body; you will revenge
me of my adversary while inflicting him, to my
place, the punishment". And the demons who
had met to throw the disarray in his/her/its soul,
finding his/her/its very expeditious mind in a
feeble flesh, disappeared on the field covered
with confusion. (2 cel. hp 86) p. 427. It occurred
than one day brother François was around
Arezzo as the whole city in prey to the civil
war seemed close to its ruin. God's man having
received the hospitality in a suburb out of the
defensive walls lives some demons to lead a saraband
above the city and to excite the citizens to slaughter
itself/themselves one another. Calling a brother
minor named Silvestre, man of God full of a beautiful
simplicity, François tells to him: "Go
before the door of the city and, on behalf of
the God Almighty, order to the demons to take
some as soon as possible". The brother, simple
and devout hurries to obey; preoccupied of God's
glory he/it shouts all his/her/its strengths above
all before the door: "on behalf of God and
by order of our father holy François moves
away yourselves so much of here, demons, that
you are. "Shortly after, the peace was re-established
in the city, and the citizens in a perfect understanding
observed the by-laws of the city. When few François
après,frère came to preach at home
he began in these terms: "I speak you as
to people that previously was captivated and linked
by the devil, but that the prayers of a poor delivered,
I know it (2cel. hp .74) p. 425. TO the King's
praise!
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1182…Il
there a very long time, the Juggler Séraphique
sang and he sings again: " Where there are
mercy and discretion, he/it doesn't have laxity,
nor obduracy." (adm. 27 v6) p 53. In that
night, a brother exclaimed: " I die of hunger."
Brother François in full of charity and
discretion, didn't want that the brother blushes
to eat alone. He/it made prepare one meal at once
to which everybody took part. It is necessary
to say that this brother, and the other as him,
were converted newly and inflicted to their body
of excessive penitences. After the meal, brother
François tells the other brothers: "
My brothers, I tell it to you, that each studies
its temperament. If one of you can sustain itself
with less food than another, I don't want that
the one that has need of more than food endeavors
to imitate the first. That each to realize his/her/its
strengths and give to his/her/its body what is
necessary to him. So, in to eat it and to drink
it, we are held to abstain of the superfluous
that overnight to the body and to the soul, we
must forbid ourselves an excessive mortification
more again, because God wants mercy and no the
sacrifice"... (Leg. ant. ch1) p 879. One
day the saint, said: "It is necessary to
provide with measure to our brother's needs the
body, for fear that he/it raises us of it the
storm of the melancholy. So that, without disgust,
he/it wants and persevere religiously in the prayer,
it is necessary to remove him all opportunity
to whisper. He/it could say indeed: I die of hunger,
I am incapable to carry the burden of your practices!
But if he/it grumbles thus after having a sufficient
peck, know whereas it is necessary to make this
lazy beast feel the spur and that this nonchalant
donkey to need of the sting". (2cel. Ch.92)
p. 434. Brother Thomas Celano adds: "It was
the only point of conduct of the holy Father in
contradiction with his/her/its words. Because
although his/her/its body was innocent, it reduced
it in servitude by floggings and deprivations,
the oppressive of strokes without reason, the
ardor of his/her/its mind had tamed its body so
well that, if his/her/its soul was thirsty of
his/her/its God, his/her/its very holy flesh was
some, it also altered to the highest point. (2
cel. Hp, 92) p. 434. Some days before his/her/its
death, brother François told the brother
who had given him a good advice: "Blessed
you, my son, are you that knew how to bring to
my scruples of so beneficial remedies". Then,
addressing full of joy to his/her/its body: "Rejoice
you, my brother the body, and forgive me; I am
now ready to satisfy your desires and I am going
to hasten to provide to all your necessities!
" But what thing could be pleasing to this
exhausted body henceforth? François had
already died at the world, but the Christ lived
some him. (2cel. hp 160) p. 500
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1182…En
1952, Fr. Ignace Benoît, Franciscan, demonstrated
that brother François was" the polite
knight of Notre-Dame"; she/it was" the
lady of his/her/its thoughts, and in his/her/its
honor, he/it composed some laudes, carried his/her/its
colors his/her/its life during and returned to
him, him and his, a vassalage amoureux"(1)
Already, in 1245, brother Thomas of Celano had
written: " Brother François surrounded
an unspeakable love Jesus' mother, because it
is her that gave us for brother the God of Majesty.
He/it made go up toward her of the songs of praises,
offered him the impetuses of his/her/its heart
so much so that no human language could express
it. But what must especially put us in jubilation,
it is that he/it chosen it like protector of his/her/its
Order and put under his/her/its wings so that
she/it warmed them and defended them until the
end, the sons that he/it had to abandon. (2cel.
hp. 150) p. 490. Let's rent the a lot of Virgin
Mary Marie as François saint and with him:
"Hello, holy Lady, very holy queen, mother
of God, oh Marie, who is perpetually virgin, elected
by the very holy Father of the sky, dedicated
by him with his/her/its very holy beloved son
and the Paraclet mind,; you some that was and
stay all fullness of grace and all good! Hello
palace, hello, tabernacle; hello, house; hello,
garment; hello, maid; hello, mother of God! And
hello to you all, holy Virtues, that by the grace
and the illumination of the Holy spirit, are poured
in the cœurses of the supporters and infidels
that we are, make us faithful to God"! (S."
Frs. opusc. p.165) Rent again: " Saint Virgin
Marie, you don't have your similar among the women
who are born in this world; girl and maid of the
King Very - High, the celestial Father; mother
of our very holy Lord Jesus Christ, wife of the
Holy spirit. Pray for us, with the archangel holy
Michel, with all Virtues of the heaven and with
all saints, by your very holy and beloved Sons,
our Lord and our Mr.". He/it was impossible
to him not to burst into tears while thinking
about the Virgin small poor, who was, that day,
in one so complete destitution. One day, to table,
a brother recalled the poverty of the blissful
Virgin and the Christ's distress his/her/its child.
On the field he/it rose shaken of painful sobs,
bathed of tears, and sat down on the naked earth
to eat the rest of his/her/its bread. Also, he/it
said, that this virtue is royal that shone one
so quick burst in the king and in the Queen. (2cel.
hp 151) p. 493 (1) Benoît Lance, o.f.m.
The polite knight, cf. Notre-Dame of the Angels,
Franciscan ed., Montreal, p.71 TO the King's praise.
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1182-1212…Claire
came!… It was in the evening the Branches,
the year 1212. Clara…, eldest girl of the
count of Offreducion, the big Lord of foundation,
descended to the Portioncule. There, before Notre-Dame,
on the knees before Francesco, the small bourgeois
become beggar, Claire vowed his/her/its eighteen
years and his/her/its life to Our Lord Christ;
brother François cut his hair and gave
him the tunic of Lady Poverty. Henceforth, Claire
was sister Claire, the first Poor Packs down,
"small seraphic Patriarch plant!. Brother
François and sister Claire lived some beautiful
experiences, oh!… very virginal. (Will of
s. Claire v.11) Saint Claire wrote in her spiritual
will: God's Son made himself/itself himself our
way, the one that our blissful Father François
showed and taught us by the speech and by the
example... After the Very High Celestial Father
had condescended by his/her/its mercy and his/her/its
grace to illuminate my heart and to inspire me
to make penitence, to the example and according
to the doctrine of our blissful Father François,
that recently had converted, of concert with the
few sœurs that God had nearly given immediately
me after my conversion, I trust the vœu of
obedience voluntarily between his/her/its hands,
according to light and the grace that the Lord
had granted us by the holy life and his/her/its
servant's doctrine. " (S.Claire T.sp. v.2-8).
The blissful François lives well that is
us weak and fragile of body, and than yet nor
the deprivation nor poverty, nor work, the tribulation
and ignominy, nor the contempt of the century,
finally that nothing of all it didn't make us
move back, but that to the opposite all these
things seemed us of ineffable delights, to the
example of his/her/its Brothers and saints,; what
himself and his/her/its brothers often noticed,
he/it was delighted a lot of it in the Lord. It
is why, advanced by a movement of paternal affection
towards us, he/it committed and promised that
himself and by his/her/its Order he/it would have
us, as well as of his/her/its brothers an attentive
care and a solicitude all special". (id.v8).
A man who was called Étienne was covered
with leprosy to such point that, of the feet to
the summit of the head, his/her/its body was only
a wound. He/it went circa holy François
to be healed, this one sent it to sister Claire;
of a sign of cross, the patient was cleaned completely
and healed of all pains. (Celano, life of St.
Claire ch.26). It was in Saint-Damien… After
one terrible night where he/it had prayed not
to lose patience one minute, brother François
was assured of his eternal salute. All vibrant
of rejoicing, in spite of his/her/its sufferings,
the Juggler Séraphique composed his Hymn
of the Sun, he wanted that sister Claire was present.
(Marie of St. Vanien - Saint Claire of foundation,
The dove, Paris 1953 p. 113) TO the King's praise
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1182..
God had endowed François of foundation
of a rich nature. His/her/its intelligence was
intuitive. He/it had not studied and he/it didn't
possess acquired a lot of science. It is by intuition,
that he/it consisted of the noble side of the
gesture songs and made the starting point of his/her/its
moral progress of it. It is by his/her/its intuition,
that he/it estimated that the voluntary poverty
was the true remedy to the pains of which endured
the society. It is by his/her/its intuition, that
he/it grouped the populations of this time in
a vast association by the Third Order that had
to subtract these people to the injustices of
the feudalism. It is also by his/her/its intuition,
that François answers the question that
he asked, one day, a Preachy brother: " Say
me, my brother, how to interpret you this speech
of Ezéchiel: "If you don't announce
to the impious his/her/its profanity, I will ask
you for account of his/her/its soul. For me, I
know number of sinners to which I don't ever speak
of their state, would I be responsible for their
loss? " François started with saying
that he had need well more to be instructed that
to instruct the other. As the Preachy brother
insisted, François gives him an excellent
answer: " To suppose that the floor must
be taken in an universal sense, here it is how
I would hear it: Such must be the life of God's
servant, like the light of his/her/its words and
his/her/its examples, that there is there like
a voice that all mean take. The renown of the
actions, the odor of the holiness is sufficient
so that it accomplished that for that the prophet
asks ". The Preachy brother had marveled.
While leaving the mates of François saint,
he/it tells to them: Your founder's theology has
the flight of the eagle; ours crawls the stomach
on the ground ". François' intelligence
was as poetic. She/it is carried, as by wings,
until the author of all things who is God. On
the end of his/her/its life, he/it composed the"
Song of the Creatures" that the modern called
"The Song of the Sun ". It is a praise
of the creation, a song of action of graces to
the one that gave it to us, an offered worship
hymn with her and for her. (Bettez, Nobert, o.f.m.;
The social influence of François saint
and the Third party - Order Franciscan, Montreal,
1960, p.144). Brother François didn't use
the word "intuition"; he rather wrote
"… the Lord drove me… "
(1) "… according to the inspiration
of the Lord… " (2) "… the
Lord to give…(3) "; It is true, born
poet and driver of men, it wanted to be armed
knight and to deliver the Places Saints of the
Moslem yoke. In his/her/its convalescence, in
Spolète and to the care of the lepers,
François sacrificed his three talents gladly
and, according to the evangelical promise, he
recovered them to the centuple…avec his/her/its
admirable intuitions. (10.. T.Spir.v.2.. (2) Ii
r.ch.12v1.. (3) T.Spir.v1 v, 14. To the King's
praise!
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1182
- François had initiated, since his/her/its
youth, to the oral and political crises in which
Italy struggled to this time. The loathed names
hit its ears, some odious visions frightened its
looks. It was the tragic evocation of the feudal
decadence, seen in his/her/its whole,; the faction
within the city, the rebellion against the ecclesiastical
power. The soul fundamentally devout François
felt the humiliation imposed by the defeat painfully,
or by the pride of the local notabilities, to
the legitimate suzerain,: the Pope. The emperor's
scepter making forget the tiara of the supreme
Pasteur. François could wonder, with fright,
by what stupendous reversing, the spiritual power,
herself, was hit of discredit. The ecclesiastical
crisis was revealed to pleased to him insoluble
than the other. Besides, the love of the justice,
the mercy for the poor people, innate in him,
affirming itself/themselves by the grace, how
him, so anxious to avoid everything that was insulting
to the other, he/it didn't have felt what of unjust
had for the lower classes, and of troubling for
the public peace, a régime founded on the
privilege and on the hierarchy of the rigors.
This is how the social sense formed itself in
it. The social sen for François of foundation,
it will be this gentleness of conscience, that
always fears or to wound the notion of justice
or to apply it with too much rigor, this disposition
of the mind and the heart that orients the personal
activity toward the service of the common good.
It will be the predilection for the poor people
who are the suffering members of the Christ's
Body mystics. The major role of the interior life
in the social formation of François of
foundation, explain us his/her/its success in
the middle of the general fiasco of the similar
enterprises. They were legion, in the beginning
of the XIII century, the reformers that a desire
inspired sincere to remedy the pains of the time.
But, ideologists, without consistence, doctrinaire
intemperate, often marked of heresy, ecclesiastical
legislators, constrained in their action by the
feudal base actions, or civil powers, whose sword
became dull to the secret of the consciences,
all inspired to the interests in conflict of legitimate
mistrusts. The flame of charity and the liberating
poverty, knocked the œillères of selfishness,
that risked to disturb François' look down;
they cleared it of the fortune prejudices, of
education and class, that had paralyzed or burdened
his/her/its initiative and they raised it above
the belligerents, like an unbiased referee, whose
disinterestedness imposed the confidence. (fr.
Nobert Bettez, o.f.) p. 154-155 TO the King's
praise!
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1182..
