By Eric Doyle
St Francis was born in the little town of Assisi, in Central Italy, in 1182. To mark the eighth centenary of his birth, celebrations were held across the world, over a full year, starting on his feast day 4 October 1981, and ending on the same date in 1982.
The Franciscan family, numbering many thousands of lay people, friars, nuns and priests, planned every kind of joyful event, to honour the man who inspired them to strive after the gospel values of brotherhood, freely-chosen poverty, justice and peace.
While it is obviously right that Franciscans should have been the prime movers in organising these celebrations, it has to be emphasised that St Francis belongs first and foremost, not to the Franciscan family or even to the Church, but to the human fraternity itself. In him, by God’s good grace, humanity reached one of its finest and most authentic expressions, and that explains why so many people know and love St Francis, even those who hold no religious belief at all.
In commemorating the birth of St Francis, therefore, the Franciscan family was not engaging in a year’s exercise of self-glorification. Rather, it was recalling with humility and joy, the living memory of a man who is at once the truest gauge of every Franciscan’s fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a translucent witness to values that are vital for the future of this planet. The commemoration was a service to humanity.
The memory of St Francis stirs the heart. It moved me to take another look at the life of this remarkable man, to whose Order I am blessed, though unworthy, to belong. The result is this small book, as a modest contribution to the celebrations in his honour. Two reasons decided me to publish it. First, a debt of thankfulness to St Francis himself, for the insights into the meaning of his life and mission in world history, which I have gleaned over the years while teaching young Franciscans. Second, a firm trust that by sharing these insights, however inadequately, many others may be inspired to embrace St Francis’ vision of creation and to do everything possible to make it a reality.
I have dedicated the book to Fr Leonardo Boff, OFM, a member of the Immaculate Conception Province of our Order in Brazil.[i] He is a distinguished servant of the gospel. His writings are eloquent and unquestionable proof that a deep personal involvement in the life of a local church is the surest way to grasp the universal significance of the primary evangelical values of justice, love and peace, and the most effective way of reducing them to practice.
On a more technical note, all the texts I have quoted from the writings of St Francis are my translations. I used the critical Latin edition of the writings by K.Esser, OFM, Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assiensis (Rome, Grottaferrata, 1978) and I was guided in my translation by the German edition prepared by L. Hardick, OFM and E. Grau, OFM, Die Schriften des Heiligen Franziskus von Assisi (Werl/Westfallen, Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1980). Quotations from the Lives of St Francis written by the thirteenth century Franciscan, Thomas of Celano, are referred to in the endnotes according to his first or second life and then the number of the paragraph where the text is found. Thus, 1 Cel 83 refers to The First Life of St Francis, paragraph 83. There are a number of English editions of these Lives by Celano, and for that reason I have given no page reference. A convenient edition, which I have generally followed is: St Francis of Assisi. Writings and Early Biographies. English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St Francis, edited by M. A. Habig (Chicago, Franciscan Herald Press, 1972).[ii]
Inevitably, a small book like this has to be selective and leave many important things unsaid. However, if anyone, after reading it, resolves to make one contribution, no matter how apparently insignificant, towards creating a more human, fraternal, just and peaceful world, then I will have been generously rewarded for writing it. More importantly, that will please St Francis more than any mere commemoration of his birth.
Franciscan Study Centre,
Canterbury.
July 1981
Eric Doyle OFM
[i] In 1985, a year after Doyle’s death, Boff was silenced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for his book Church: Charism and Power which was regarded as too political. In 1992 he was almost silenced again in order to prevent him from participating in the Eco-93 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. This event prompted Boff to leave the Franciscan Order and the priesthood. He has taught theology, ethics and philosophy in many universities internationally and is currently Professor Emeritus at Rio de Janeiro State University. His influence on Pope Francis’ Laudato si, especially in the area of an integral ecology, is widely acknowledged. See for example ‘Green Fingers’ in The Tablet (20 June 2015), p.7.
[ii] Known as the Omnibus, this remained the standard work of reference until a new critical edition of the works of the early Franciscan sources was produced in three volumes, edited by R. J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., J. A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM Conv., W. J. Short OFM, entitled: Francis of Assisi: Early Documents The Saint, vol. I, (New City Press, London, 1999), The Founder, vol. II (2000), The Prophet, vol. III (2001), which are now more frequently cited. Doyle’s translations of St Bonaventure’s sermons on St Francis are used in volume II.