Thomas of Celano

Yeah, it isn't just pri- primarily for his own brothers.

No, he does it for the whole people of Greccio, and the, and Thomas of Celano, who's writing that life, he's a, he was himself, uh, one of the earlier friars to come in.

He was immediately sent to Germany.

Um, but it seems to me that he must have been at Greccio when the event happened because the way he described it suggests first-person seeing.

Hmm.

And I got all these early resources, the earliest biographies, uh, Thomas of Celano, Bonaventure-

Mm

... on and on and on.

[annuisce]

Quindi questo s-- è quello che dicono le fon- le fonti più ufficiali che sono Tommaso da Celano e Bonaventura.

Curiosamente, le fonti, diciamo, meno, meno ufficiali raccontano anche di Franc- di un Francesco più umano che prima di morire ha voglia di mangiare questi mostaccioli, questi biscotti che gli faceva questa donna Jacopa dei Sette Soli, che lui chiamava frate Jacopa, tra l'altro, pur essendo una donna-

Molto interessante.

One of the problems with Sabatier was that he had privileged a life of Francis that he thought was the very oldest.

He thought it was older than Tommaso di Celano that got mentioned just a little while ago, the first life.

He thought it was older than that, but in fact, that biography was written over 100 years after Francis's death.

And then when spiritual Franciscans were fighting with the Pope and they had remade Francis to be their advocate in that story.

It is important.

And the real historical foundation comes from early biographies written by Thomas of Celano and the later Major Legend of Saint Bonaventure.

Don't get confused.

You may hear the title Major Legend.

But why want to return to the beginning? Why would he wanna return to the beginning? Well, according to the early, and we do have early, according to the early Franciscan biographies, St.

Francis wanted to be brought back as he felt death approaching.

And Thomas of Celano tells us he had a deep love for that sacred location.

Remember, for him, it was more than just a physical building.

And so, um, reading Omar Eggenbert's, uh, book on St. Francis kind of led me just to deeper appreciation of Francis.

And then, um, in formation receiving classes and living as a friar but i guess my not reversion but an even deepening like appreciation for him was actually pretty recent uh within the past three years and i had a opportunity to do 30 day in the cc and it was just sitting at the tomb every day of saint francis that i really felt like he is my father and i'm his son But I got to read, I don't remember the name of this book, but it's like this cool historical book of St. Francis on the places where he lived, but also weaving in Thomas of Celano and commentary on stuff.

And Thomas of Celano is one of the first biographers of St. Francis.

And it was there that I just got to appreciate more of the heart of St. Francis and really coming to understand who he is to me.

And I think the thing that I love most about St. Francis is the fact that he was and is like this romantic.

But St. Francis was the magnet that drew them thither, the power that swayed them as one man whose burning and sole desire was to do the will of their seraphic father.

As the fruit of his husbandry, Francis could proudly point to Sylvester the contemplative, Giles the ecstatic, Thomas of Celano the noble singer of the Stabot Mater, John of Piana, Carpino, and many another, all these bearing the marks of suffering, but all brave and steadfast warriors for the faith.

Here they were, bowing at the knee of the patriarch, humbly waiting his will.

and he, pale and emaciated, sinking under a prostration that threatened to terminate his life at any moment, the patron of humility and zeal and love, when he, in a faint whisper, proposed a mission to Germany, eighty friars sprang to their feet and shouted with enthusiasm that they were ready to do his will there as anywhere and everywhere.

It almost did not.

This story preserved by Francis's early biographers is that Innocent took one look at the ragged little group and was inclined to dismiss them.

But the night before, the pope had dreamed of a small, poor man holding up the collapsing wall of the Lateran Basilica with his shoulders.

When Francis walked in, Innocent recognized him from the dream.