Nobert Bettez, Franciscan, compares holy François
to the good Samaritan (p.156-158) "The charity
flows to streams of the heart scorched of François
of foundation and spills on the oppressed. As
them, he/it makes himself/itself poor and despised,
sacrificing goods, his/her/its dreams, his/her/its
expectations. Then, to the oil of the charity,
he/it mingles the wine of the justice, denouncing
money like source of the pain, and objector to
the selfish individualism the hierarchy of his/her/its
orders." However, it would be a mistake not
to see in François of foundation that the
apostle of the people's reason, that the liberator
and the justicier. It is a nobler love that makes
him trample the family's joys, goods of the fortune
and the dreams of glory of his/her/its twenty
years. If he/it gives himself/itself to the people,
it is to drive it to God. To reach this goal,
he/it is not content with preaching the gospel,
he/it introduces it in his/her/its life, he/it
makes his/her/its rule of life and the one of
his/her/its disciples of it. One by one, he/it
restores all ideas that are to the basis of the
civilization. First, he/it raises the priest's
prestige, against that all revolutionary sects,
to all times, are always unleashed themselves.
He/it revenges the marriage and the relationship,
of the injuries that on these divine institutions,
the anarchists of that time, poured, then. François
demonstrates the holiness of the Christian marriage
while giving to the spouses a rule of life, the
Rule of the fraternities of the Third Order (o.f.s.
or Secular Franciscan Order) that routes them
toward the highest summits of the piety and makes
penetrate the evangelical perfection until the
servant. The union of the classes, it is the peace
that the Christ came to re-establish in the world.
Also, she/it was one of the favorite themes of
the foundation Saint. Some articles of the rule
of the Third Order denote François' will
pacificatrice. This rule of the Third Order, removed
to the Lords, the means to declare unjust wars,
while forbidding the Tertiary to lend the loyalty
oath to the Lords and to carry the weapons. François
wants to offer to the men the exact vision, the
complete intelligence of that that is the Christian
order, under the faithful application of the gospel.
But the application of the gospel doesn't enact
itself. She/it enters little by little in the
laws, while passing by the mœurs, by the
persuasion and by the individual effort. As his/her/its
divine Mr., François will beatify poverty;
as Him, he/it will be charitable; as Him, he/it
will be the apostle of the peace and the reconciliation.
The saint of foundation begins his/her/its reformer's
work, by the excellent predication of the example.
To the King's praise!
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1182..
April 16, 1809, François and Bernard follow-ups
of jurist Pierre of Catania, surrender to the
church Saint-Nicolas and ask a priest to open,
by three times, the book of the gospel. The first
time, the priest reads these words: "If you
want to be perfected, go, sell what you have,
give the price of it to the poor people and you
will have a treasure in the sky. " The second
time, the priest reads these words: Don't take
anything for the journey, nor stick, nor bag,
nor bread, nor money and don't have two tunics.
" The third time, the priest finds and reads
the following text: "If someone wants to
be my disciple, that he/it gives up oneself, that
he/it takes his/its cross and that he/it follows
me. "François all beaming of joy,
returns thanks to God of him to have shown the
path of poverty, then he/it exclaims: " My
Brothers, here is what will be our life and our
rule." For François of foundation,
poverty was a fallen queen and victim of unjust
disdains. An old Franciscan author put in the
Juggler's mouth this ardent prayer: "Lord,
have mercy of me and lady Poverty… She/it
complains about what his/her/its friends disdained
it and surrendered his/her/its enemies…
Remember yourselves, Lord, that you came of the
stay of the Angels, in order to take it for wife
and to have a big number of children that was
perfected of it. It is her that received you in
the stall and in the manger, and that accompanied
you all along life. When you began the war of
our Redemption, Poverty came to become attached
to you like a faithful rider; she/it got to your
sides during the fight, she/it didn't retire when
the other took the flight. Finally, while your
Mother, who followed you until the tip of the
less, and took his/her/its part of all your pains,
while such a mother, because of the height of
the cross, could not reach until you, at the moment,
lady Poverty kissed you besides near that ever.
She/it not wanted only your cross was carved with
care, nor that the nails were in number being
sufficient, sharp and polite, but she/it only
prepared three of them, she/it made them hard
and coarse to serve the intentions of your torment
better. And while you died of thirst, she/it took
care that one refused you a little water, so that
it was in this wife's embrassements that you returned
the soul. That would not like lady therefore Poverty
over all things. "The social range of the
poverty of François of foundation was considerable.
While founding a new Order of poor people, he/it
honored poverty, the most despised virtue. He/it
went up that one could find the peace, the dignity
and happiness while practicing this virtue. He/it
also calmed the resentments of the indigent classes;
he/it reconciled them with the rich that they
learned to more to envy. He/it pacified this old
war of those that doesn't possess against those
that possess and strengthened the ties already
loosened of the Christian society, so that there
was not a deeper politics than the one of François
of foundation. (fr.Nobert Bettez o.f.m. p. 158-159)
TO the King's praise
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1182
- free of all terrestrial thing by poverty, François
of foundation liked the men deeply. Knowing that
the precept of the neighbor's love is similar
to the precept of God's love, and, that to the
bottom the two make one of it only, at it would
not be looked as the Christ's friend, if it had
not been the friend of the souls. His/her/its
charity was universal, but it especially gave
herself/itself to the more disinherited, to the
most suffering, to the most miserable, It had
a predilection always for the lepers, his/her/its
conversion is bound to the love that it testifies
to them. "When I lived in the sin, he/it
says, in his/her/its will, he/it seemed very bitter
to me to see some lepers, but the Lord drove me
among them and I exercised mercy to their consideration,
and, when I withdrew from their presence, what
had appeared bitter to me, was changed smoothly
for me of the soul and the body; and after me
lingered little and I came out of the century."
(Will) p.93 François stayed sometimes with
the lepers, serving them in all with the pus big
goodwill for God's love, washing their wounds,
mopping the more of their ulcers and that that
his/her/its hand of could make, his/her/its heart
made it. François' soul softened at the
sight of the poor people and when it could not
rescue them materially, it testified them his/her/its
love. Everything that he/it saw poor in a poor
wretch he/it returned it to the Christ by a sudden
reflection and a fast transposition. To the consideration
of the guilty parties, François stigmatized
the inopportune reprisals that bruise instead
of healing. He/it said: "That all Brothers
avoid well to become disturbed because of the
sin or the bad example of others, but that he/it
helps the guilty parties spiritually, of their
better, because these are not the structural goods
that need physician, but the patients." (14-Bettz.
p. 160) In all his/her/its predications, before
proposing to the assembly God's speech, he/it
started with imploring the peace in these terms:
"That the Lord gives you his/her/its peace!
This peace, brother François announced
it very religiously to the men, to the women,
to all those that were on his/her/its road. Thanks
to him a lot of enemies of concord and their own
salute, kissed the peace and, God helping, became
them as son of the Peace and ambitious of the
eternal salute. (2cel. ch.10) p. 210. That day,
brother François preached to people of
Greccio afflicted by the wolves and hail, He tells
to them: "For honor and the Almighty's glory,
listen to the truth that I announce you. If each
of you confesses its sins and makes worthy fruits
of penitence, I give you my speech that the curse
will disappear, that God will lower his look on
you and will multiply your temporal goods. But,
he/it says, hear this again: "I warn you
that in the case or, not recognizing his/her/its
kindness, you return to your vomiting, the curse
would be born again, the pain would be doubled
and God's anger would rage on you more terrifying"
(2cel.ch7) p. 202 TO the King's praise
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to the consideration of the adversaries, holy
François preached the serenity of the supreme
forgiveness. "That one indeed his/her/its
enemy, he/it said, that doesn't irritate of the
injury received of him, but that is distressed
by love for God of the sin committed by him and
that proves his/her/its affection by acts. "His/her/its
charity bloomed in a pacifying sweetness, whose
social efficiency astonished the historians. The
whole contrary of the sects that swarmed, exciting
the peoples to the rebellion and to the depredation;
François, this pacifier didn't have anything
of a demagogue, and before the new ideal that
he proclaimed", all these bizarre sects disappeared,
as birds of put overnight in flight by the first
rays of the sun", (P. Sabatier) François
knows that the church, supported on the Christ's
doctrine, can solve the serious social question,
of his/her/its time. He/it tries to bring back
the Italian people to God by a religious, individual
reform, essentially respectful of people and curator
of the established order (N. Berlez p. 161) at
the time where brother François was well
sick the Praises were composed already; the bishop
of foundation excommunicated the podestat (mayor).
On the other hand, this one made sound announce
of horn in the streets of the city, that he was
forbidden all citizen to buy or to sell whatever
was to the bishop and to deal with him. Between
them a shy hate reigned. The blissful François
then very sick, had mercy of them. He/it suffered
from seeing that no one, religious or secular,
didn't interpose to re-establish between them
the peace and concord" By mates, he/it convened
the bishop and the podestat and all the assembly
to the bishopric. '' I have confidence that the
Lord will put in their heart the humility and
the peace… When everybody was united on
the place of the cloister of the bishopric, two
brothers rose and one of them took the floor:
'' The blissful François composed shortly
before his illness the" Praises of the Lord"
about his/her/its creatures, for the glory of
God and the neighbor's edification. As he to listen
to it with big devotion asks you. '' And they
started singing it. The podestat rose and, the
joined hands, listened it in a big contemplation
as the gospel of the Lord; soon some tears sank
its eyes… AT THE END the hymn, the podestat
exclaimed before all the assembly: '' In truth,
I tell it to you, not only I forgive to the Lord
bishop that I must recognize for my superior,
but I would forgive to the murderer of my brother
or my son. '' Then he/it rose and threw himself
to the feet of the Lord bishop while telling to
him: '' For the love of Our - Lord Jesus Christ
and of the blissful François his/her/its
servant, I am ready to give you all satisfaction
that he/it will please you. "The bishop raised
it and tells to him: '' My office would require
at home the humility, but I carry naturally to
the anger; it is necessary to forgive me therefore.
'' All two then, with a lot of kindliness and
affection, kissed and gave themselves the kiss
of peace. (Legenda Antique) hp. 88 to the King's
praise
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in those days, a noble packs down Volusiano joined
brother François finally. The seer tires
and at the end of breath, the very holy Father
was filled of mercy and says to him; '' That want
yourselves Mrs.? " My Father, that you blessed
me! " And the Saint: " Are you bride
or no"? She/it answered; "My Father,
I have a very cruel husband whom I am an obstacle
in Christ's service; my more biggest pain is not
to provide to achieve, because of it, the good
vouloirs that the Lord inspires to me. It is why,
please, oh Father, pray for it so that the divine
mercy humiliates its heart ". The Father
astonished to find this virility in a woman, this
maturity in an even young soul, was moved of mercy
and says to him: Go my blessed daughter, and know
that soon your husband will be for you a source
of consolation." He/it adds: "So-called
- him on behalf of God and mine, that now it is
the time of the salute, that later it will be
the one of the justice." Having received
his/her/its blessing, the woman came to find itself/themselves
his/her/its husband of it and returned him this
warning. Sudden the Holy spirit descended on it,
changing the old man in a new man who answered
with sweetness: "Mrs., in our house, let's
serve God and let's save our souls! " His/her/its
wife answered: " He/it seems me that it is
necessary to establish in our soul the continence
as the foundation on which will rise the other
virtues." It is my desire, as it is yours
", he/it answered. From then on and during
several years, they led a life continente, and
all two, the same day, they left the earth fortunately.
(2cel. ch.9) p. 355Un day, to Glue, in the county
of Pérouse, brother François met
a poor that he had known previously in the century.
And he/it tells to him: "Brother how you
go? The other, the bad soul, started overwhelming
maledictions his/her/its master, the almighty
God the maudisse that I am in this sad state.
"The blessed the seer to persist in this
deadly hate had mercy of his/her/its soul, more
more that of his/her/its body, and says to him:
"Brother for God's love forgives to your
master, in order to save your soul,; he will return
to you maybe what he/it took you; otherwise, after
having lost your goods, you will also lose your
soul. The man answered: "He/it is absolutely
impossible to me to forgive to him, if he/it doesn't
start with returning I what he/it removed me;
"the blissful François who wore a
coat on his/her/its shoulders, tells to him: "Hold,
I give you my coat, and I ask you to forgive to
your master for God's love ". Fond and disarmed
by this kindness, the poor took the coat and forgot
his/her/its grievances (2cel. hp 56) p. 399. When
they go by the world, that the brothers are honestly
soft, pacific and modest, talking to all, as he/it
agrees. (2 rules of the brothers hp 3 v 1.) p.
86. To the King's praise!
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Before all these pains of which endured the society,
especially in Italy, at the end of the XIIe century
(1182-1226), François will try to bring
back the souls to God, by the observance of the
gospel. This return to the practice of the gospel
appears his/her/its biggest exploit. The Christian
people believed in the divine message of the Lord
but that of time he didn't have intelligence of
it and abandoned the practice of it. He/it existed,
in all surroundings and to all degrees of the
society, an awful abyss between the faith and
the conduct of life. Many remained insensible
to what of bigger has in the gospel. The object
of the reform of François of foundation,
it was not only the reform of all men, but the
one of the entire man, in reform of his/her/its
soul and his/her/its body. François lives,
no by a philosophical process, but by an intuition,
the order perfects that must exist in the nature;
above all, God and the supernatural world; in
the man, the whole creation to provide to his/her/its
needs, to bring him happiness and to drive it
to Dieu.Au middle of all these pains of which
endured Italy, in the beginning of the XIII century,
François of foundation felt that the religion
was absolutely indispensable as basis of the society.
