Part 42 (1/2)
Then, calling a friar, he charged him to beg the governor to betake himself, with all the notables whom he could a.s.semble, to the paved square before the bishop's palace. The magistrate, to whom legend gives the n.o.bler part in the whole affair, at once yielded to the saint's request.
When he arrived and the bishop had come forth from the palace, two friars came forward and said: ”Brother Francis has made to the praise of G.o.d a hymn to which he prays you to listen piously,” and immediately they began to sing the Hymn of Brother Sun, with its new strophe.
The governor listened, standing in an att.i.tude of profound attention, copiously weeping, for he dearly loved the blessed Francis.
When the singing was ended, ”Know in truth,” said he, ”that I desire to forgive the lord bishop, that I wish and ought to look upon him as my lord, for if one had even a.s.sa.s.sinated my brother I should be ready to pardon the murderer.” With these words he threw himself at the bishop's feet, and said: ”I am ready to do whatsoever you would, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and his servant Francis.”
Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, lifted him up and said, ”With my position it would become me to be humble, but since I am naturally too quick to wrath, thou must pardon me.”[36]
This unexpected reconciliation was immediately looked upon as miraculous, and increased still more the reverence of the a.s.sisans for their fellow-citizen.
The summer was drawing to a close. After a few days of relative improvement Francis's sufferings became greater than ever: incapable of movement, he even thought that he ought to give up his ardent desire to see St. Damian and Portiuncula once more, and gave the brothers all his directions about the latter sanctuary: ”Never abandon it,” he would repeat to them, ”for that place is truly sacred: it is the house of G.o.d.”[37]
It seemed to him that if the Brothers remained attached to that bit of earth, that chapel ten feet long, those thatched huts, they would there find the living reminder of the poverty of the early days, and could never wander far from it.
One evening he grew worse with frightful rapidity; all the following night he had hemorrhages which left not the slightest hope; the Brothers hastening to him, he dictated a few lines in form of a Will and gave them his blessing: ”Adieu, my children; remain all of you in the fear of G.o.d, abide always united to Christ; great trials are in store for you, and tribulation draws nigh. Happy are they who persevere as they have begun; for there will be scandals and divisions among you. As for me, I am going to the Lord and my G.o.d. Yes, I have the a.s.surance that I am going to him whom I have served.”[38]
During the following days, to the great surprise of those who were about him, he again grew somewhat better; no one could understand the resistance to death offered by this body so long worn out by suffering.
He himself began to hope again. A physician of Arezzo whom he knew well, having come to visit him, ”Good friend,” Francis asked him, ”how much longer do you think I have to live?”
”Father,” replied the other rea.s.suringly, ”this will all pa.s.s away, if it pleases G.o.d.”
”I am not a cuckoo,”[39] replied Francis smiling, using a popular saying, ”to be afraid of death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit I am so intimately united to G.o.d that I am equally content to live or to die.”
”In that case, father, from the medical point of view, your disease is incurable, and I do not think that you can last longer than the beginning of autumn.”
At these words the poor invalid stretched out his hands as if to call on G.o.d, crying with an indescribable expression of joy, ”Welcome, Sister Death!” Then he began to sing, and sent for Brothers Angelo and Leo.
On their arrival they were made, in spite of their emotion, to sing the Canticle of the Sun. They were at the last doxology when Francis, checking them, improvised the greeting to death:
Be praised, Lord, for our Sister the Death of the body, whom no man may escape; alas for them who die in a state of mortal sin; happy they who are found conformed to thy most holy will, for the second death will do to them no harm.
From this day the palace rang unceasingly with his songs. Continually, even through the night, he would sing the Canticle of the Sun or some other of his favorite compositions. Then, when wearied out, he would beg Angelo and Leo to go on.
One day Brother Elias thought it his duty to make a few remarks on the subject. He feared that the nurses and the people of the neighborhood would be scandalized; ought not a saint to be absorbed in meditation in the face of death, to await it with fear and trembling instead of indulging in a gayety that might be misinterpreted?[40] Perhaps Bishop Guido was not entirely a stranger to these reproaches; it seems not improbable that to have his palace crowded with Brothers Minor all these long weeks had finally put him a little out of humor. But Francis would not yield; his union with G.o.d was too sweet for him to consent not to sing it.
They decided at last to remove him to Portiuncula. His desire was to be fulfilled; he was to die beside the humble chapel where he had heard G.o.d's voice consecrating him apostle.
His companions, bearing their precious burden, took the way through the olive-yards across the plain. From time to time the invalid, unable to distinguish anything, asked where they were. When they were half way there, at the hospital of the Crucigeri, where long ago he had tended the leper, and from whence there was a full view of all the houses of the city, he begged them to set him upon the ground with his face toward a.s.sisi, and raising his hand he bade adieu to his native place and blessed it.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The following is the list of monasteries which, according to Rodolfo di Tossignano, accepted the ideas of Angelo Clareno before the end of the thirteenth century: Fermo, Spoleto, Camerino, Ascoli, Rieti, Foligno, Nursia, Aquila, Amelia: _Historiarum seraphicae religionis, libri tres_, Venice, 1586, 1 vol., f^o, 155a.
[2] _Spec._, 129b; _Fior._, 19. In some of the stories of this period the evidence is clear how certain facts have been, little by little, transformed into miracles. Compare, for example, the miracle of St. Urbano in Bon., 68, and 1 Cel., 61. See also 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159.
[3] 1 Cel., 87; 2 Cel., 2, 11; _Conform._, 148a, 2; Bon., 99.
Upon this visit see 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159; 2 Cel., 2, 11; 2 Cel., 3, 36.