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CH Paper 0702270
CH Paper 0702270
CH Paper 0702270
St. Francis, hailed around the world as an agent of God’s holiness, offers the
Church a unique and enduring charism of humility, holy poverty, and devotion. St.
Bonaventure provides an early biography of the twelfth-century Saint, The Life of St.
Francis, written as a sort of apology and devotional reading for the early Franciscan
Orders.1 Although in this text God reveals Himself to Francis through a number of
visions and encounters throughout his early life, his capacity for their proper
made prepared for God’s grace through the experience of a mystifying ‘illness’ and
reversals which serve to collapse Francis’s worldly projects. The erosion and inversion
underscored by his exchanges with marginal neighbors. Once these worldly identities
are rendered, for Francis, abysmal and void, he is fully prepared for their heavenly
corollaries: knight of Christ, spiritual merchant, spouse of Lady Poverty. To come to this
conclusion, we will observe the ways in which these neighborly encounters and visions
make possible a new spiritual imagination and awareness for Francis via Christ’s
revealing presence.
pleasures and profits that come with a wealthy, mercantile existence and knightly
aspirations. Francis is depicted as both “ignorant of God’s plan for him. And he was
distracted by the external affairs of his father’s business.” 2 These twin aspects of
distraction and ignorance are set in direct contradistinction to his converted life of
compassion and contemplation. Even in the prologue Francis is mentioned not as given
“over to the drives of the flesh” or to greed but to seemingly lesser, venial sins of
pleasure-seeking and profit-seeking in the midst “worldly sons of men.” 3 His election is
likened to that of prophets and holy persons in Scripture, having “foreordained goodly
blessings” and being “mercifully snatch[ed] from the dangers of this present life and
richly fill[ed] with… grace.”4 This minimal emphasis of Francis’s sins and maximal
emphasis of his election serves both to highlight the gravity and radicality of his
Bonaventure writes “Since affliction can enlighten our spiritual awareness (Isa. 28:19)…
God afflicted his body with a prolonged illness in order to prepare his soul for the
anointing of the Holy Spirit.”5 This is the only line that explicitly mentions an illness, but it
may serve to implicitly reveal the nature of Francis’s conversion. The verse in Isaiah
above, around which he frames his illness, is from a passage oracling judgement
against the corruption of the rulers, priests, and prophets reigning over a corrupted
infidelity.6 In both this Isaiah passage and in the account of Francis’s illness, God
exacts judgement that may prove salvific by providing a path of redemptive suffering.
This biblical backdrop cues us to not only the bodily, but the spiritual dimensions of his
redemptive illness and affliction; like the scourge in Isaiah, his illness did not occur in a
social vacuum, but is a consequence of the worldliness which imprisons those in Assisi.
Essentially, Francis was undergoing the birthpangs of his penitential ministry “to call
men to weep and mourn… signing them with the cross of penance.”7
Linked together in the same paragraph, Francis’s recovery from illness is then
Francis: “when [Francis] had dressed as usual in his fine clothes, he met a certain
knight who was of noble birth, but poor and badly clothed.”8 Littered throughout his
exchange of clothing. Francis clothes the knight with his own garments because he
was “moved to compassion for his poverty.” 9 While the prologue and the first chapter’s
title mentions Francis in ‘secular attire’10, this occasion indicates Francis’s first disavowal
of his old clothes. Bonaventure seems to be flagging for us here, quite obviously,
Francis’s first step towards sanctification. Not simply is this a pious act of almsgiving,
dreaming and later enlistment to the knighthood, are confounded here by an encounter
with a failed knight— one who requires a “covering over [of his] embarrassment [as] a
noble knight and relieving [his] poverty [as] a poor man.” 11 Perhaps Francis was, in a
way, not only redeeming the knight’s embarrassment with his garments, but also in
effect covering up his own infantile, chivalric pretensions. This encounter does not serve
to wholly dissolve Francis’s affinity towards the knighthood, but perhaps to reshape it
and provide a means to later transcend it. This knight may prove to be an early mirror
and stumbling block for Francis, one who’s worldly project of wealth and knightly honor
following this encounter, we are given implicit clues in his subsequent dream of a
knightly palace. One night, Francis dreams of an extravagant palace full of military
weapons. God indicates to him both that this palace is a reward for his compassionate
work towards the knight, and that it belongs to him and his knights. Assuming that this
dream ensures worldly prosperity and justifies enlistment as a knight, Francis is shown
tells him that his compassionate almsgiving is “for love of the Supreme King.” 12
Confounding his loyalties, Francis is caught between the service of worldly kings and
the Sovereign King, between the allure of ‘fine clothes’ and the poverty of Christ.
Although God in the dream attempts to bring Francis’s focus back to his transformative
encounter with the knight, to the sign of Christ’s Cross and the homage of the Supreme
King, Francis’s distraction and ignorance in the world blinds him to these revelations.
The very encounter that had likely generated this very dream and his luxurious reward
recedes in Francis’s memory only to reawaken in due time, set as a providential pledge
of grace.
Ostensibly on his way to join the knighthood, Francis hears God’s voice,
providing him a prophetic word and yet another summons of reorientation. God
challenges Francis, questioning his loyalty towards humanly power and prestige and
heavenly Providence. Just as in the dream, God here is countering Francis’s earthly
allegiances and worldly vocation for those of God’s kingdom, and this time Francis
12 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 3” in The Life of St. Francis.