Of the events that took place under his/her/its
eyes, he/it had deducted that the society is more
that a simple juxtaposition of men, that it requires
their closeness, their union and that only the
religion by the charity, his/her/its social tie
par excellence, can unite them and make live them
in peace. He/it had seized the importance, of
the social viewpoint, of the virtue of religion,
that inclines the man's will to return to God,
an interior cult and an outside cult, therefore.
He/it noted, every day, that God suppressed, the
authority doesn't have anything anymore sacred
and that while losing this character, it also
loses his/her/its power to direct the society,
to unify it and to make live his/her/its members
in a soft peace. On the other hand, François
knew that the man submitted to God, accept good
heart places it that is assigned him by the divine
Providence; that, if he/it is poor, he/it won't
try to improve his/her/its condition to the detriment
of the other; that, if he/it is rich, he/it will
help the poor people. For François of foundation,
there was not a, if it is not the sin, and the
sin as affecting the individual. to Bring back
the men of the sin to the grace, of vice to the
virtue, was the object of his/her/its own efforts
that distinguishes it of the other movements of
reform of his/her/its time. (Fr. Nobert Bettez
o.f.m. P. 162) Brother François wrote:
" We must have in hate our bodies, with vices
and the sins, because the Lord says in the gospel:
" all vices and sins come out of the heart
(Math XV, 18-19) (1let.v 37) p.113. To the King's
praise!
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François of foundation, the poor par excellence,
will try to make penetrate this detachment of
goods of the earth in the people's mind. But this
interior detachment, to be possible and to produce
his/her/its social kindness, supposes the sense
and the taste of the sacrifice. François
understands that the sensualism generates the
worse messes; in the individual, it is the loss
of the notion of the order; in the society, it
is the respect of the authority that disappears.
To renovate the social order, François
will endeavor to put in all cœurses, by his/her/its
Third party-Order, the sense and the taste of
the sacrifice. He/it wants that the man mortifies
himself/itself in his/her/its flesh, in his/her/its
mind, in his/her/its will and that renounces to
the sensitive pleasures, to approach more of the
individual perfection. He/it wants to put between
the people's hands, this weapon of the mortification,
that will help it to re-establish a new social
order. He/it knows that the Christian, that has
the sense and the taste of the sacrifice, feels
stronger and generous to accept all duties of
life. It is therefore by the mortification that
François of foundation wants the individual's
reform. The sense and the taste of the sacrifice
raised the men above their rampant lives and of
their limited horizons, to drive it, by the patience
and the resignation, until the serenity, and to
bring them until the practice of the devotion.
(fr.N.Bettez o.f.m. p. 163-165). According to
Thomas Celano, holy François exercised
very carefully on him and his a surveillance of
every day and even of every instant, tolerating
in them no spot and hunting of their heart all
carelessness. Very strict observer of the rule,
he/it examined himself/itself himself with a continual
vigilance. When the carnal temptation came to
attack it, what is natural, it happened to him,
in full winter, to throw itself/themselves in
a ditch full of ice water and to stay there so
much that the trouble of his/her/its flesh was
not pacified. His/her/its mates followed with
a lot of ardor the example of this heroic penitence.
They learned him to mortify their vices and their
carnal instincts not only, but also their outside
senses by with pump and clash there to be going
to receive the crown imperial, the very holy Father
stayed in the tumble-down cottage (Rivo-Torto),
yet situated very close to the path, and didn't
want to leave to look at the cortege. He/it imposed
to the other the same restraint, except to a brother
who had to, insistently, to remind to the emperor
that his/her/its glory would not be long length.
(1cel. ch.16) p.229 The glorious holy lived in
himself, walked in the spacious extent of his/her/its
heart and prepared to God in his/her/its soul
a home worthy of Him. To the King's praise!
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In addition to the detachment of the terrestrial
goods, the sense and the taste of the sacrifice,
François of foundation wanted to spill
in the cœurses the flame of the divine charity.
At the end the XIIè century, (1182-1226)
the charity seems extinct in the cœurses,
and it is then the signal of the private wars
that covers with blood Italy, François
in is moved. He/it implores the pain, while teaching
to the men the virtues that are to the basis of
the Christian society: the love of God and the
divine charity. It is what made His/her/its Holiness
Benoît XV tell: "Knowing that the charity
is the special command brought by Christ and the
synthesis of all human law, it (François)
put all his/her/its cares to make the spiritual
rule of his/her/its children of it; and he/it
succeeds to this that the Third Order helped naturally
the biggest services to the entire human family.
" (fr. N.Bettez. p.164) the neighbor's love
seemed him the extension of the divine love. It
is why he/it liked the men a lot, the poor people,
the poor persons, because he/it liked his/its
Savior a lot. One day, that brother François
preached, a poor and sick man came instead where
he was. Pitied by this double misfortune, his/her/its
destitution and his/her/its suffering, he/it started
conversing with his/her/its mate of Poverty. The
Saint sympathized to this man's sufferings, he
felt his/its heart full of love for him when his/her/its
mates tell to him: "Brother, he/it is true
that this man is poor, but there is not anybody
maybe in the whole province that wants more than
him wealth. "Immediately the Saint reprimanded
it, and as the other recognized its mistake, he
tells to him: "Court quickly, remove your
tunic, throw you to the feet of the poor and confess
that you are guilty. It is necessary that not
only you ask him for forgiveness, but again that
you solicit him a prayer." The other obeys,
made his/her/its penitence and came back. The
Saint tells to him then: " When you see a
poor, my brother, you have under the eyes the
mirror of the Mr. and of his/her/its poor Mother.
In the invalids, consider the infirmities of which
he/it has for us assumed the burden in the same
way. (2cel. ch.52) p.396 Really François
always had under the eyes the sachet of myrrh,
still his/her/its look was fixed on his/her/its
Christ's face, was always present to him the man
of pains, who knows our infirmities. (idem) "Have
charity and humility therefore; let's make some
aumônes, because they wash the souls of
the spots of their sins. Because the men lose
all goods that they must let to their exit of
this world; however they bring with them the fruit
of their charity and the aumônes that they
made; they will receive some of God rewards it
and the worthy remuneration." (fr. François)
(1 let. 30) p.112. To the King's praise
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Brother François said: "When you see
a poor, my brother, you have under the eyes the
mirror of the Mr. and of his/her/its poor Mother."
To the time where brother François stayed
in the palace of the bishop of Rieti to take care
of his/her/its illness of eyes, a poor woman of
Railcar came to consult the physician because
she endured the same pain that the Saint. The
Saint then, applying familiarly to his/her/its
guard, spoke to him thus: " Guardian brother,
we must return the another's property!. The one
- left here: "If we possess something of
it, let's return he", And the Saint to answer:
" This coat that this poor woman lent us,
we must return it to him, because she doesn't
have anything in his/her/its purse to pay for
his/her/its expenses". " But, my Father,
retorted the guard, this coat I belong and no
one lent it to us; use as him will please you,
and when you won't want some anymore, you will
return it to me ". Of fact, the guard had
bought it before some time for the purpose of
the Saint. The Saint tells to him: " Guardian
brother, you always appeared very considerate
for me; show me once besides your courtesy ".
The guard answered; " My Father, act according
to your desire, and the inspiration of the mind
". Calling a secular therefore very devout
the Saint tells to him: "Take this coat and
twelve breads are going then to tell this poor
woman: A poor to that you lent this coat thanks
you for your generosity; but take what belongs
you now ". He/it left and repeated what one
had told to him. The woman, thinking first that
he/it ridiculed her, answered to him: "Let
me alone with your coat, I don't know what you
want to say ". But the man insisted and handed
him all between the hands. When she/it lives that
it was not a joke, fearing that one didn't take
him a grant so generous, she/it rose the night
and, without his/her/its worrying about his/her/its
eyes, she/it regains her/its house with the coat.
(2cel. hp 57) p. 399· Brother François
appeared especially soft and patient with these
patients that he knew shaky like small children,
uneasy by the temptations and missing of mind
firmness. Also he avoided the hard corrections
and, when he saw no danger there, he prepared
the verges to prepare the souls. To warn the opportunities
of mistake, to prevent the fall of the one that,
once on the ground, would have big pain to stand
up, such is, he/it said, the superior role that
is a father and not a tyrant. Yet, we know that
some illnesses of the clean will are so deeply
deep-rooted, that he/it makes them cautery and
no ointment. (2.cel. hp. 134) p. 472. Brother
François wrote in the Letter to the supporters;
"The one to that the obedience is confided
and that is watched like big, that it is like
kid (Luc 22,26), and servant of the other brothers;
to each of the his/her/its brothers in particular
he/it must make and must keep mercy that he/it
would like that one made to him, if he/it was
in a similar case. Before the mistake of others,
he/it won't irritate against this brother; but
in all patience and humility, he/it will warn
it and will support it with goodness". (L.fid.v.42-44)
p.113
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François taught that God gives the fortune
to the rich to rescue the poor people and to win
the sky thus. He/it asked that one respects the
rich and the powerful. "I exhort the Brothers,
he/it says in his/its rule, to not to despise
to judge the men that they will see clothed softly
nor, to wear dresses of color and to use food
and delicate beverages, but rather than each judges
itself and despise himself oneself ". To
operate his/her/its new social order, François
of foundation won't move back from the most audacious
initiatives. That he/it is sufficient us to mention
the pact signed under his/her/its inspiration
by the noble Assisateses in favor of Reduce them:
the positive interventions by which, in Gubbio,
Bologna, Arezzo, and in many other cities, he/it
put a term to the political clashes, or this daring
legislation of the Third Order, that disarmed
the feudalism, while constituting plebeian and
bourgeois in independent organization, under the
table setting of the church. It knock forehead
too many prejudices and too many passions not
to raise the concerns and rancœurs. To the
first hikes of this poor that seemed to challenge
the wisdom of the century, Italy felt a mysterious
fright. When he/it was irruption with his in the
gallery of the Belvédère, the papal
care threw it outside. The Sacred College himself
was shocked by this daring, that wanted to live
the gospel to the letter. It is whereas Saint's
Cardinal Jean - Paul, and the divine Providence
intervenes in favor of François. Free of
the century mist, François' look carried
farther than the one of the state men submitted
to a system. In this total poverty that the princes
of the church judged chimerical and dangerous,
François saw the pledge of his/her/its
liberty of action. do "I find your too hard
life, did tell him the bishop of foundation. didn't
he exaggerate to give up all belongings thus?
"François to answer: " If we
had some belongings, we would need some weapons
to defend them. These goods of this world hardly
go without suit and without dissensions, to the
tip of which has the violence and the war. It
is the ruin of all love of God and the neighbor".
As François came back of overseas accompanied
of the Brother Leonardo of foundation, it occurred
that, tired by the journey and at the end of strengths,
he used somewhat of a donkey as setting. His/her/its
mate who followed it well also tired him, says
itself in himself: " My parents and his didn't
occupy the same situation. And yet, it is he that
is in saddle and me that go on foot, driving his/her/its
donkey. He/it was there of his/her/its reflections
when all of a sudden, the Saint putting foot on
the ground tells to him: "No, my brother,
he/it doesn't agree that I overlap whereas you
go on foot, bus in the century you were nobler
and richer than I! " The brother stuns and
covered of confusion to see itself/themselves
guessed thus threw himself to the feet of the
Saint…il put to naked his/her/its thoughts
and implored his/her/its forgiveness. (2 cel.
Ch.5) p. 349 TO the King's praise!
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The wanted reform and operated by François
of foundation was essentially respectful of people.
It was at a time his/her/its strength and his/her/its
originality, François, by his/her/its sweetness,
will be the restorer of the ministerial mœurs,
the emancipator of the small, without one can
find in his/her/its writings or on his/her/its
lips, nor condemnation of the ecclesiastical property,
nor apostrophe against the fortune. François
knew how to calm the touchiness of the Catholic
hierarchy, shy to all desire of renovation. Far
from beating the coulpe of the unworthy clergy
publicly, he/it exhausts his/its charity and his/her/its
tact to protect in them the authority of the ministry,
to warn about their case the scandal of the weak.
Applying to his/her/its brothers, he/it tells
to them: " We are the auxiliaries of the
Clerks, it is necessary for us to keep the tilted
and subject attitude that suits auxiliaries therefore;
concord between them is to this price and concord
between the clerks is the big means to win the
souls of the Lord. " The mentality of François
of foundation reflects itself entire in this advice
given to his/her/its disciples about his/her/its
opponents. "The one that justified us can
also justify them. It is certain that there are
several among them, that, today members of the
devil, will become of true disciples of the Christ.
They will precede us maybe. This thought is not
sufficient to avoid us all anger of words? But
we have well more, we have been sent to heal the
patients, to dress the injureds, to bring back
to the truth those that ignore it and that wander.
There is our role. One doesn't accomplish such
a role by the cutting of the affirmations or the
acrimony of the reproaches; one accomplishes it
when one became pacific as were the Apostles,
when one is donned of goodness innards. He/it
is not sufficient that this goodness is in our
words, it is necessary that it explodes in our
œuvres, so that all, while seeing us, rent
on our occasion our common Father of the heaven".
Under the Crimson as under the rags, his/her/its
charity recognized and cherished the Christ's
member. To religious that counseled him to protect
in court of Rome against the Episcopal hostilities.
François answers: "You want to prevent
my victory on the world, because I want, by the
holy humility and the respect, to convert some
prelates first. When they will see your simple
life and your humble reverence to their consideration,
they will ask you themselves to preach."
(fr. N.Bettez p.167) Brother François wrote
in" the Letter to all supporters": "
We must also visit frequently the churches and
must revere the clerks; not only because of them,
because they can be sinners, but because they
have the office and the administration of the
Body and Blood very holy of Our Lord Christ, that
they sacrifice on the altar, that they receive
and manage to the other; them only must manage
them and no of others. " (J. 33-35) TO the
King's praise!
