“Thus the project which no founder of a regular Order had yet imagined, to cause the religious life to be practiced by all.”
– Pope Benedict XV
Profoundly saddened by the misfortunes that the Church was then passing through in his time (13th Century), St. Francis of Assisi conceived the incredible design of renewing everything conformably to the principles of Christian law––the Gospel.
After having founded a double religious family, one of Brothers, the other of Sisters, who pledged themselves by solemn vows (poverty, celibacy, and obedience) to imitate the humility of the Cross, Francis, in the impossibility of opening the cloister (monastery, hermitage) to all whom the desire of being formed in his school drew to him, resolved to provide, even for souls living in the whirlpool of the world, the means to tend to Christian perfection.
He founded then an Order properly called Tertiaries, differing from the two other Orders in that it would not bear the bond of the religious vows, but would be characterized by the same simplicity of life and the same spirit of penance. The Third Order of St. Francis was born to satisfy this thirst for heroism among those who though having to remain in the world did not wish to be of the world. Thus was born the project which no founder of a regular Order had yet imagined, to cause the religious life to be practiced by all. Francis first conceived the idea and the grace of God gave him to realize it with the greatest success.
THE GOSPEL IDEAL
And yet not a single Religious Founder prior to Francis had based his on the Gospel and bound his followers expressly to its observance in its fullest sense.
The entire Franciscan movement assumed its character and individuality from the Gospel. Francis had no other aim than to lead back all classes of Christian society to the purity and the ideals of the Gospel by means of his three Orders. The Friars were destined not only to be leaders in this movement by their preaching of the Gospel, but more so by living it themselves in the fullness of its perfection. That was the aim of the Poverello (the “Little Poor Man”) of Assisi, which was at all times his supreme Ideal. Viewed in this light, and grasped with such depth, clearness, courage, and living force, this Ideal was something entirely new; it was, moreover, peculiar to Francis alone.
The novelty and peculiarity of the Franciscan Ideal was that it regarded the Gospel as the rule and compass of Christian life and of moral perfection. How could any Christian and, above all, the Founder of an Order, think otherwise! Every Christian is bound to the observance of the moral law of the Gospel. A Religious is furthermore bound by his vows to follow the evangelical counsels of perfection through poverty, chastity (celibacy), and obedience. Yet all Christians are called to live in the spirit of these counsels according to the measure of their calling and cooperation with grace.
The Fathers of the Church do not hesitate, therefore, to designate the religious life as the only and truly evangelical and apostolic life. Thus, if Christians seek to be authentic witnesses of the Gospel in the manner and spirit Jesus sent forth the Apostles––whether they make formal vows or private promises, whether they join an association or remain simply members of the Mystical Body of Christ––they personify this Gospel ideal according to the measure that they possess a true poverty of spirit, purity of body and soul, and total submission to the will of God through love, built upon the sure foundation of humility, in abandonment and perseverance with burning and unfading desire to share the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ with all men.
Monastic life had indeed unfortunately lost much of its luster since its formation due to the increasing worldliness and to the laxity of Church discipline. In the period of the Crusades, however, it again revived with renewed splendor. Shortly before the appearance of Francis, Rupert of Deutz (+1130), and Bernard of Clairvaux (+1153) wrote in glowing terms of the apostolic character of monastic life and rules.
And yet not a single Religious Founder prior to Francis had based his rule on the Gospel and bound his followers expressly to its observance in its fullest sense. Neither Basil and Pachomius in the East, not the Frankish and Irish monks in the West placed this goal before their disciples. The two famous rules which were exclusively in use in the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Rule of St. Benedict and the Rule of St. Augustine, in no manner made the Gospel as such the foundation of monastic life. Nowhere do they imply that the Order is based on the Gospel, or that the individual monastic is bound by his profession to observe the Gospel and to imitate the apostolic mode of life; on the contrary, they expressly exclude very important features of this life. One need only mention for instance, the stabilitas loci (stability) of the older Orders, and the obstacle it placed in the way of the apostolate of preaching.
For this reason Francis rejected most emphatically the suggestion to borrow from these rules. When this was suggested to him, he replied: “I do not wish that you propose to me any other rule, be it that of Benedict or Bernard, nor in any other way a manner of life but that which the Lord has mercifully given and shown me.” Neither would he listen to the proposal of St. Dominic to merge the newly founded Mendicant Orders of the Friars Minor and the Preachers into one.
Francis was well aware that his institution was not merely a variation or a branch of another Order, but a new and distinct creation. And because he was firmly convinced of its divine origin, he held fast to it with every fiber of his being. There was absolutely no discourse. Yes, even with his last breath he adhered to this conviction, breaking forth on his death-bed into praises for the evangelical mode of life, placing it before all other institutions. His constant anxiety was the luster and purity of his heavenly Ideal. Humble and meek and submissive as he was, he was unrelentingly firm where the soul, the substance, the individuality of the Order was concerned––its evangelical character.
To have grasped this individual character fully and completely, to have preserved it untouched and to have made it a world-reality, that was and always will be the glorious distinction of St. Francis; that it is which gives him his historical significance. The re-birth of the Gospel and of the primitive Church––this is that outstanding feature which drew the praises of his contemporaries upon the Poor Man of Assisi, and even still do today. Every biographer who depicts his life, every chronicler who has fixed his character, if only in a few lines, emphasizes his singular merit in leading the world back to the Gospel by means of his life and his work.