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begins to obey. Effectively, God attempts thrice to compel Francis of the impotence of
his worldliness, first in the illness and encounter with the poor knight, second in the
dream of the palace, and third in this prophetic word during his knightly journey. The
Lord, however, does not wholly undermine Francis’s knightly aspiration and mercantile
profession, but rather transforms it; Francis’ personhood in the world is not wholly
extinguished in the flames of God’s Spirit, but is rather transfigured: “to be a spiritual
merchant one must begin with contempt for the world and to be a knight of Christ one
must begin with the victory over one’s self.” 13 Here we find that Francis’s identities are
not merely exhausted of their power, but are imbued with a heavenly modality.
Once back in Assisi, Francis enters into a fervent season of prayer and
encounters a leper. Upon seeing the leper, Francis was struck “with horror. But he
This linkage back to his prior revelatory episodes serves as a bridge to characterize
how Francis is beginning to see himself and others, especially the poor. Francis must
remember and bear his new identity as a knight of Christ, and the leper, like the poor
knight, should be shown compassion, which is fitting obedience to the Supreme King
revealed in his dream. Francis gifts the leper not only alms, as with the poor knight, but
also a kiss. Although he is horrified by this leper, he soon after is “clothed… with a spirit
crucified, who… was despised as a leper.”15 God here is beginning to transcend within
Francis the vainglory of the knight, the greed of the merchant, and the horror towards
the lepers into one wholly identified with Christ. While Francis’s dream and prophetic
13 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 4” in The Life of St. Francis.
14 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 5” in The Life of St. Francis.
15Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 6” in The Life of St. Francis.
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counsel provide him ample spiritual edification, these encounters with the poor knight
and the leper, chiefly the latter, prove almost theophanic in their intensity and
ramification.
Written as a theological apology and devotional text for early Franciscanism and
unequivocally that Francis “did not give himself over to the drives of the flesh… nor
even among greedy merchants did he place his hope.”16 It therefore appears that
whereas early biographers, such as Celano and Julian, may have written more ‘realistic’
biography that aims slightly more towards precise ‘objective history’, Bonaventure’s is
one of a polished, venerating hagiography. Whereas other biographers may have had
the luxury of writing a hagiography which aims at devotion and imitation, Bonaventure’s
clearly present throughout the accounts in his converted life, Bonaventure’s emphasis
upon his virtuousness so early in life is alarming. as well as minor events such as his
“superhuman affability” make Francis more of a flat character, glossing over what must
16 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 1” in The Life of St. Francis.
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have been a truly remarkable conversion.17 Seeing as though Bonaventure states in the
prologue the non-ordered and thematic approach to this work, and upon looking at the
the effect and the measure of Francis’s worldliness, thereby maximizing the Franciscan
appeal to the medieval Church.18 As a Franciscan Doctor of the Church, one of the first
major intellectuals of his Order, Bonaventure had a difficult task of ordering an account
which would reconcile the Church’s and galvanize the Order by remedying questions
about Francis’ life and the nature of the Friars Minor after his death.
Francis’s conversion into a life of prayer, of holiness and poverty hangs by the
encounters with both a poor knight and a leper are punctuated by a dream, a divine
oracle, and seasons of devout prayer. Although Francis was blinded to the divine truth
revealed in the first dream by his worldly preoccupations, his eyes were illumined by
God’s gracious presence abiding in the midst of mundane exchanges; in the poor
knight, he beheld what he would later hear after leaving for knightly glory and what was
revealed in the dream: that he is to become a knight of Christ and no longer a knight of
the world. This inversion of vocation and renewal of identity in this account are the
germs from which Francis’s heavenly life comes to flourish. Francis was not simply a
contemplative, although he was that, but was deeply compassionate, full of works of
mercy. His life, and not surprisingly, his early conversion, is firmly predicated upon
relationships and encounters with the radically marginal neighbor, the one who is
embarrassing, who is horrifying, whose illness makes obvious one’s own illnesses. By
17 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Chapter 1, Section 1” in The Life of St. Francis.
18 Bonaventure and Ewert H. Cousins, “Prologue” in The Life of St. Francis.
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identifying with the poor and suffering Christ, Francis issues a mandate for the Church
to meet Christ in the hands and feet of the poor all around us.
You’ve done a good job recounting the early life of Francis and his spiritual
conversion. I enjoyed reading the paper. Your writing is rich and elegant, packed with
insightful observations. Yet let me make a pitch for the harmony of poetic clarity—keep
your sophisticated language but use big words and constructions when truly necessary,
so that they don’t clutter but inspire. Also note that for a non-Christian, phrases like
Like we said in class, the challenge of using this text is how to rise above a mere
retelling of the narrative. You made good effort in this direction. I especially appreciate
how you use spiritual progress and visions as interpretive aids, and they work fairly well.
One way to add more analytical depth is to tease out a more consistent theme and to
establish clear critical junctures. In other words, you want your readers to know that
Francis changed (or not) for this reason (why), at this point (when), or on this matter
(what). For example, how did Francis use and attitude towards money changed over
time and how did it impact his spiritual sight? How can you use (as you’ve touched on)
the theme of knighthood as an overarching theme to trace his spiritual journey with a
clear focus, and then weave into it all the ironies/reversals/God’s work of
transformation? This would also give your more voice in assessing the text and make
Bibliography
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Bonaventure, and Ewert H. Cousins. The Life of St. Francis. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
1. Identifies the author(s) and text(s) on which the paper will focus.
2. Defines the problem or question that the paper will address.
3. Offers a clear thesis statement. In the thesis paragraph, be sure to mention the main
issues or themes in the text that you will examine in order to prove your thesis.
4. Gives a “roadmap” laying out the major steps in your argument, i.e. a quick list of the
major issues you need to address in order to prove your thesis.