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By his/her/its Third party-Order, François
wanted to react against the feudal system, but
he didn't have the intention to destroy it completely.
He/it saw in him of the abuses, of the defaults
of justice on behalf of the Lords with regard
to the serfs, and these were these abuses that
he/it wanted to suppress. The reform of the society
doesn't necessarily imply a change of the social
principles and institutions, because they are
not still the reason of the pain of which it endures.
Some reformers, as Arnaud Brescia di had attacked
the right of the temporal possession of the church
and had raised Rome against the Popes. The Albigeoises
opposed all the social order said the time: property,
marriage, etc… as being something of intrinsically
bad. The reforms François of foundation
was well different. She/it was very curator in
his/her/its principles, censoring no institution,
nor in the religious domain, nor in the political
or economic domain. She/it was the reform of the
society by the one of the individual. It was an
infinitely delicate task that to establish contact
between the medieval, ardent and generous soul,
but susceptible, bristly of prejudged feudal or
bruised of servile pains. It was necessary to
captivate it, a rare assembly of enthusiasm and
abandonment, leniency and authority, of natural
and of distinction. François' courtesy
excelled there. Benoît XV said "God's
man that it was impotent to contain in the intimate
of his/her/its heart the seraphic love that consumed
it for God and his/her/its brothers; it was necessary
to let overflow him on all souls that he/it could
reach. This is how he/it started reforming; the
individual life was only an instrument of which
it used to wake up within the society, the love
of the Christian wisdom and to win all men to
Christ. "François of foundation liked
the men a lot because he liked God a lot. He/it
also liked the souls. "One doesn't like Christ,
he/it said, when one doesn't like the souls, for
which he/it gave his/its life. " For him,
the souls were his/her/its big appeal: one can
say that he/it only breathed for them. It is for
them that he/it fought with God in the prayer,
for them that he/it used his/its strengths to
preach, for them that he/it carried the holy examples
until the heroism. It is for his/her/its souls
that want to become beautiful, holy and pleasant
to God that François founds his three Orders.
(fr.N.Bettez. p. 168-169) TO the King's praise!
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it was in 1216. François was in prayers,
to the foot of the altar, in the small church
of Saint-Marie of the Portioncule and now Our
- Lord appears to him in company of his/her/its
holy Mother and a troop of angelic minds. "
You and you Brothers, tells to him he/it made
a lot for the salute of the souls: you can ask
for what you will want in their favor and to the
glory of my name. Very holy father, answered François,
I am only a sinner: I dare nevertheless to implore
you, since you condescend to invite of it to me,
to grant this thanks to the supporters, that all
those, that confessed and contrite, will come
to visit this church, receive the plenary indulgence
of their sin" there. Then turning toward
Marie; "And I pray, he/it continued, the
blissful Virgin, your Mother, the lawyer of the
human kind, to solicit this grace with me. "Marie
unites to him and Jesus immediately took: "
That for that you ask is big, but you will get
more again. I grant you the indulgence that you
want provided that she/it is ratified, for my
Priest, to whom I handed all power to bind and
to untie on the earth ". Since the following
day, accompanied François of brother Masséo,
took the path of Pérouse or a new Pope
had just been created, in this city, to replace
Innocent III that had just died. The new Pope
was Honorius III. To his/her/its arrival, the
cardinal Hugolin presents François to the
Sovereign Pontiff." Very Saint Father, he/it
says, a few years ago, I repaired in your domains
a small church that is dedicated to God's Mother:
I implore your Holiness to enrich it of an indulgence
without obligation of alms. Without obligation
of alms, took Pope, it is not the custom of the
Roman church; he/it agrees that those that want
to win an indulgence deserve it while coming in
help to the good œuvres. And for how many
years do you ask for this indulgence? Saint Father,
these are not of years, these are the souls that
I ask you, of the souls! How do you hear it? replies
the Pope. I want, if your Holiness accepts it,
that all those that, confessed and contrite and
absolve, will enter in this church, get the remission
of all mistakes and all pain for this world and
for the other. But it is there a big thing, and
quite unusual; he/it doesn't enter in the practice
of the court of Rome to grant similar indulgences.
Is not as this me that make you this demand; it
is Our Lord Jesus Christ him even, because it
is he that sent me toward you! He/it told in detail
what had arrived; his/her/its prayer, the Savior's
apparition, the concession that had been made
to him. The Pope had appeared attentive. "Since
he/it is some thus, he/it exclaimed, when François
had finished, we only have to incline us; he/it
pleases us, yes, he/it pleases us that you have
the indulgence for that you ask. "François
had gotten what he wanted…, In 1967, The
Pope Paul VI, in his/her/its reform, kept this
indulgence. (fr. N. Bettez p. 171 (sq) TO the
King's praise!
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1182
..1219 ..1220… in 1219, François
convenes an extraordinary, named Chapter the Chapter
of the Braids; they were more than five miles
(5,000) brothers. François announces to
the assembly his/her/its project to be going to
preach the faith in Sudan of Egypt. François
leaves Europe with the Illuminated brother and
he heads toward Egypt (1220). He presents himself/itself,
with his/her/its mate, before Sudan, but without
success. To his/her/its second audience, Sudan
offers the two missionaries of the belongings
and earths, if they want to stay with him. François
answers to him: Yes, if you convert with your
people, I will fix my home gladly among you. Your
priests didn't want to discuss with me; can -
to be will like them better to act. Make light
a big fire, I will enter in this fire with them,
and you will see by the effect what is the faith
the more insured and holiest. " Sudan retorted:
"I don't believe that none of the my priests
are of mood to face the flames and the torments
for the defense of his/her/its faith. "François
retired while refusing the present that offered
him Sudan. He/it came back to Venice, then in
the Portioncule. (fr. N. Bettez p. 172 sq) Whoever
will want to go himself of it to the Moslems and
other infidels among the brothers, by divine inspiration,
that he/it goes there, with the authorization
of his/her/its minister and servant. The Brothers
who leave thus can consider their spiritual role
of two manners: or, to make neither suits nor
disputes, to be submitted to all human creature
because of God and to recognize that they are
Christian; either, if they see that it is God's
will, to announce God's speech,: that it is necessary
to believe in the almighty God, Father, Son and
Holy spirit, Creator of all things, in his/her/its
redeeming Son and Savior, that it is necessary
to be baptized and to become Christian because
that is not born again of the water of the mind-Saint,
cannot enter to God's kingdom. They be able to
therefore speak to them, as well as to the others,
on this topic or on others, depending on whether
he/it will be pleasing to the Lord, because the
Lord says in the gospel: "That recognizes
me before the men, I will recognize it before
my Father, who is in the heaven, that will blush
of me and of my words, the man's Son will blush
of him when he will come in his/its Majesty, in
the glory of his/her/its Father and the Saint
Anges ". (1reg. hp. 16) p.68. All brothers,
everywhere where they are, will remember that
they gave themselves and that they abandoned their
body in N.S.J.C. and that they must expose so
much for his/her/its love himself to the enemies
visible that invisible; because the Lord says:
"Who loses its soul because of me, will save
it for the eternal life. If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you. If one persecutes you,
flee in another city. Don't become disturbed.
In your patience you will be main of your souls.
Who will persevere until the end will be saved"
(1reg. hp. 16) p. 68. To the King's praise!
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1182…1219…François
didn't win therefore nor the soul of Sudan nor
the martyrdom. However, he/it was not without
have been granted a little, since the vivid sands
of Egypt gave him the beginning of his/her/its
illness of eyes that, with the tears, made it
blind to the last moments of his/her/its life.
Brother François would have spent the Christmas
eve of 1219 to Bethléem.De Ptolémais,
François surrendered therefore in pilgrimage
to the Places Saints of Palestine, the heart intoxicated
of an in love respect for the soil that the feet
of his/her/its divine had trodden Mr.. Some historians
tell that François met, to the field the
Mélex-El-Kamel, the brother of this one.
Conradin, sultan of Damascus, which would have
provided it with a safe-conduct to allow him to
browse the Places Saints,; this safe-conduct exempted
it of the taxes, usually required of the Christian
pilgrims by the Moslem. He/it raised the tent
of his/her/its brothers on the holy mountain of
Zion, but he/it was not able to anything to confide
to them, one didn't have him anything confided
to himself. The Catholics didn't possess only
one inch of land then in Earth Saint. It is by
dint of patience, at the cost of one thousand
sacrifices and even of their own life that our
fathers acquired little by little and kept to
the Catholicity his/her/its most precious sanctuaries.
Two Franciscan miles endured the martyrdom of
blood, for the care of these sanctuaries and for
the conservation of the faith among the Christendom
of Palestine, and more of six one thousand died
martyrs of the charity, to the bedhead of the
plague-striken, victims themselves of the terrifying
epidemic. To the fall of Ptolémais in 1291,
lugubrious date, all disappears of Palestine with
the Crusaders: clergy and faithful, monastic Orders
and military Orders. The only Franciscans remained,
in the middle of blood and ruins, to continue,
as far as possible, the work of the Crusaders
and of (brother François). Everybody agrees
that he/it is glorious for the Sovereign Pontiffs,
the to guard of the Places Saints, in the name
of all the church, and to have remained there
alone, offering to God the common vœux of
all supporters in the very places that Notre-Seigneur
sanctified by his/her/its divine presence, cannot
offer the guards of his/her/its sanctuaries as
a long time that the Earth Saint that poverty,
the opprobriums, the jail, the martyre…(fr.
Valentin - M.Breton. o.f.m.) P. 114 sg. In 1333,
a few hundred years after the death of brother
François (1226), the king of Naples and
Jerusalem, Robert and of his/her/its lady queen
Sanche bought Melek-In-Nasser, sultant of Egypt,
the holy Sepulcher, the basilica of Bethlehem,
the Coterie and the Virgin's tomb. According to
the royal official supplication, Clement VI, pope,
in 1342, confided to the Franciscans the care
of these Places Saints. They are there since a
few seven hundred years in spite of the massacres
and the epidemics. (Malo. Ad. The incomplete epic
of our Places Saints, Montreal. 1955 p. 149
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1182…Frère
François joined his brothers and tells
to them: "Have courage and rejoice yourselves
in God; that your small number doesn't sadden
you, that my simplicity and yours is not a reason
of discouragement because the Lord clearly showed
to me that it will make us grow and will multiply
us until the extremities of the world. For your
profit I am obliged to tell you this vision that
I should say nothing about if the charity didn't
make me a duty to speak: "I saw a big multitude
of men that came to us to live under the dress
of our holy religion and according to the rule
of our blissful Order. I have again in the ears
the noise of the steps of those that went and
came guided by the holy obedience. I saw the roads
covered with crowds that, of nearly all regions,
converged toward our country. The French, arrive,
the Spanish hurry, the Germans and the English
run, and an immense multitude of various languages,
hurl down his/her/its step ". This revelation
fills the brothers of a divine joy, because of
the grace that the Lord had made to his/her/its
saint and because, wanting the a lot of neighbor
ardently they wish that new recruits, to make
their salute, came to increase their number constantly.
(1 cel. Hp. 11) p. 213. Inspired by the Lord,
brother François saw rightly. Here are
some official statistics:
In 1209, there was…….12 Franciscans
In 1219, there was…… 5,000 Franciscans
In 1300, there was...... 40,000 Franciscans
In 1500, there was……60,000 Franciscans
In 1900, there was……45,000 Franciscans
In 1980, there was……21,119 Franciscans
These Franciscans live in the following countries:
Albania, Germany, England, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,
Burundi, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Colombia,
Korea, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Egypt, Spain,
Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau,
Holland, Honduras, Hongkong, Hungary, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan Java, Lebanon,
Libya, Madagascar, Malta, Morocco, Mexico, Mozambique,
Nicaragua, Nigeria, New Guinea, New Zealand, Norway,
Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Port wine Rico, Rhodesia, Ruanda,
Roumanie,…Suisse, Taiwan, Czechoslovakia,
Togo, Turkey, USSR, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Zaire,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.
(Fr. N. Bettez hp, 174) TO the King's praise!
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1182-1220
January 16, 1220, to Morocco, brother François
learns it, the earth of Africa received the divine
seed with the blood of the brothers Bérard,
Pierre, Othon, Adjutor, Accursio, tortured for
Our Lord Christ,. Brother François is very
happy. (fr. N. Bettez. p.174) before sending his/her/its
brothers, the blissful father had told to them:
" My dear children, the Lord recommended
me to send you at the Saracens, to preach the
faith there and to fight Mahomet's law. And I
will leave, on my turn, in other countries, to
work to the salute of the infidels, and I will
send some brothers all over the world. It is why,
my dear sons, you must be expeditious to accomplish
God's will. The brothers tilting then before their
father, told to him: "We are ready to obey
you in everything that you will order us".
François was delighted of joy of such an
availability and pursued his/her/its exhortation,
with his/her/its characteristic sweetness. "Take
care to keep among you the peace, concord, the
undissolvable tie of the charity, in order to
be in better condition to fill your apostolic
mandate. Escape the desire, reason of the perdition
of the first man. Be patient in the tribulation,
humble in the prosperity, and you will be victorious
in all fights. Imitate Christ in poverty, the
obedience and the chastity. Put in God all your
hope and himself will direct you and will sustain
you. " Carry with yourselves the Rule and
the Breviary, in order to recite the divine office.
Be obedient to the Vital brother, your superior
". Sick, he/it could not surrender.) "My
dear children, while rejoicing me of your good
will, my heart, while seeing you leaving, don't
feel less of them the bitterness; but we must
prefer God's order to our own satisfaction. I
implore you to have before the eyes the Passion
of the Lord. This memory will fortify you and
will help you to all to suffer for his/her/its
love ". "The one that sends you, will
watch over you; I confide you to his/her/its care,
he/it will fill you of virtue and will put his/her/its
speech on your lips ". " That God's
blessing the Father descends on you, as she descended
once on the Apostles; that she/it comes with you,
fortify you and comfort you in your tribulations.
