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The
Life and Times of Francis of Assisi
Francis
Chooses “Lady Poverty”
Francis
Meets the Sultan
The
First Christmas Crèche
An
Ecologist before His Time
Suggestions
for Reading
Legend
of St Francis :
7. Confirmation of the Rule
Giotto di Bondone, 1297-1299
Fresco, 270 x 230 cm
Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi
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The
Community of the Friars Minor
When the
number of his companions had increased to eleven, Francis found
it expedient to draw up a written rule for them. This first rule
has not come down to us in its original form, but it appears to
have been very short and simple, a mere adaptation of the Gospel
precepts already selected by Francis for the guidance of his first
companions, and which he desired to practise in all their perfection.
When this rule was ready, the Penitents of Assisi, as Francis
and his followers called themselves, set out for Rome during spring
1209 to seek the approval of the Holy See. There are differing
accounts of Francis's reception by Innocent III. It seems however
that the Bishop of Assisi, who was then in Rome, commended Francis
to Cardinal John of St. Paul. Moreover, in spite of the sinister
predictions of others in the Sacred College, who regarded the
mode of life proposed by Francis as unsafe and impracticable,
Innocent, moved by a dream in which he saw the Poor Man of Assisi
upholding the trembling Lateran, gave a verbal agreement to Francis’
rule. Before leaving Rome they all received the ecclesiastical
tonsure, Francis himself being ordained deacon later on.
After their
return to Assisi, the Friars Minor - for thus Francis had named
his brethren, either after the minores or lower classes, or as
a perpetual reminder of their humility - found shelter in a deserted
hut at Rivo Torto in the plain below the city, but were forced
to abandon this poor residence by a rough peasant.
During the
Lent of 1212, a new joy, great as it was unexpected, came to Francis.
Clare, a young
heiress of Assisi, moved by the saint's preaching at the church
of St. George, sought him out, and begged to be allowed to embrace
the new manner of life he had founded. By his advice, Clare, who
was then but eighteen, secretly left her father's house on the
night following Palm Sunday, and with two companions went to the
Portiuncula, where the friars met her in procession, carrying
lighted torches. Then Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed
her in the Minorite habit and thus received her to a life of poverty,
penance, and seclusion. Clare stayed provisionally with some Benedictine
nuns near Assisi, until Francis could provide a suitable retreat
for her, and for Agnes, her sister, and the other pious maidens
who had joined her. He eventually established them at St. Damian's,
in a dwelling adjoining the chapel he had rebuilt with his own
hands, which thus became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan
Order of Poor Ladies, now known as Poor
Clares.
In
the Image of Jesus Christ
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