The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

[488] Seemingly an allusion to the mysteries of the Eucharist.

[489] An obvious reference to the formula of consecration.

[490] See John 6: 54.

[491] See Gli Autografi di Francesco, by Mgr. Faloci (Misc. Franc., t. VI, p. 33), and La Calligrafia di S. Francesco, by the same author (Misc. Franc., t. VII, p. 67).

[492] The Blessing given to Brother Leo (see below, Part III).

[493] See, for example, the parallel Latin and Italian text given by Father Bernardo da Fivizzano, O.M.Cap., in his edition of the Oposculi (Florence, 1880), which reads: “F. Leo Frater Franciscus tuus salutem et pacem.”

[494] “Ce pluriel montre bien que Frère Léon avait parlé au nom d’un groupe.”—Sabatier: Vie de S. François, p. 301.

[495] When he caused any letters to be written by way of salutation or admonition, he would not suffer any letter or syllable in them to be erased, though they were often superfluous or unsuitably placed. (See 1 Cel. 82.)

[496] See Eccleston: De Adventu Minorum in Angliam (Mon. Germ. hist., Scriptores, t. XXVIII, p. 563), although another reading is given in the Anal. Franc., t. I, p. 232, and by Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., The Friars, etc., p. 267.

[497] Fr. Ubald d’Alençon, Opuscules, p. 23.

[498] See Spec. Perf. (ed. Sabatier), p. lxiv, note 3.

[499] Opuscula, Epist. XVI.

[500] Misc. Franc., t. VI, p. 39.

[501] It is interesting to compare with this letter the somewhat similar expressions of encouragement used by St. Francis to Brother Richer. See 1 Cel. 1, 49; Spec. Perf. (ed. Sabatier), c. 2 and 16; Actus B. Francisci, c. 36 and 39.

[502] It is found in the Assisi MS. 338 and in the compilation beginning Fac secundum exemplar contained in the Berlin, Lemberg, Liegnitz MSS. and the Vatican codex 4354, as well as in the other family of MSS. represented by the Ognissanti and Foligno MSS. and the codices of St. Isidore’s (1/25) and the Vatican 7650.

[503] A fourteenth century codex at St. Isidore’s Rome (MS. 1/73, fol. 10 v). But I have not found it in any of the collections of Brother Giles’ Dicta which I have had occasion to consult in preparing the new English version of the same I hope soon to publish.

[504] See Opuscules, fasc. x, pp. 136-537. As a postscript to his Examen M. Sabatier gives the text of the paraphrase of the Our Father after the rare edition of the Speculum(Morin).

[505] See Analekten, p. 75.

[506] “He also ordained and ordered it to be strictly observed that any friar who either when doing nothing or at work with the others, uttered idle words, shall say one Our Father, praising God at the beginning and end of the prayer; and if conscious of his fault he accuse himself, he shall say the one Our Father and the Praises of the Lord for his own soul. . . . And if on reliable testimony he is shown to have used idle words, he shall repeat the Praises of the Lord at the beginning and at the end aloud so as to be heard and understood by the surrounding friars,” etc. Further on we read: “The Praises of the Lord the most Blessed Father always said himself, and with ardent desire taught and impressed upon the friars that they should carefully and devotedly say the same.” See Spec. Perf. (ed. Sabatier), c. 82. I have quoted this passage from Lady de la Warr’s translation, pp. 121-122. See also Opuscules, fasc. x, p. 137, where M. Sabatier, speaking of the relation of the Speculum to the Praises, says: “Les deux documents se correspondent, se corroborent et se garantissent l’un l’autre.”

[507] The Conformities, edition of 1510, gives the complete text as the handiwork of St. Francis.

[508] Such is the rubric which precedes the Praises in the Assisian MS.

[509] See Eph. 3: 18.

[510] See Apoc. 4: 8.

[511] See Dan. 3: 57.

[512] See Apoc. 4: 11.

[513] See Apoc. 5: 12.

[514] See Dan. 3: 57.

[515] See Apoc. 19: 5.

[516] See Apoc. 5: 13

[517] Analekten, p. xxvii.

[518] Opuscules, fasc. x, p. 134.

[519] The text given by Wadding (Opusc., p. 105) was copied by him from an Irish MS. at Salamanca.

[520] Cod. Is. omits from “Hail thou His tabernacle” to “Hail thou His handmaid,” inclusive.

[521] Wadding omits from “Hail thou His house” to “ Hail thou His handmaid,” inclusive.

[522] The text of the Conformities and Wadding here add the second part of the antiphon given below in the Office of the Passion beginning “Mother of our most Holy Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. In the Speculum (ed. Morin, 1509) this Salutation is followed by another prayer to the Blessed Virgin (see Sabatier, Opuscules, fasc. x, p. 164); but from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the second prayer is no longer found in the text of the Speculum (see the edition of Spoelberch, P. I, pp. 176-178, and Wadding, Opusc., p. 107). In the opinion of Professor Boehmer this Salutation ought to follow immediately after the Salutation of the Virtues given above. See his Analekten, pp. vi and xxviii. They are found in this order in the Spec. Vitae of 3504 and the Vatican MS. 4354.

[523] St. Bernardine died in 1444. See his Opera Omnia, t. II, sermo 60, art. II, c. II.

[524] See Arbor Vitae, l. v, c. iv.

[525] See Ehrle, Archiv, etc., vol. II, pp. 374-416, as to the writings of Ubertino.

[526] 2 Cel. 2, 18; see also Bonav. Leg. Maj., XI, 9, where the narration is clearly borrowed from Celano.

[527] A photograph of the reliquary containing it is here reproduced.