Don't fear anything, because God is with you;
go therefore in the name of the Lord who sends
you '' Fill consolation and courage by their father's
blessing, these apostolic men immediately gaze
at under way, having for all money that their
breviary and God's grace. The five arrived to
Portugal, in Coimbra, they passed to Alenquer,
they went to Seville where they preached to the
Moslems. They were expelled and were embarked
for Morocco. They accomplished the order of saint
obedience thus. (Breton. VM. o.f.m. S.Frs. of
Montreal foundation 1942 p. 119) TO the King's
praise
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1182
brother François, deacon, wanted that the
ministers of God's speech were able to apply to
the spiritual studies without in to be prevented
by no load. "They have been chosen, he/it
said, by a big King, to transmit to the people
the orders that they receive his/her/its mouth"
He/it said again: "The preacher must start
with drawing in the secret prayers what he will
spill then in his/her/its sacred speeches; He/it
must burn late inside before pronouncing cold
prayers." As he taught that it is necessary
to revere this office and to venerate those that
have the load of it. They are, he/it said, the
life of the body, they fight the demons, they
are the pure light. (2cel. hp. 112) p 461 When
to the doctors in sacred theology, he/it judged
them again worthy of bigger honors. One day he/it
made write for all brothers: "We must honor
and must venerate all theologians and those that
dispense us the divine speech, because they give
us the mind and life. "One day that he/it
wrote to the brother Antoine, he/it made put at
the head of the letter: "To the brother Antoine,
my bishop… " (2 cel. hp. 122) p. 461.
Brother François wrote in the rule of 1223"
The brothers won't preach in a bishop's territory,
if one they prevent some. No brother will never
have the audacity to preach to the people, without
have been examined and approved by the general
minister of the fraternity and without having
received of him the office of the predication.
I warn and I exhort the brothers in the predication
that they make, their words are pure and chaste
for the utility and the people's edification they
will announce lives and the virtues, the pain
and the glory, in a brief speech, because the
Lord made on the earth a brief speech. (Rom. IX,
28) (2reg. ch.9) p. 89. Here is the brief speech"
that brother François wrote in the rule
of 1221; titled" Praise and exhortation that
the brothers" can make. " all my brothers,
when they will want it, will be able to, with
God's blessing, to pronounce, among all men without
distinction, this formula of exhortation and praise,
or another similar, They will say therefore: "
Fear and honor, rent and bless, thank and adore
the Lord almighty God, in the Trinidad and the
unit, Father, Son, and Holy spirit, Creator of
all things. Make penitence, make worthy fruits
of penitence; because, know it, you will die soon.
Give and one will give you; forgive and one will
forgive you; if you don't forgive to the men their
offenses, God won't forgive you your sins. Happy
those that die in penitence, because they will
be in kingdom of the heaven. Unhappy those that
don't die in penitence, because they will be sons
of the devil of which they make the œuvres,
and they will go to the eternal fire. Hold yourselves
distant of all pain, and persevere until the end
in the good ". (1reg. hp 21) p.73 TO the
King's praise
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1182
- has The Letter finally" to all supporters
". Brother François then sick could
not visit the boroughs anymore to give the fragrant
words of Notre-Seigneur there. He/it wrote his/its
"Letter" toward 1221. It is a beautiful
juggling. Brother very polite François,
apply to all supporters." To all Christian,
religious, clerks and laic, men and women, to
all those that live all over the world; the brother
François, their servant and their topic,
homage and respect, true peace of the sky and
charity in the Lord. Since I am the servant of
all, I am held to put me to the service of all,
and to distribute to all fragrant words of my
Lord. It is why, considering in me - even that
me because of the weakness and the infirmity of
my body, to visit you all in particular, I intended
then, to address you the present letter, to return
you the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that are
the Father's speech, and the words of the Holy
spirit, that are mind and life ". Brother
François first proclaims the gestures of
love of the big King; his/her/its Incarnation,
his/her/its Redemption and his/her/its Parousie:
The Father's Verb, so worthy, so holy and glorious,
the very high Father announced the arrival, by
his/her/its holy Gabriel archangel, to the holy
and glorious Virgin Marie, of the breast of which
the Verb received the flesh of our humanity and
our fragility, of it. Him that was richer than
all, he/it wanted however, as well as his/her/its
very blissful Mother, to elect the pauvreté.Proche
of his/her/its passion, he/it celebrated the Easter
with his/her/its disciples. Then, taking bread,
he/it returned graces, the blessed and broke it,
saying,: "Take and eat, It is my body. And
taking the chalice, he/it says: " It is my
blood, the one of the New Will, that for you and
for many will be spilled in remission of the sins.
"Then, he/it asked his/its Father, while
saying: "Father, if to make can itself that
this chalice moves away of me. " And he/it
came a sweat as drops of flowing blood until earth.
However he/it put his/its will, no as I want,
but as you want. "Gold of this Father, will
was that his/her/its blessed Son and glorious,
that it gave us and that is born for us, offered
itself himself, by his/her/its own blood, in sacrifice
and in victim on the altar of the Cross; no for
himself, by that all things have been made, but
for our sins; letting us an example so that we
followed his/her/its traces. He/it wants that
all we are saved by him, and that we received
it in a pure heart and in a chaste body. But he/it
is some little that want to receive it and to
be saved by him, although his/her/its yoke is
sweet and his/her/its light burden! " (to
follow: the Parousie) TO the King's praise
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1182
- the seraphic Juggler sings and proclaim the
return of the big King: "Those that don't
want to taste how much the Lord is sweet and that
like darkness more that light, refusing to accomplish
God's commands, is cursed: it is of them that
he/it is said by the prophet: "Cursed those
that depart of your commands. But oh! That they
are blissful and bless those that like the Lord
and makes what he/it says himself in the gospel:
" You will like the Lord your God of all
your heart and all your soul, and your neighbor
as you - even. Let's "like God therefore
and let's adore it of a pure heart and a pure
soul". Now the Juggler Séraphique
presses his disciples to like Our Lord Christ
until the worship. In this goal, he illuminates
their intelligence (the cognitive) and stimulate
their will (the emotional): " Let's like
God therefore and let's adore it of a pure heart
and a pure soul: because it is there for what
himself looks above all, when he/it says: "The
true worshippers will adore the Father in mind
and in truth; because all those that adore it,
must adore it in mind and in truth. Let's tell
him of the praises and prayers, day and night,
while saying: "Lord Prayer, who is at the
heaven. Because he/it makes us to pray always
and to stop never. We must confess to the priest
all our sins consequently, and to receive him
the Body and the Blood of Our Lord Christ. The
one that doesn't eat his/her/its Flesh and don't
drink his/her/its Blood cannot enter in kingdom
of the heaven. But it is necessary to eat and
to drink worthily, because the one that receives
it shamefully, to eat and drinks his/her/its own
condemnation, not discerning the Body of the Lord,
that wants to say not distinguishing it of the
other foods. Let's make in addition to worthy
fruits of penitence. Then, let's like our neighbor
as ourselves. And if someone doesn't want or cannot
like the other as oneself, that at less he/it
is not going to make them the pain, but that he/it
makes them the good. As for those that received
the power to judge others, that they exercise
their load with mercy, depending on whether they
want themselves to get mercy of the Lord. Because
judgment without mercy will be pronounced against
the one that didn't make mercy. Let's have charity
and humility therefore; let's make some aumônes,
because they wash the souls of the spots of their
sins. Because the men lose all goods that they
must let to their exit of this world; however
they carry away with them, the fruit of their
charity and the aumônes that they made;
they will receive some of God rewards it and the
worthy remuneration. We must also fast, to abstain
of vices and sins and of the excess to eat it
and to drink it and to be Catholic. " To
the King's praise
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1182
in his/her/its Letter, the Juggler Séraphique
illuminates his disciples so that they can like
the King until the worship: " We must also
visit frequently the churches and must revere
the clerks; not only because of them, because
they can be sinners, but that they have the office
and the administration of the Body and the very
holy blood of Our Lord Jesus - Christ, that they
sacrifice on the altar, that they receive and
that they manage to the other. Let's know all
firmly that no one can be saved that by the Blood
of Our Lord Christ and by the Savior's holy words,
that the clerks say, announce and manage; them
only must manage them and no of others. The religious,
especially, that renounced at the world, are held
to make more and better, but without omitting
the rest. must have in hate our bodies, with vices
and the sins, because the Lord says in the gospel:
"all vices and sins come out of the heart.
" We must like our enemies and must make
the good to those that hate us. We must observe
the precepts and the advice of Our - Lord Jesus
- Christ. We must give up ourselves us - same
and to place our bodies under the yoke of the
servitude and the holy obedience, according to
what each promised to the Lord. And hopeless man
is not held to obey to that where commits itself
some sin or offense. The one to that the obedience
is confided and that is watched like big, that
it is like kid and servant of the other brothers;
to each of his/her/its brothers; but in all patience
and humility, he/it will warn it and will support
it with goodness." There is light for the
intelligence of the Franciscans and Supporters;
here is the energy for their will: " We must
not be wise according to the flesh, nor prudent;
but we must be rather simple, humble and pure.
Let's have our bodies in opprobrium and contempt,
because all, by our mistake, we are unhappy and
putrid, pestilential and toward, as the Lord said
it by the prophet: " I am a worm and no one
men; the opprobrium of the men and the "people's
rubbish we must Ever want to be his - over of
the other but we must be rather servants and must
submit to all creature because of God. All those
that will act thus and persévèreront
until the end, the mind of the Lord will rest
on them and will make in them dwelling and home,
and they will be sons of the celestial Father,
of which they make the œuvres; and they are
spouses, brothers and mothers of Our - Lord Jesus
- Christ.À praises it of the King!
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1182…1121
Saint François, the Juggler Séraphique,
presses his disciples to like the King until the
worship; here, he/it stimulates their will (emotional):
"We are spouse, when by the mind - Saint
the faithful soul is joined to Christ. We are
his/her/its brothers, when we make the Father's
will that is in the heaven. We are his/her/its
mothers, when we carry it in our heart and in
our body by the love and by a pure and sincere
conscience and that we give birth it by the practice
of the good that must gleam to the other as an
example. Oh! that it is glorious, and holy and
big to have in the heaven a Father! Oh! that it
is holy, beautiful and agreeable to have in the
heaven a Spouse! Oh! That it is holy and dear,
relaxing and humble, pacific and soft and agreeable
and desirable thing more that all, to have such
a Brother,: a brother who gave his/her/its soul
for his/her/its sheep, a brother who asked his/her/its
Father for us,: "Holy father, guard in your
name those that you have me s given. Father, all
those that you gave to me. They received them
and they knew indeed that I came out of you, and
they believed that you sent to me. I pray for
them, no for the world; bless them and sanctify
them. For them I sacrifice to myself, so that
they are dedicated in only one thing as us. I
want, Father, that they are with me or I am, so
that they see my splendor in your kingdom! Because
he/it suffered so much for us, and that he/it
conferred us and conferred us in the future so
many goods, that all creature who is in the sky
and on the earth, grants the sea and the abysses,
returns to God praises glory, honor and blessing;
because that one is our virtue and our strength,
that are the only one good, the only one very
high, the only one almighty and admirable, the
only one glorious and holy, laudable and blessed
in the infinite centuries of the centuries. Amen.
However all those that are not in penitence and
don't receive the Body and the Blood of Our Lord
Christ, but take to vices and the sins; walk after
the bad concupiscence and the bad desires, don't
observe what they promised; are corporally slaves
of the world, the carnal desires, the worries
and the solicitudes of this century, are spiritually
slaves of the devil who deceives them, of which
they are the sons, of which they make the œuvres,
all those are blinds, because they don't see the
true light Our - Lord Jesus Christ. They don't
have the spiritual wisdom, because they don't
have in them God's Son, who is the Father's true
wisdom. It is of them that he/it is said: "their
wisdom has been devoured. "They see, they
know, they knew, they make the pain. Knowingly
they lose their souls. See, oh blinds disappointed
by your enemies, who are the flesh, the world
and the devil, that he/it is soft for the body
to make the sin, that he/it is bitter to him to
serve God; because all vices and sins leave and
proceed the man's heart, as he/it is said in the
gospel. " To the King's praise!
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1182-1221
the Juggler Séraphique continues his"
Letter to all supporters": " You don't
have any good in this world nor in the other.
You think to possess the vanities of this world
a long time; but you are disappointed, because
will come the day and the hour to which you don't
think, that you don't know, that you cannot know,
The body is weakened, the death approaches, parents
and friends come to say: "Take your arrangements,
Wife and sons, parents and friends feign to cry.
He/it watches, he/it sees them crying, he/it is
touched of a bad emotion; he/it thinks and tells
itself of it him - even: Here is my body, my soul,
all my goods, I put them again between your hands.
Indeed, this man is cursed, that exposes his/her/its
soul, his/her/its body, and all his/her/its goods
in such hands. Also the Lord says it by the Prophet:
"Cursed the man who confides in the man.
" Then they make come the priest. The priest
tells to him: do you "want to receive penitence
of all your sins? "He/it answers: "Yes.
" Do you want, for the wrongs that you committed
and for the fraud by which did you deceive the
men, to satisfy, according to your power, of your
goods? He/it answers: "No ". And the
priest tells to him: "Why no? " "Because
I disposed all in favor of my parents and friends.
"And he/it begins to lose the speech; and
so he, the poor wretch, of bitter death, dies.
