Part 39 (1/2)

Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give thanks unto him and serve him with great humility.

Joy had returned to Francis, joy as deep as ever. For a whole week he forsook his breviary and pa.s.sed his days in repeating the Canticle of the Sun.

During a night of sleeplessness he had heard a voice saying to him, ”If thou hadst faith as a grain of mustard seed, thou wouldst say to this mountain, 'Be thou removed from there,' and it would move away.” Was not the mountain that of his sufferings, the temptation to murmur and despair? ”Be it, Lord, according to thy word,” he had replied with all his heart, and immediately he had felt that he was delivered.[20]

He might have perceived that the mountain had not greatly changed its place, but for several days he had turned his eyes away from it, he had been able to forget its existence.

For a moment he thought of summoning to his side Brother Pacifico, the King of Verse, to retouch his canticle; his idea was to attach to him a certain number of friars, who would go with him from village to village, preaching. After the sermon they would sing the Hymn of the Sun; and they were to close by saying to the crowd gathered around them in the public places, ”We are G.o.d's jugglers. We desire to be paid for our sermon and our song. Our payment shall be that you persevere in penitence.”[21]

”Is it not in fact true,” he would add, ”that the servants of G.o.d are really like jugglers, intended to revive the hearts of men and lead them into spiritual joy?”

The Francis of the old raptures had come back, the layman, the poet, the artist.

The Canticle of the Creatures is very n.o.ble: it lacks, however, one strophe; if it was not upon Francis's lips, it was surely in his heart:

Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious, and by her thy light s.h.i.+nes in our hearts.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Thirty-sixth and last strophe of the song

_Amor de caritade Perche m' hai si ferito?_

found in the collection of St. Francis's works.

[2] By the Abbe Amoni, at the close of his edition of the Fioretti, Rome, 1 vol., 12mo, 1889, pp. 390-392. We can but once more regret the silence of the editor as to the ma.n.u.script whence he has drawn these charming pages. Certain indications seem unfavorable to the author having written it before the second half of the thirteenth century; on the other hand, the object of a forgery is not evident. An apochryphal piece always betrays itself by some interested purpose, but here the story is of an infantine simplicity.

[3] 2 Cel., 3, 104; Bon., 119; _Fior. ii. consid._

[4] _Parti san Francesco per Monte-Acuto prendendo la via di Monte-Arcoppe e del foresto._ This road from the Verna to Borgo San-Sepolero is far from being the shortest or the easiest, for instead of leading directly to the plain it lingers for long hours among the hills. Is not all Francis in this choice?

[5] 2 Cel., 3, 41; Bon., 141; _Fior. iv. consid._

[6] 1 Cel., 63 and 64; _Fior. iv. consid._

[7] 1 Cel., 70; _Fior. iv. consid._

[8] 1 Cel., 109; 69; Bon. 208. Perhaps we must refer to this circuit the visit to Celano. 2 Cel., 3, 30; _Spec._, 22; Bon., 156 and 157.

[9] 1 Cel., 97 and 98; 2 Cel., 3, 137; Bon., 205 and 206.

[10] Richard of St. Germano, _ann. 1225_. Cf. Potthast, 7400 ff.

[11] 1 Cel., 98 and 99; 2 Cel., 3, 137; _Fior._, 19.

[12] 2 Cel., 3, 110; Rule of 1221, _cap._ 10.

[13] See the reference to the sources after the Canticle of the Sun.