The Little Flowers and the Life of St. Francis, with the...

Forasmuch as I am about to narrate certain well-proven miracles wrought by the Blessed Francis after that he had been glorified in heaven, I deemed that it behoved me to make a beginning from that chief miracle wherein the might of the Cross of Jesus is set forth and its glory renewed. Francis, then, being made a new man, was distinguished by a new and astounding miracle, and was seen to be marked but by an unparalleled honour that had been granted unto no past age; to wit, he was adorned with the sacred stigmata, and conformed, in the body of this death, unto the Body of the Crucified. Whatsoever a mortal tongue might say concerning this, would fall short of its due praise. Of a truth, all the thoughts of the man of God, his public efforts and private meditations, were concerned with the Cross of the Lord; wherefore, that the sign of the Cross, the which from the beginning of his conversion had been imprinted on his heart, might outwardly be seen on his body, he sheltered himself within that Cross, taking unto him a penitent’s habit made in fashion like a Cross. Thus, even as his mind within had put on the Crucified Lord, so his body too put on the armour of the Cross, that in that same sign whereby God had routed the powers of the air, the Lord’s own army might wage His warfare.

But from the very beginning of the time wherein he entered upon the warfare for the Crucified, divers mystic tokens of the Cross shone round about him, as becometh clearly evident unto one considering the story of his life, and how, by the sevenfold appearing of the Lord’s Cross, he was wholly transformed into the likeness of the Crucified, in thoughts, emotions, and deeds alike, by his rapturous love of Him. Wherefore the mercy of the Most High King, that doth stoop, beyond all mortal conception, unto such as love Him, meetly imprinted upon him the banner of His Cross, to bear in his body withal, so that he who had been endowed with such wondrous love of the Cross should be made a marvel by a wondrous token of honour of that Cross.

2. To confirm the unanswerable truth of this astounding miracle, there are enlisted not only the evidence of them that beheld and touched them—evidence in all ways worthy of belief—but also sundry marvellous visions and powers that after his death shone brightly forth to dispel all clouds from men’s minds. For ensample, the lord Pope Gregory the Ninth, of blessed memory—of whom the holy man had foretold in prophecy that he should be exalted unto the Apostolic See—before that he enrolled in the catalogue of Saints this standard-bearer of the Cross, felt some particles of doubt in his mind concerning the wound in the side. Then one night,—as that holy Bishop would relate with tears,—the Blessed Francis appeared unto him in a dream, shewing a stem countenance, and, blaming him for the doubts of his heart, raised his right arm, revealed the wound, and demanded of him a phial to receive the blood that welled up and flowed from his side. In his dream, the Supreme Pontiff proffered him the phial that he sought, and it appeared to be filled, even unto the brim, with the blood from his side. Thenceforward he began to be such a devout adherent of that holy miracle, and such a jealous and ardent champion thereof, as that he might in no wise brook that any man should dare, with arrogant attacks, to dim the glory of those radiant tokens, but would chastise such an one with stern reproofs.

3. A certain Brother Minor of the Order, whose ministry was preaching, and who had much influence by reason c£ his especial uprightness and good repute, had been fully convinced of the truth of the sacred stigmata. Howbeit, when with his finite judgement he sought within him a reason for this miracle, he began to be harassed by some scruples and doubts. When therefore for several days he had endured this conflict, his carnal nature gaining power, as he slept one night Saint Francis appeared unto him, his feet stained with mire, his mien humbly severe and patiently angered. “Now what,” saith he, “be these struggles and wavering opinions in thee? What be these base doubts? Behold my hands and my feet.” Then he beheld the pierced hands, but saw not the stigmata on the feet that were covered with mire. “Wipe off,” saith he, “the mire from my feet, and recognise the place of the nails.” Then that other devoutly took hold on them, and seemed unto himself to wipe off the mire and to touch with his hands the places where the nails were. Forthwith, on waking up, he shed abundant tears, and washed away, by his floods of tears and by a public confession withal, those his former feelings that had been, as it were, all stained with mire. .

4. There was in the city of Rome a certain matron, noble alike for the excellence of her life and the distinction of her family, who had chosen Saint Francis for her patron, and had a picture of him painted in her secret chamber, wherein she was wont to pray unto the Father Which is in secret. Now on a certain day when she had devoted herself unto prayer, she was meditating upon the picture of the Saint and saw that it had not those sacred marks of the stigmata, whereupon she began to grieve and to wonder much. But it was no wonder that what the painter had left out should not be in the picture. Yet for many days she sought anxiously in her mind what might be the cause of this omission; when, lo, one day, on a sudden, there appeared in the picture those marvellous tokens, in fashion as they are wont to be painted in other pictures of the Saint. Trembling, she forthwith summoned her daughter, that was devoted unto God, asking her whether that picture had not hitherto been without the stigmata. She declared it was so, and affirmed on oath that aforetime it had shewn no stigmata, whereas now the stigmata might be seen upon it. Yet, forasmuch as men’s minds do ofttimes induce them to fall, and turn the truth into a matter for doubting, some evil hesitation entered once again the heart of the lady, whether perchance that picture had not been marked with those tokens from the first. But the power of God added yet a second miracle that the first might not be despised.