However that all know that every time and however
a man dies in deadly sin, without satisfaction,
when can have satisfied, he didn't satisfy, the
devil pulls his/her/its soul to his/her/its body
with so much anguish and trouble as no one can
make itself an idea of it that the one that is
victim of it. All talents, the power, the science
and wisdom that he/it believed to have gleamed
are removed. His/her/its parents and friends remove
his inheritance and share themselves him. Next
them say: " Cursed either his/her/its soul;
because he/it could have given us well more and
could have acquired more that he/it didn't acquire
for our profit. " However the verses devour
its body. So he loses his/her/its soul and his/her/its
body in this century that is brief, and he in
hell leave, where he/it will be tormented without
end. In the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy spirit. Amen.Tous those to that this letter
will arrive, me, brother François the miner,
your servant, I pray you and implore you in the
love that is God, and with the will to kiss you
the feet, to receive with humility and charity,
to accomplish gladly and to observe these fragrant
words of Our Lord Christ perfectly. Those that
don't know how to read, that they make read itself/themselves
often them and keep them with them while practicing
them saintly until the end, because they are mind
and life. Who won't act so will return account
of it on the day of the judgment before the "Christ's
court. (to follow) TO the King's praise.
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- 1221 the Juggler Séraphique finishes
his juggling. "The letter to all supporters
": " all those to that this letter will
arrive, my brother François the miner,
your servant, I pray you and implore you in the
love that is God, and with the will to kiss you
the feet, to receive with Humility and charity,
to accomplish gladly and to observe these fragrant
words of Our Lord Christ perfectly. Those that
don't know how to read, that they make read itself/themselves
often them and keep them with them while practicing
them saintly until the end, because she/it is
mind and life. Who won't act so will return account
of it on the day of the judgment before the Christ's
court. All those and all those that will welcome
this letter well, will understand it, will send
of it to others of the copies, if they persevere
until the end, to observe the teachings of it,
that blessed them the Father, the Son and the
Holy spirit. Amen. The devout exhortations of
the" Letter to all supporters" were
not yet the adjusts of life that these wanted.
It was necessary to come from it to clear prescriptions,
as precepts and approved by the ecclesiastical
authority. François understood the necessity
of it and assisted by his/her/its big friend the
cardinal Hugolin, him, composed, in 1221, a pure
Rule the Brothers and the Sœurses of the
penitence, name that holy François gave
to those that wanted to live as him, while remaining
in the world. The same year, Honorius III approved
the Vitae rule" vocis orculo ", as one
can note it in the bubble of Grégoire IX"
Detestanda", addressed to all tertiary of
Italy, March 30, 1228. In 1221, François
in the vicinity of Siena, meeting in Poggibonzi,
the man who appeared him worthy to be received
the first, in the Third party - Order that he/it
had just founded. This man was an inhabitant of
Cagiano, named Luchesio. His/her/its humble house
was the inn of the poor people of the whole region.
These returned themselves of it by troops and
Luchsio wanted that one gave to all, following
their needs. One day that he/it had distributed
the whole bread qu was in the bin, his/her/its
wife, that, while kissing the virtue, had wanted
it more moderate, yielded to a movement of mood.
Of other poor people having come, Luchsio told
him quietly to give them also to them a piece
of bread. "Oh head without brains and weakened
by the fastings, answered to him her, where will
take some me of bread to give it to them. In the
bin, my Bonnadonna, retorted Luchesio while playing
pleasantly on his/her/its wife's name. Have confidence,
as me, in the one that fed five miles men with
five breads and two small fish ". She/it
opened the bin, but without having the confidence
for that was asked him, OH prodigy! The bin appeared
full of breads until the side, Touched and delighted,
Bonnadonna ran to throw itself to his/her/its
husband's feet, while crying and while laughing,
and, from this day, she didn't have need anymore
to be forced to the œuvres of charity. (fr.
N. Bettez. o.f.m. P. 187)
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..1221… while founding his/her/its Third
party-Order, François of foundation had
for goal to provide to people living in the world,
a means of personal sanctification. He/it wanted
to install the gospel in the individual, the family
and the society. Probably, the tertiary is bound
by no vœu. But he/it endeavors to stretch
to perfection Christian by the observance of the
commands, in accordance with the Rule of the duly
approved order. Remaining in the middle of the
world, exposed to all sorts of seductions, the
Tertiary must find in the Rule of the Third Order,
the necessary means to defeat the world and to
follow the divine Mr.. It is why the Rule (of
Léon XIII) prescribed:
a) of the means of sanctification that relate
to the virtue of mortification, as: to avoid the
luxury, to keep the modesty in the dresses to
escape the dances, the dangerous spectacles, the
ribald meals, to abstain of the excesses of table,
of all unbecoming speech, of ever to read bad
books or newspapers, to banish them of his/her/its
home, to forbid reading of it to his/her/its subordinate
clauses and to practice the bodily fasting.
b) After the outside means of sanctification,
the Rule exposes the means that look at the interior
life: the prayer, the confession, the holy communion,
the aid to the holy Mass, the soul searching,
the recitation of the divine office. Probably,
the goal first of the Third Order is the personal
sanctification. But he/it also has a social role:
the Christian regeneration of the society. The
society is sick to have moved away of God and
the religion; however, the Third Order has precisely
for goal to bring closer God's individuals, while
making them practice the Christian virtues. (fr.
N. Bettez p. 189). The" Letter to all supporters"
summarizes the predication of brother François
surely. Resumption in 1221 by the cardinal Hugolin,
big friend of François saint, the "Letter"
became the Rule of life of 1221. The pope Nicolas
IV grew good and useful to adapt the rule of 1221
to the new social conditions of the time. The
new text appeared August 18, 1289 had twenty chapters.
Six hundred years later, May 30, 1883, Léon
XIII, pope, judged necessary to adapt again the
adjusts of life. Reduced to three short chapters,
the new text always presented the lessons of the"
Letter to all supporters! Léon XIII often
repeated it. June 24, 1978, according to the decisions
of Vatican II, the approved pope Paul VI a new
adaptation of the Rule of life of the secular
Franciscans. The prologue of the new text mentions
the writing short of the "Letter" twenty-three
times. It is obvious, the text today in force
present to the secular Franciscans the" Letter
to all supporters ". To the King's praise!
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- 1223 - 1224 November 29, 1223, the pope Honorius
III approved the rule of life of the Minor Brothers;
his/her/its 12 chapters are even in force. September
14, 1224, brother François received the
stigmata of Our Lord Christ. Brother Celano thomas
(Ia Vita) tells us the fact: "He/it stayed
in a hermitage, named Alverne, name of the place
or he/it is situated, two years before returning
his/her/its soul in the sky, him (François)
was encouraged of a divine vision. He/it lives,
being held above him a man having six wings like
a seraph, the extended arms and the joined feet,
attached to a cross. Two of his/her/its wings
rose to him - over of his/her/its head, two other
spread out to fly, the two last veiled him the
whole body. To this view the servant of the Very
High was filled of an extreme admiration, but
he didn't succeed in understanding what he wanted
this apparition. He/it was greatly delighted with
a vehement rejoicing, to see the understanding
and gracious look that on he/it put this seraph
of an indescribable beauty, but at the same time
him state completely rerouted by this crucifixion
and this painful passion. He/it rose therefore,
sad and happy, one can say, because the pain and
the pleasure followed each other in its soul.
With concern he/it wondered what this vision could
mean, and his/her/its mind exhausted itself to
look for the sense of it. His/her/its intelligence
could not dissipate this obscurity and his/her/its
heart was occupied of this apparition, when, in
his/her/its hands and his/her/its feet, began
to appear the marks of the nails as it had just
seen them in the man crucified him above; his/her/its
feet and his/her/its hands seemed transfixed some
centers them by nails whose head appeared over
in the palm of the hands and the of the feet,
and that came out again on the other hand. These
injuries were round inside the hands, oval outside
and one saw an excrescence of flesh appearing
to be the tip of the nails, folded and nailed,
that passed. In the same way in the feet, one
saw as nails that came out again. In the Saint's
right side, that one had said injured of a spear
stroke, a wound had formed itself that often bled,
to the point that his/her/its clothes were wet
by this sacred blood. Alas! So much that the servant
crucified of the crucified Savior lived, how much
deserved to see the injury consecrated on his/her/its
side little. Happy Élie that can see it
during the Saint's life. Less happy Rufin that
touched it of his/her/its hands. One day, indeed,
while brother Rufin said it took care of the shoulders,
his/her/its hand slipped until the blessed's right
side, and this is how it happened to him to touch
this precious injury. To this contact God's Saint
felt a quick pain and he separated the brother's
hand asking God to have mercy of him. He/it put
the same care indeed to hide his/her/its wounds
from the brothers that to the strangers, so well,
that those that lived to his/her/its sides and
even his/her/its most devoted faithful ignored
them a long time." (1cel. hp. 3) p. 27
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As the brothers cried very bitterly and moaned
without can be comforted, the Father made himself/itself
bring bread. He/it blesses it, broke it and gave
it to eat a small piece to each, commemorating
the very holy Last Supper thus, the last that
the Lord celebrated with his/her/its disciples.
He/it acts thus to recall this venerable to remember
and to show to his/her/its brothers what love
he/it carried them. The few of days that remained
him before dying, he/it used it in actions of
graces, asking his/her/its mates very beloved
to unite to him to sing the Christ's praises.
He/it even invited all creatures to rent God and
retelled the verses that he/it had composed once
to exhort them to the divine love. The death herself,
terrifying and odious for all, he/it advised it
to rent God, and, himself structural to his/her/its
meeting with joy, he/it welcomes it. Then applying
to the physician: Don't fear to forecast my death
very next, because she/it will be for me the door
of life ". And to the brothers: "When
you will see me to all extremity, as I was has
three days, you will lie down me thus on the naked
earth and you will let me there after my last
sigh, during the time that a leading man is necessary
slowly to browse an one thousand ". The hour
finally came, where the Christ's mysteries being
accomplished some him, it flew off saintly toward
God." (2cel. hp. 162) p. 504. This same night
and at the same hour, the glorious Father appeared
to a remarkable virtue brother, while he was dived
in the prayer. The Saint was clothed of a purple
tunic, and an immense crowd of men followed it.
Several among them departed and asked the brother:
" This is not the Christ, oh brother? He/it
answered: "It is he! " And others interrogated
it again: This is not holy François? And
the brother answered: "It is well he ".
So he/it appeared to the brother and the crowd
who formed the cortege, that the Christ and holy
François only made a. This affirmation
must not appear daring to those that judge some
things saintly, because the one that is attached
to God only makes a same mind with it and it becomes
he - same God, in a way. Finally the blissful
Father arrived with his astonishing cortege in
a very laughing place, watered of water limpid,
verdant, in bloom and covered of magnificent trees.
One saw a palace of an astonishing size and an
admirable beauty, where penetrated with rejoicing
the new inhabitant of the heaven there. He/it
found a big number of brothers there and, full
of joy, took place with his to a splendidly decorated
table and served" sumptuously. (2cel. hp
165) p. 508" We made big promises, of bigger
have been made us; let's keep the some, let's
sigh after the other. The pleasure is short, the
eternal pain, the suffering is minimal, the infinite
glory" (S. François) (2cel. hp. 144)
p. 484
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- 1982 death October 4, 1226, aged of forty-four
years, after twenty years of religious life and
diaconale, brother François of foundation
repaired the holy Church. A successor of François
saint, brother Constantin Koser, in his/her/its
book title,: "The life of union with God
in the world of today" demonstrates it well;
holy François is even" fashionable
". p. 99 The Tribune and God's Jugglers will
mention large excerpts of this beautiful book
(pp. 82-108) The conversion-rupture of François
saint with his/her/its middle of life had also
reached the "system" of relations to
the world métempirique (beyond the experience).
It is not about denying the métempirique:
he/it exists. What it is necessary, it is a revision
critical of our ideas, a reappraisal, a new global
vision, a new shape of very integrated life. This
work already began of the time of François
saint: we see it expressing itself/themselves
in his/her/its doctrine, in his/her/its life,
in his/her/its behavior, in his/her/its attitudes.
He/it is born a new "devotion", a new
interior world, a life with God of new mark. After
more of seven centuries of path browsed according
to this leading line. A lot of elements became
us obvious that then one didn't even suspect.
It is true. But the" small man of foundation"
made a lot of path in this direction that fact
only to affirm itself/themselves always more.
He/it didn't live subjectively at the mercy of
a world of minds; he/it freed himself/itself of
a lot of elements of magic rituals that exercised
a strong influence in his/her/its time. He/it
moved confidently in the real world; he/it accepted
the realities of the world as is. It would be
a profitable work that to review the episodes
of his/her/its life under this aspect. It is surprising
to see how holy François appears modern
by there. It is what so many men senses of today,
propelled by a deep sympathy, understanding and
reverence for the" Poverello ". "are,
tied, my Lord, with all your creatures ".
The song of the Sun, of the moon, the stars, the
earth, wind, fire, the men, the sin, the hate,
the love, the death, with the real realities,,.
A sun that is the sun, a moon that is the moon,
and not only of the symbols of something. Modern,
eternal lesson, capable to renew, to intensify,
to vivify our life with God. Tied you, my Lord,
for our brother are wind. And for air and for
the clouds and the serenity and all times by which
you sustain the creatures. Tied you, my Lord,
for our Brother are the fire, by which you illuminate
the night. And that is beautiful and happy and
robust and strong" (s. François) (hymn
of the sun) p.169
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- nothing permits to conjecture the difficulties
that François could have had without his/her/its
certainty of God's existence. We always see it
sure, safe from some problem that it is in this
ungrateful domain. And however, for him also,
until in the familiarity the most intimate and
most ecstatic with God this one remained"
the hidden God ". He/it experimented the
tortures of" God's absence." We don't
much know his/her/its most intimate experiences.
