A Story of St. Francis by the Rev. Dr. Amy Slaughter Myers

St. Francis Spiritual Sustenance : October 14, 2022 ========================================

In those times…the people of Assisi considered the matter [of housing], taking into account that the brothers, by the grace of God had now become numerous, and every day were becoming more so, and that they could not be accommodated when they would all be convened. They would have nothing but the wretched little huts roofed with straw, and with walls made of wicker and mud, quite the same sort the brothers had made when they had first come there to live.

After making a decision in general council, the Assisans built a big house of stone and lime plaster. The work was done in a very short time, working swiftly and with ardor. However it was done without the consent of St. Francis, for he was away at the time.

When St. Francis came back from the country where he had been…he was surprised to see the house that had been built. He foresaw that when the brothers would come and see that house they would take to building, or having built, large houses in the places where they lived, and where they would be living in the future, whereas it was his will that this place should stand as norm and example for all the brothers’ places.

Thus one day…he climbed onto the roof and called some brothers to come up and help him. They began to throw the tiles of the roofing to the ground, with the intention of destroying the whole house….

We who were with [St. Francis] often heard him repeat the lines of the Gospel where it is said, The foxes have lairs, the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He would also say, “When the Lord withdrew into solitude where he prayed and fasted forty days and forty nights, he did not have a cell or any house made for him, but stayed in the shelter of a mountain rock.” Following this example, he wanted to have neither house nor cell in this world, nor did he have any built for him.

From We Were With St. Francis: An Early Franciscan Story edited and translated by Salvator Butler OFM. Translated from the Latin text. 1976. Excerpts from pp. 88-92.

PHOTO: "Francis in the Desert" by Giovanni Bellini, 15th century Italian Renaissance painter. Source