5. Moreover at Lerida, in Catalonia, it befell that a certain man, named John, who was devoted unto the Blessed Francis, was one evening passing along a certain street, wherein men were lying in ambush to slay, not him indeed, for they bore him no enmity,—but a certain other who was like him to look upon and who was at the time in his company. One of them rushed out from the ambush, and, thinking him to be his foe, struck at him again and again, with such deadly blows as that there was no hope left for his recovery. For the first stroke inflicted upon him was within a little of cutting one shoulder clean off and the arm therewith, while another blow made such a gash under die breast as that the rush of air therefrom put out about six candles that were joined together. Accordingly, in the judgement of the physicians his cure was hopeless, all the more so as the wounds began to putrify, and gave forth such an intolerable odour as that even his wife was stricken with loathing, and he now seemed beyond the aid of any mortal remedies. Then he turned him to implore the succour of the Blessed Father Francis with utmost devoutness, yea, he had called upon him with all faith, and on the Blessed Virgin likewise even while the wounds were being dealt. And lo! as the ill-fated man lay abandoned on his couch of affliction, and, sleepless, oft called upon the name of Francis, and cried it aloud repeatedly, one stood by him in the habit of a Brother Minor, having entered,—so it seemed unto him,—by the window.

And he, calling him by name, said: “Because thou hast had faith in me, lo! the Lord will deliver thee.” When the sick man asked of him who he was, he made answer that he was Francis, and, forthwith, approaching him, undid the bandages of his wounds, and, as it seemed, anointed them all with ointment. Then forthwith, as the sick man felt the gentle touch of those holy hands, mighty to heal by the power of the stigmata of the Saviour, the corruption was driven out, the flesh was restored, and the wounds closed, and he himself was restored unto his former perfect soundness. This done, the Blessed Father departed. Then the wounded .man, feeling himself healed, and gladly bursting forth into utterance of God’s praises and the praises of the Blessed Francis, called his wife. She ran thither with all speed, and, seeing him stand upright whom she had thought to have buried on the next day, was mightily astonied and adread, and made the whole place echo with her cries. Her household and friends gathered round in haste, and strove to lay her husband back on the bed, deeming him distraught, but he for his part strove with them, and declared and shewed that he was healed; whereupon they were dumb with astonishment, and were all as it were carried out of their wits, thinking that what they beheld was a phantom of the imagination. For he whom but a little before they had beheld mangled with the cruellest wounds, and already all wasted away, they now saw in full health, and jubilant.

And he who had been made whole said unto them: “Be not afeared, nor deem that which ye see to be an empty phantom, for Saint Francis hath but even now departed from this place, and by the touch of his holy hands he made me perfectly sound from all my wounds.” As the fame of this miracle increased, the whole folk hastened unto the place, and beholding in such an evident portent the power of the stigmata of the Blessed Francis, were filled alike with amazement and with rejoicing, and exalted the standard-bearer of Christ with great proclamations of his praises. In sooth, it was meet that the Blessed Father, then dead in the flesh but living with Christ, should by the wondrous apparition of his bodily form and by the gentle touch of his holy hands grant health unto a man. Mortally wounded, seeing that he had borne in his flesh the stigmata of Him Who in His mercy died, and miraculously rose again, that He might heal by the power of His stripes the human race that had been wounded and left half dead.

6. In Potenza, a city of Apulia, there was a certain cleric, Roger by name, an honour-worthy man, and a Canon of the Cathedral Church. He had been sore troubled by an infirmity, and on a day went into a church to pray; now there was therein a picture of the Blessed Francis, shewing the glorious stigmata, and he began to doubt concerning that exalted miracle, deeming it a thing unheard-of and impossible. Now on a sudden, as with impaired judgement he was inwardly revolving these idle thoughts, he felt himself forcibly stricken in the palm of his left hand under his glove, and heard, a whizzing sound, as when a dart is hurled from a mangonel, and at once, alike wounded by the blow and astonied at the sound, he drew his glove from off his hand, that he might see with his eyes that which he had already perceived by touch and sound. And, albeit there had been afore no wound in his palm, he beheld in the middle of the palm a wound like unto that inflicted by the stroke of an arrow, wherefrom there proceeded such burning heat as that he seemed like to faint by reason thereof. Wondrous to relate, there was no trace of injury to be seen on his glove, so that the penalty of the hidden wound inflicted upon him corresponded unto the hidden wound in his heart. Then for the space of two days he cried aloud and groaned, pricked by intensest pain, and drew off the veil from his heart’s doubts, for all to see. And he declared and solemnly sware that he truly believed that Saint Francis had received the sacred stigmata, asserting that all the vain imaginings of doubt had left him.

And, as a suppliant, he prayed the Saint of God by the sacred stigmata to succour him, and enriched his abundant heartfelt prayers with abundant floods of tears. Then befell a sure miracle. As he laid aside his unbelief, the healing of his mind was followed by the healing of his body. All his pain was soothed, the burning was cooled, and no trace of the wound remained, and thus it befell that the hidden sickness of the mind was, by the providence of the divine mercy, healed through the evident burning of the flesh, and, as the mind was healed, the flesh itself was healed together with it. The man became humble, devoted unto God, and bound by ties of constant intimacy unto the Saint and the Order of the Brethren. The solemn miracle of this affair was attested on oath, and the knowledge thereof was handed down unto us in letters confirmed by the authority of the Bishop’s seal.

Accordingly, there is no room for doubt concerning the sacred stigmata, nor in this matter let any man’s eye be evil because God is good, as though the bestowal of such a gift were not in accord with His everlasting goodness. For if, by that seraphic love, many members clave unto the Head, that is, Christ,—so that in the warfare, clad in like armour, they were found worthy, and in the kingdom were exalted unto a like glory,—none that is of sound mind will deny that this pertaineth unto the glory of Christ, and unto that alone.