He/it didn't describe them like others; he/it
seems to have made any confidences hardly to this
topic. that that his/her/its summon tell us his/her/its
anguishes, of his/her/its anxieties, of his/her/its
discouragement, of the aridity, of the doubts
about the salute, of his/her/its struggles in
the prayer; what we guess in veiled terms, of
his/her/its sufferings to Saint - Damien, whereas
he/it was blind, ankylosed of pains, disappointed,
discouraged, submitted to all sorts of tests;
what we glimpse his/her/its life in these two
years or his/her/its body was only wounds; all
it shows us that for him existed also, strong
and deep, sublime at the same time as painful,
the experiences that to describe under the metaphor
of the spiritual nights tempted of others…
The interpretations current of these episodes
of the life of François saint stay probably
well in here of the real range and shows much
better in the rare confidences and in the effusions
veiled of the famous" Secret of the "i
ro. Saint François, as he/it was, is can
be our sure guide, example and fattening pond
light on this" narrow way" of the interior
ascensions, in life with Dieu…Il is a spiritual
night species that God reserves to the men of
our time. To one time of his/her/its life, the
saint had to undergo a big temptation of the mind,
of course to embellish his/her/its crown. Dived
in the anguish and full of pain he/it afflicted
his/its body, macerated itself and cried very
bitterly. The struggle lasted since several years,
when, one day, praying to Saint-Marie of the Portioncule,
it heard in mind a voice that told to him: "François,
if you have the big faith like a grain of wild
mustard, say to this mountain that she/it moves
away, she/it will move away" The Saint answered;
"Lord, what is this mountain that you want
that I transport? " and he/it heard these
words: "The mountain, it is the temptation
". Then he/it exclaimed all in tears: "That
him I am made, Lord, as you told it ". .
Immediately the temptation vanishes, it was delivered
and enjoys a perfect peace internally. (2 cel.
hp. 86) p. 422 Brother François said"
When God's servant feels any trouble, can arrive
like that, he must on the field, to rise, to pray
and to stay in presence of the Father until he
returned his/her/its beneficial joy" (2 Cels.
ch.88) p. 430. To the King's praise!
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- 1982 for François saint, it is the Christ
who reduces the distances in the mystery of the"
hidden God ". the Christ's place in the life
of François saint is versatile and indescribable,
so much she/it hides sublime, deep, strong, existential,
living aspects. Let's turn our attention, at present,
of preference toward this very special and very
original aspect, formulated in words of the preface
of Christmas,: "Whereas we know God visibly,
by is us to him driven toward the love of the
invisible things ". God's visible knowledge
has been described by François saint in
the admonition that represents as the first in
the Opuscules. The original in the exposition
of François saint is that he united the
mystery of the incarnation and the one of the
Eucharist, in a surprising dimension, where is
revealed all his/her/its soul. He/it wrote: "
As well as he/it is appeared in the real flesh
to the holy apostles, so he/it appears to us in
the sacred bread. As well as these, when they
saw his/her/its flesh, believed while contemplating
it of their spiritual eyes that he/it was very
God, so us, when we see bread and the wine of
our eyes of body, we see and let's believe firmly
that it is his/her/its very holy body and his/her/its
living and true blood. This is how God is always
with his/her/its supporters". He is maybe
surprising that a man as François saint,
at whom we suppose an easy and immediate contact
summarily with God, saw the Christ and the Eucharist
in this way; that he/it had this thought that
certainly reflects a need of his/her/its life
with God: The Christ and the Eucharist as sensitive,
audible support, for the affirmation of God and
the access by Him. It is not in vain that holy
François insists in quotes that in relief
puts its experience of the" hidden God ".
One mentions: "The Father lives in an inaccessible
light ", "God is Mind ", "God
no one ever saw it ". And he comments: "But
the Son himself, as him is equal to the Father,
cannot be seen otherwise that the Father, otherwise
that the mind-Saint ". It is in the incarnation
and in the Eucharist that he/it clears the distance
to arrive to the" hidden God". The same
thought shows on the surface again in the Will,
at the end of his/her/its life,: "Because
I don't see anything sensitive, in this world
of the Very - High Son of God otherwise his/her/its
very holy body and his/her/its blood". Brother
François wrote in his Letter to the general
chapter; "That all the man fears, that everybody
trembles, and that the sky exults, when on the
altar, to the priest's hands, is the Christ, Son
of the living God! Oh admirable size and astounding
goodness! Oh sublime humility! Oh humble sublimity!
The Mr. of all things, God and Son of God, humiliates
itself to this point that for our salute, under
a moderate parcel of bread he/it hides. See, brothers,
God's humility, and spill before him your cœurses.
Also humiliate yourselves, so that you are exalted
by him. Keep therefore for yourselves anything
of you, so that receives you entire the one that
gives itself entire ". TO the King's praise!
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- 1982 maybe the short letter written for brother
Léon us révèlera her better
than our words how holy François lived
God, according to measurements of a surprising
depth,: "Only you are the holy Lord, who
makes some marvels. You are strong, you are big,
you are the Very High. You are a King all - powerful,
you holy Father, King of the sky and the earth.
You are trine and one, Lord God, all good. You
are the good, all good, the very supreme, Lord
living and true God, You are charity, love, You
are wisdom, You are humility, You are patience,
You are security, You are quietude, You are joy
and rejoicing, You are justice and temperance,
You are all wealth and sufficiency, You are beauté.Tu
are leniency. You are protective, you are guardian
and defender, You are strength, You are cooling,
You are our hope. You are our faith, You are our
big sweetness, You are our life eternal, big and
admirable Lord, God almighty, merciful Savior.
It was written on the Alverne mount, after the
impression of the stigmata, with a wounded hand.
Thomas of Celano says that holy François,
yielding to the processes of the brother Léon,
declared: " I want to write words of God
and his/her/its praises, that I meditated in my
heart ". The original is kept again. Let's
try to hear these words, remembering that holy
François doesn't make any theories: he/it
speaks of life with God, of this life that he/it
really led. To the time where the Saint stayed
on the mount reclusive Alverne in his/her/its
cell, one of his/her/its mates felt the biggest
desire to have for his/her/its consolation, some
words of the writing copied by François
saint. He/it thought that he/it would be delivered
thus of a violent temptation that tormented no
his/her/its flesh, but his/her/its mind, or of
the less that he/it would support it more comfortably.
Although he/it burned and languished of this desire,
he/it didn't dare yet to open itself/themselves
of it to the very holy Father. But the mind revealed
what the man didn't say. One day the blissful
François calls it and tells to him: "Bring
me of the parchment and ink, because I want to
write words of God and his/her/its praises, that
I meditated in my heart ". When one had brought
him that for that he/it had asked, he/it wrote
his/its own hand the praises of God and the words
that he/it pleased to him to add, finished then
by a blessing for the brother: "Take this
parchment, he/it says, and keep it preciously
until the day of my t mor ". Immediately
the temptation was put in flight. Because this
writing was kept and later opera of the miracles
(2cel. hp. 20) p.367 Saint François told
brother Léon, small sheep of Christ,; When
I said; "Who is you, oh my very soft God
", I was then in a light of contemplation,
in which I saw the abyss of the infinite goodness,
wisdom and power of God; and when I said: "
Who is I, very miserable worm and your useless
servant ", I was in a light of contemplation,
in which I saw the depth miserable of my abjectness
and misery ". And in this flame that you
saw was God, who spoke me under this shape as
he/it had spoken to Moise formerly (Fioretti,
3rd Idiots. stg.) p. 129. To the King's praise!
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- 1982 alienation, verticalisme, oblivion of the
man and the human things? It is the big fear of
the modern man, it is the accusation that he/it
constantly puts forward as motive to escape life
with God. But this life with God, intense and
sublime, as us sees it at François saint,
denies these fears and refute these accusations,
In life with God we make ourselves more human,
we reach the true dimension, the maximal dimension
of the love for the man. In the love of God and
God's Christ-Son, man, child, crucified, our bread
in the eucharistie, holy François first
met and especially the Virgin Marie, in a devotion
at a time respectful and tender. In life with
God he/it meets the angels and the saints, in
a cordial, respectful and polite love. In life
with God develops his/her/its meeting with the
church, a non abstract Church, but concrete; with
the Pope, the bishops, the priests, the religious,
the nuns, the supporters,. In God he/it meets
all men, and he/it enumerates them by categories,
eloquent testimony of the width of his/her/its
love,: "all children, and the small children,
the poor people and the poor wretches, the kings
and the princes, the workers, the peasants, the
serfs and the Lords, all virgins, those that observe
the continence and the married people, the laymen,
the men and the women, all children, the teenagers,
the young people and the old men, the structural
goods and the patients, the small and the big,
and all peoples, the nations, the tribes, the
languages, all nations and all men everywhere
on the earth, those that exist and those that
will exist ". It is of God's love that springs
this source that makes it so tender, so understanding,
so cordially compassionate with his/her/its mates,
with those that suffer, with those that believe,
with those that are again far from God, with all
men,. The way of which holy François meets
the man has its root in the gospel. she is the
fruit of a very inserted experience in his/her/its
time. She/it reaches a dimension as after seven
centuries and half (eight centuries), she/it keeps
a flavor again, not only modern, but innovative
and stimulating; she/it didn't age, particularly
revealing is the way of which holy François
considered the old and always new problem of the
obedience and the authority. When one reads his/her/its
writings and that one meditates the episodes of
his/her/its life, one perceives that, if the obedience
was not for it a high virtue having for limit
that the relation of the conscience with God,
it was before all preoccupied by the difficulties
of the exercise of the authority. It wanted this
one respectful from the person, full of understanding
and constructive love, envy the liberty of the
topic, soliciting the responsibility and the collaboration,
nor finicky, nor hard. Strong and very marked
personality, as he/it was some little, he/it attached
a very high value to the person, to his/her/its
rights and to his/her/its singular grants. All
his/her/its life and all his/her/its spirituality
is revealing of the deep and tender respect that
it had with regard to all measurements of the
human person. To the King's praise!
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..1982… it is in this dimension of the brotherly
love of the men in God that holy François
also saw the polarity of the solitude and the
community in life with God; he/it felt this polarity.
Appeal of the contemplative life in the solitude
contrasting with the apostolic impulse, dust of
the roads of the apostolate pasted to his/her/its
feet when he/it came back to the contemplation;
love of the solitude and love of life in fraternity;
all it reflects intensely in his/her/its writings
and in the memories that remained us of his/her/its
life. Yet ever we find expressions, where holy
François shows an attitude against the
brotherly life with all men, nothing that makes
suspect that she is in herself an obstacle for
life with God. He/it knows that, if life with
God suffers from the joint life with the men,
it is because he, François, didn't reach
a high enough level again in one and in the other.
also it himself retrempe in large zones of solitude,
to return penetrated more of God toward the common
life with his/her/its brothers and with all men.
His/her/its brotherly life was not merely natural,
made of pure and simple horizontal relation. She/it
was born of life with God, and she/it had an ecclesiastic
dimension. His/her/its Catholicism, in the sense
of the adherence to the concrete church, as she/it
existed and as him understood it, founded by the
Christ, was unrestricted. It is the ecclesiastic
dimension that made him find the dimension human
of his/her/its life with the men. He/it made grow
this human dimension in the ecclesiastic dimension.
He/it accepted and liked the church as him found
it. Certainly, no one saw the shortcomingses,
the tasks and the abuses as much as he. But him
reformed in the love, and not in the recrimination.
And he/it reformed deeply, he/it doesn't appear
to have had the notions and theories thought on
the people of God and the Christ's mystical Body;
he/it doesn't appear to have a very deep doctrine
on the sanctifying grace and the Christ's incorporation.
He/it had on these realities the knowledge of
his/her/its middle and his/her/its time, without
it was very explicit. But he/it lived what he/it
received intensely, so intensely that he/it passed
the level where these doctrines were proposed
from afar. And he/it became, by his/her/its concrete
life, a completely "Catholic man" it
as is a strong lesson for our time. He/it imports
to live with the intensity of François
saint what we know today of the church (C.Koser
o.f.m.) Saint François wrote in his Spiritual
Will: If I had as much wisdom as had Salomon of
it, and that I found poor people small priests
living according to the world, in the parishes
where they stay, I don't want to fear them, to
like them and to honor them as my Lords. I don't
want to consider in them the sin; because it is
God's Son that I distinguish in them and they
are my Lords "… (test.) p.95 TO the
King's praise!
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it is in the convergence of the elements human
and ecclesiastic of no one and group in life with
God who is located the prayer of François
saint. When one speaks of Personal prayer"
", one thinks most of the time about the
one that distinguishes itself of the official
prayer, of the "liturgy ". This terminological
convention made us forget easily that all prayer,
even official and liturgical to be prayer must
be deeply personal. Old spiritual doctrine of
the church, on which holy François insisted
according to the ancient formula; that the heart
agrees with the voice. But so that the joint prayer
with preseted formulas can be really expression
of the soul, it is necessary to practice the personal
prayer a lot in the sense of the individual life
of prayer. But this one, to be as God wants it,
cannot exclude" the other ", cannot
pretend" to a particular audience" with
God. At François saint we see a cult intense
of the individual prayer, but at the same time
a love intense of the official, liturgical, communal
prayer. He/it had understood well that this one,
with his/her/its preseted shapes, won't be able
to be a prayer in truth, if he lacks the sap of
the individual prayer. And it is why he/it took
care not to overload the day with prescriptions
of joint prayer; but he/it let a lot of time for
the reflection, the meditation, the intimate and
spontaneous conversation with God. Him that lived
intensely with God, he/it didn't feel a difficulty
to use formulas preseted by the church; he/it
integrated them with easiness during the interior
life where he/it lived, respectful and sensitive
to all securities; he/it also" cultivated
the devotions ", without falling in the dévotionalisme.