Thomas of Celano said, “He was the man with the evangelical vocation, in truth and in faith, the servant of the Gospel. His to observe the Gospel in all things and above all things.” The Legend of the Three Companions, “Emulating Christ most perfectly, the apostolic man Francis followed the life and the footsteps of the apostles.” Augustinian Walter of Gisburn said, “Many nobles and others, clerics and laymen followed this blessed Francis and walked in his footsteps. The holy father taught them to observe the perfection of the Gospel, to bear the burden of poverty and to walk in the way of simplicity. He also wrote an evangelical rule for himself and for his brothers.”
Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, one of the most learned and pious men of his time, who was personally acquainted with Francis and his disciples, writes under the influence of this experience, “One consolation indeed I found in those regions [of Umbria]: many persons of both sexes, wealthy and prominent, gave up all for Christ and left the world.
This Order of Friars Minor is spreading so rapidly over the whole world because its members imitate faithfully the manner of life of the early Church. To the three Orders of the Hermits, the Monks, and the Clerics Regular, the Lord has added in these days the fourth religious institution: the flower of the monastic life and the essence of monastic sanctity. Indeed, if we study more closely the nature and form of the early Church, we find that he has not so much discovered a new rule, as renewed the old; namely, the evangelical manner of life. He has brought to life the decadent and almost defunct religion, in order to place in the field new warriors for the perilous times of the anti-Christ, and to defend the Church by means of this bulwark.
This is truly the significance of the Order of Poor Men of the Crucified, the Order of preachers who we call Friars Minor. They endeavor so zealously to renew the fervor, poverty, and simplicity of the primitive Church, to draw in the thirst and fire of their spirit the pure waters from the fountain of the Gospel, that they not follow the precepts, but also the counsels of the Gospel, and imitate most perfectly the manner of life of the Gospel. That is the holy Order of Friars Minor, and the admirable society of those men whom the Lord has raised up in these days.”
The Dominicans themselves regarded the Franciscan Order as the only one that is entirely devoted and bound to the fullest observance of the Gospel. Toward the middle of the thirteenth century, the General of the Dominicans, Humbert de Romanis, makes the following declaration, “The blessed Francis wished that the Friars Minor observe the Gospel most perfectly. They are bound to its observance not only in lighter matters, but also in the most difficult, as for instance regarding the injunction: ‘If anyone strike you on one cheek, offer him also the other,’ that they might be in truth perfect followers of the Gospel.”
The return to the Gospel is, therefore, according to these authorities the one, great achievement of St. Francis. The Christian peoples indeed believed the message of the Lord; but to a great extent they failed to understand and to practice it. Thus the chasm between theoretical and practical faith became wider and wider among all the classes constantly complaining of this. And most lamentable of all was the fact that the consciousness of this glaring disparity between faith and its practice had been lost. They no longer sensed the grandeur and sublimity of the Gospel, having become entirely engrossed in common and customary things. For Francis, however, to know Gospel, meant to live it.
Its every word engraved itself upon his soul with startling freshness and keenness. Hardly had he read or heard it when he immediately set out to put it into practice. Whether this or that word of the Gospel were a precept or only a counsel, whether intended for all or only for certain persons, whether given for all times or only for the apostolic period, whether only a figure and parable or an actual occurrence––such exegetical questions were unknown to him. He heard the word of God, he understood it literally, and fulfilled it to the last word of God, he understood it literally, and fulfilled it to the last iota, unless circumstances rendered its execution impossible.
He reads: “Give to everyone that asketh thee,” and he commands his disciples to give to those that beg alms their hood or half their garment if nothing else were at hand. He reads: “If a man will take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him,” and he allows his habit to be taken from him without remonstrance.” And again: “Eat such things as are set before you,” and he permits his brother to partake of all foods placed before them, contrary to the custom of other Religious Orders. He reads that on entering a house the apostles are to say: “Peace be to this house,” and he commands his brothers never to enter a house without this greeting; he begins his sermons with it, and in his Testament he again reminds his brothers: “This greeting the Lord revealed to me, that we should say: ‘The Lord give thee peace.’”
These and other words of the Savior, with which he became acquainted through the daily reading or hearing of the Gospel, formed the rule and compass of his life. With touching simplicity and heroic firmness he lived the Gospel––that is the secret of his influence on the Franciscan Century and salvation history.
That also, and that only, explains the newly awakened enthusiasm for St. Francis in our days. Since the thirteenth century there has never been so keen and widespread an interest for the Poor Man of Assisi as today. The last decades have brought forth a veritable flood of Franciscan literature. Men of various camps and of various convictions are enthused over the Poverello. This may be the result of a certain fashion or of modern decadent sentimentality, with some even an entirely false, anti-Catholic conception of the person and aims of the Saint.
The main cause, however, of this phenomenon is undoubtedly that quality in the life and ideals of the Saint that is identical with that of the Gospel. The mainspring of this movement is a yearning for the simplicity and the purity of the ideals set forth in the Gospel; the Saint is esteemed so highly because since the days of the apostles no other has dared to live the Gospel in all its idealism as he did.
This alone gives to the Seraph of Assisi his historical significance and his place in the hall of fame; this alone explains the proverbial popularity of the Franciscan Order and it undiminished influence. If this Order is to be the salt of the earth, as its Founder wished it to be, it must always remain true in principle and in practice to the motto of St. Francis: “The rule and life of the Friars Minor is this: to observe the holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ." – Hilarin Felder, O.M.Cap., The Ideals of St. Francis of Assisi, p.13-18
THE FRANCISCAN IDEAL