Intense devotions, that he/it knew very well how
to distinguish the mind of prayer and devotion
". His/her/its measure in it, he/it found
it no in multiplicity and the extension of the
devotions, but in the "devotion", in
the deep devotion to God. The intense love that
it carried to the prayer didn't stop it from assigning
a high value to work. But at the same time he/it
warned his/its brothers: "That the brothers
work with fidelity and devotion so that while
excluding the idleness, enemy of the soul, they
don't extinguish the mind of saint prayer and
devotion, to which all temporal realities must
serve ". It is worth today and always. (C.
Koser o.f.m.) S. François often repeated
to his/her/its familiar: "When in his/her/its
prayer God's servant receives the Lord some new
consolation, before coming out of the prayer he
must raise the eyes in the sky, to join the hands
and to tell God,: "Lord, you sent me the
top of the sky, this consolation and this sweetness,
to me that am sinner and unworthy, I return it
to you so that you kept it to me, because I am
a thief of your treasure". And again: "
Lord, deprive me of your goods in this world,
and keep them to me for the other. " (2cel.ch.65)
p. 408
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..1982… the cosmic dimension of his/her/its
spirituality is maybe the strongest trace than
holy François let, the one that remained
the most living until our days, even in the surroundings
that are hardly carried to the spirituality. It
is one of the aspects where he/it appears the
more, a modern man, a man of today. Indeed, the
cosmic dimension holds a very large place in the
thought, in the interest, in life and in the style
of the modern man. To understand to what point
in the spirituality of François saint this
dimension is present, it is sufficient to remember
the" Hymn of Brother Sun ". Saint François,
without big theory, cleans the symbolic significances
that hid the real things from the medieval man,
to stand on the land of the" reality ":
the cosmos is worth by what it is and not by what
we understand in significances surajoutées.
As such, as he/it is, he/it is work of God, vestige
of his/her/its omnipotence, field of his/her/its
deep, efficient and constant action. At François
saint this measurements finds his/her/its place,
without problems nor difficulties, plainly all,
in his/her/its life with God: "Very high,
almighty and good Lord, to You belong the praises,
the glory, honor and all blessing. To you only,
oh Very High, they agree and hopeless man is not
worthy to name you. Tied you are my Lord, for
all your creatures, and especially for Messire
the Sun. This dimension cosmic, holy François
saw it in a world that one could call" pre-technique
", that means no modified again by the action
of the men and no interpreted again by the science.
Of this fact, his/her/its vision defers the one
of the man deeply of today. In spite of all, his/her/its
direct realism that reaches the object without
stopping to conventional symbolisms, drew a line
of direction always valid, at the same time, it
obliges us beneficially to revalue the pretensions
of the science and the technique. Today, the nature
gives us lessons of perfection, beauty and efficiency
again! it is and will always be for us the big
school! The triomphalisme proud "to have
dominated and past the nature ", is an insane
illusion. The big men and the big technicians
know it well. The problems created by our conceited
and hasty interventions, but naive, problems that
reflect themselves nowadays in the bass tones
ecological preoccupations, force us to the humility.
It makes of as much more to be resplendent Also
the beauty of the nature, witness of God's wisdom,
the" Hymn of the Brother Sun" keeps
and will always keep his/her/its value. Non point
that he/it is allowed us to underestimate the
dimension of the science and the technique. It
would be just as naive. We recognize that in herself
the science helps us to know better and in a deeper
way the nature, that the good technique pushes
us to the better to grant and to insert his/her/its
securities correctly in our spiritual life. (C.
Kose)
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1182…1982…
Saint François gives the impression of
an indisputably modern man, already by his/her/its
emotional, emotional intensity, by his/her/its
attention to the subjective elements, by the impressive
worry that he puts in his/its life to cultivate
some elements that the man's sciences had to put
in evidence. He/it was not a precursor of these
sciences, he/it didn't write a treaty, he/it didn't
formulate a doctrine. But with a lot of decision,
of safety, of consistency, he/it followed a direction
that makes of him a valid and recognized model
of the modern man. His/her/its spirituality, his/her/its
thought, his/her/its mentality, his/her/its behavior,
his/her/its attitudes and his/her/its life are
dominated by the love. Since before his/her/its"
conversion ", the love was the motor of his/her/its
life, the love remained it since. Love convert,
different, purified, but always love. By love
of God, by love of the Christ, by love of the
Eucharist, of the Virgin Mary, by love of the
angels and archangels, by love of the church,
by love of the saints, by love of the men, by
love of his/her/its brothers, by love of the cosmos,
by love of Lady Poverty, by love and always by
love; it is the law of his/her/its life. Real,
strong love, scorching, vital, efficient, and
not only love" of appreciation ", not
love intellectualisé and abstract, that
frays in theories and evaporate in desires. No.
Love that is really love, in fullness of intelligence
and will, yes, but also of emotionalism, of affectivity,
of" heart. Love that separates the worm of
the path for fear that he/it is trampled and that
to his/her/its point culminating, becomes capable
to illuminate his/her/its flames the Alverne mount
of it harms it ardent of the stigmata. Only one
love: the one of God", very supreme, all
good, very total ". Love of God that identifies
with what God likes, liking like God likes, everything
that God likes: all to be, all value. And by love,
always" yes ", ever "no" in
front of a value. Heedful love, of course, not
to confound what has the value with what doesn't
have some. Love that stimulates the intellectual
discernment, the mind pushed until the extreme
limits, but that, until in the strongest critique,
remain love, always agreeable, always delicate,
always understanding, always humble, always respectful,
always polite. Applied to imitate God in love:
" Strong, big, very high, almighty, all good,
very supreme, charity, humility, patience, security,
tranquillity, joy contentment, justice, temperance,
beauty, sweetness, protective, defender, strength,
cooling, hope, faith, tenderness, eternal life
". Love always in growth because of God's
love one remains to an infinite distance always.
Human promotion that makes of François
saint this man filled like no one else of honor
and glory in God, but also to the face of the
men (C.Koser o.f.m.) TO the King's praise!
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..1226… this love in growth will develop
the creative spontaneity. At François saint,
she/it was immense, sure, strong, enveloping,
appealing, always victorious. Anchored in the
real love, in the immense dimension of the love,
he/it didn't fear anything. "The perfect
charity rejects the fear ". The spontaneity
didn't frighten him; he/it mastered it in the
love, he/it feared neither the law nor the norm:
he/it transfigured them in the love. He/it succeeds
thus in being faithful to the duty and to the
law, without being slave of the duty and the law.
He/it succeeds in being spontaneous, without falling
in arbitrariness and the anarchy, in the mediocre
and the superficial. In the same way for the life
of prayer. So much path we have to browse to reach
to the strength of the love where is the lost
paradise! But from now on, be convinced that it
is really there the spirituality of François
saint and that it is the path of the intense life
with God in the universal love, in the convergence
of the horizontal and the vertical. (…)
Because he/it had reached such a height in the
love and in the attitudes that drift of the love,
holy François succeeds in passing tensions
between the person and the group, between the
individual and the society, between the shape
and the norm pre-established and the spontaneity.
He/it was some in the same way in his/her/its
life of prayer. Here is why he/it appreciated
the divine office so much. It is what allowed
him to move with safety in the very serious crisis
of the church of his/her/its time. It is why he/it
succeeds in remaining always restful, delicate,
to stretch, polite with his, with the ecclesiastical
authorities, with his/her/its middle to the hard
attitudes, with the society of his/her/its time,.
Yet he/it was a reformer as no one else. It is
why his/her/its missionary impetus knew how to
surmount the dangers of proselytism and the temptations
to convert, and that it saw in the love lived
in testimony of Christian life the method of more
valid. His/her/its method of missions holds in
these some words: "The brothers who leave
thus (among the Sarrazinses and other infidels),
can consider their spiritual role of two manners:
or to make neither suits nor disputes, but to
be submitted to all human creature because of
God and to confess that they are Christian; or
if they see that it is God's will, to announce
God's Speech… After seven centuries, these
words remain as modern as to the moment where
they were written. (C.Koser o.f.m.) "…
to announce God's Speech: that it is necessary
to believe in the God almighty Father, Son and
Holy spirit, Creator of all things, in his/her/its
redeeming Son and Savior, that it is necessary
to be baptized and to become Christian because"
if someone is not born again of water and the
mind-Saint, he/it cannot enter in God's kingdom
". They be able to therefore speak to them,
as well as to the others, on this topic or on
others, depending on whether he/it will be pleasing
to the Lord ". (2 règ. ch.16) p. 68.
To the King's praise!
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1182…1982…
Saint François, thanks to this lucid love,
discovered the value of the Mass to the communal
viewpoint, He wrote to his/its brothers: "
It is why I warn and I exhort in the Lord: in
the places or stay the brothers, that a Mass every
day is only celebrated according to the shape
of the holy Church. So, in this place are several
priests, that by love of the charity one is content
to attend the Mass celebrated by another ",
the theology confirms us the exactness of this
intuition of François saint: how much the
Mass is in herself and must be in practice the
center of the fraternity and how much it is important
that the Mass drives to the union and the unit
until the limit the uniqueness. The church gave
us the possibility to celebrate, what suppresses
the difficulties that, of the time of François
saint, were insurmountable. Let's make higher
ourselves to the level of the ecclesiastic interior
life of François saint and we will know
how to make of the Mass what she/it is by institution.
It is with a delighted surprise that one discovers
to what point holy François knew to innovate
without being rebel; as he/it welcomed the novelties
without letting lose the treasures of the past;
as he/it opted for the evolution without denying
the permanent securities; as he/it went from the
before without feeling ever blocked by the already
made path; as he/it progressed in understanding
of all; how much sharp were his/her/its critical
reflection and his/her/its diagnosis of the miseries
of his/her/its middle, but without despising,
without judging, without condemning, as he/it
appreciated the theology without getting lost
in useless questions; as he/it lived in the world
without being from the world, close to the men
without sécularité nor especially
secularism. All it was possible, because he/it
liked. "Like, and make that you want ".
So God was indeed for François saint the
Lord. The immense price that it attached to the
individual person didn't make him forget that
it was a creature. At the same time, and for it
even, because he/it liked, he/it didn't suffer
from this modern illness that pushes so many men
to deny God, by fear that God eliminates them,
alienates them" ". On the path of the
love, he experimented the violence of God's love,
jealous of love, of a total love. At the same
time, he/it experimented that God's love, that
doesn't captivate, that doesn't annihilate, that
doesn't exclude. He/it experimented that God wants
that we liked it, Him, and that with liked ourselves
to Him what he likes: the man and all being. In
the God love frees us, grows us, glorify us. He/it
promoted to The infinity the created person. In
God's love, holy François learned to surmount
the pride without giving up the glory in God,
in God's love,; he/it learned to distinguish subtly
between these two things so different and in even
though tragically similar; the pride that madly
imagines to be able to eliminate God, and the
desire of the true glory that gets to God's service:
" To serve it, it reign ". There is
the solution of the most terrifying and the deadliest
problem of the modern man. (C.Koser. o.f.m.) TO
the King's praise !
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1182…1982…
this 52nd is the last portrait of François
saint. 52 times 42,000 copies make 2,184,000 copies.
God's Jugglers thanks the understanding team of
the newspaper" cordially The Tribune ";
generous and faithful, she/it published 2,184,000"
portraits of François saint! Be rented,
Lord! Thank you, thank you. Saint François
wrote: Let's "consider well, my brothers,
the good pastor that, to save his/her/its sheep
endured the suffering of the cross. The sheep
of the Lord followed it in the tribulation, the
persecution and the humiliation, in the hunger
and the thirst, in the weakness and the test and
in the whole remains; in return, they received
of the Lord the eternal life. And now shame to
us, God's servants! The saints worked; to us it
is sufficient to read well or to preach that that
they made and to pretend to withdraw honor and
glory of it (adm.6) p 45. The Jugglers of God
and the team of" The Tribune" celebrated
the 8th centenary of François saint, their
glorious Father, joyously. According to the above
stated admonition, the regular or secular Franciscans
must improve the moral and social situation in
Quebec of today. That they makes? Where are they?
According to François saint, the secular
Franciscan doesn't speak, he first acts in Christian
true; still pacific and humble, he/it explains
his/her/its conduct and his/her/its life gladly
to the sincere heart that interrogates it. (1
reg. 16 v6-10) p.68 Yes!… oui!…religieux
or secular, the Franciscans want the sovereign
Quebecois, masters of their eyes, of their hands,
of their heart. Then, according to the Franciscan
rule of their life, chapters one, two and three,
if their neighbors don't practice the Catholic
faith anymore, the secular Franciscans participate
at the dominical Mass; they like Our Lord Christ
and the a lot of Saint Virgin Marie; they rent
them and they pray them. If their neighbors despise
the honest work, the secular Franciscans estimate
it like a grace. If their neighbors are unjust
and thieving, the secular Franciscans respect
their speech and the another's property; they
pay faithfully for their debts and their taxes.
They are happy to be poor as François saint.
If their neighbors are against" life"
and for" the free love" the Franciscans
secular are for" life; chaste and faithful,
they honor the sacrament of marriage and they
like their children. If their neighbors are always
angry at this one or to that one, the secular
Franciscans forgive to that offend them, compassionate
to the pain of others, never offending anybody.
If their neighbors shout to them: "To the
mad "… the secular Franciscan retorts:
"It is true! … I want to be mad and
free as François saint. And has, in 1982,
as François saint, repair the holy Church
and the province of Quebec again!
END
To the King's praise!
God's juggler.
Father Damien Côté o.f.m.
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