History and ethnology. Data

Historical context

The old monasticism, in its renunciation of the world, imposed a vow of poverty on the individual monk, but this did not prevent the monasteries from becoming large landowners, and the abbots from competing in wealth and luxury with bishops and princes. Francis deepened the idea of ​​poverty: from a negative sign of renunciation of the world, he raised it to a positive, vital ideal, which stemmed from the idea of ​​following the example of poor Christ. At the same time, Francis transformed the very purpose of monasticism, replacing the monk-hermit with an apostle-missionary who, having renounced the world inwardly, remains in the world in order to call people to peace and repentance among it.

The old landed monasticism corresponded to the agrarian period of Western Europe; but cities arose, with a dense population of rich and poor - and the disciples of Francis turned to them, preaching to some for edification, to others for consolation, "poor living", as the ideal of "gospel perfection." As a preacher of "poor living", Francis had predecessors. The wealth of the clergy has long provoked protest both from the guardians of the ascetic ideal (Bernard of Clairvaux) and from the opponents of the clergy (Arnold of Brescia). A special resemblance to Francis is represented by his older contemporary, Valdes from Lyon, from whose preaching the sect of the Waldensians, which later fell away from Catholicism, was born.

The attempts of historians to find the threads connecting Francis with his predecessors, however, have led, however, only to hypotheses poorly founded and, moreover, unnecessary, since the aspirations of Francis can be quite satisfactorily explained by his personality and the spirit of his time. The idea of ​​voluntary poverty "according to the Gospel" could easily have independently originated both in the wealthy Lyon banker and in the spendthrift son of a wealthy merchant in a provincial Italian town; but the preaching of both took a different direction, which depended both on the environment and circumstances of life, and on the personality of both.

Personality of Francis of Assisi

Biography

Youth

Francis' father, named Bernardone, was a cloth merchant; traders in this expensive international commodity were wealthy people at that time. Trade turnover encouraged Bernardone to make frequent trips to France, in whose memory he named his son Francis. Francis knew the songs of the troubadours and often sang them in French.

He was the only son; his parents did not refuse him anything. As a young man, he led a wild life with the youth of his city, who chose him as the "king" of feasts. Parents did not interfere with their son, they were proud of his acquaintance with the noble youth; Francis's mother made no secret of what a glorious future awaits her son. And Francis himself at this time was not without vanity: the sources say that he did not want "anyone to surpass him." Francis took part in the war between Assisi and Perugia, was taken prisoner, but did not lose his cheerfulness and confidence in his great future. He endured a serious illness, but upon recovery he began to lead a former way of life and undertook a campaign with young knights in southern Italy in favor of the pope.

From the very first night Francis returned; according to legend, he had a dream that directed him to another path. Obviously, his heart was no longer satisfied with external brilliance and showed him the way to exploits of a different kind. Francis has always been very generous to the poor. Once, distracted by business, he refused one of the beggars who pestered him with the name "Lord", but then, realizing that if the beggar had asked him for the name of some earthly lord, he would not have refused him, he caught up with the beggar and gave his.

Francis spent two years in the vicinity of Assisi, doing, in addition to prayer, repairing churches, for which he begged for stones; the dilapidated chapel of St. Virgin, called Portiuncula. Having corrected it, Francis arranged a hut near it for himself. He ate scraps that he collected around the city at lunchtime. Many began to consider him mad, but rich citizen Bernard de Quintavalle joined his poor life, who, according to the Gospel, sold his property and distributed it to the poor; others joined. In the clothes of wanderers, they went to neighboring cities and villages, calling for peace and repentance. When asked who they were, they answered: "repentant sinners"; but they were cheerful in spirit, calling themselves "those rejoicing in the Lord" or "the Lord's jocks." Some of them, like Francis himself, were engaged in manual labor, sometimes helping the peasants in rural work, but they did not accept money, being content with only a modest meal.

Founding of the Franciscan Order

The number of his disciples increased, and he went to Rome to ask the pope for approval of the charter he had drawn up for his brotherhood. The text of this charter has not been preserved, but it was probably a simple instruction to the brothers, compiled on the basis of suitable gospel texts. Pope was then Innocent III. A significant moment in history is the meeting of these two people, personifying two different worldviews that grew out of the same root: on the one hand, the vicar of Christ, who became the ruler of the world, handing out royal crowns, a representative of authority and power, and in front of him is a follower of Christ, a barefoot beggar , in the clothes of a shepherd, a preacher of love and humility. There is no accurate information about the meeting itself, but it greatly occupied the imagination of contemporaries and descendants and gave rise to many characteristic stories. On the one hand, the Franciscan legends tell how the pope treated the beggar with disdain and how later in his dreams he recognized his great significance for the church: either a palm tree grows from under the pope's feet to the sky, or the pope sees how a monk props up a leaning Lateran with his shoulder. Cathedral ; or Francis in reality convinces the pope with a poetic parable about the sons of a poor woman in the desert, who turned out to be royal sons and were recognized by their father. On the other hand, we have the story of the Benedictine chronicler, in which one can hear both disdain for the beggarly life of Francis and recognition of his humility: the pope was so struck by the dirty appearance of Francis that he sent him to the pigs; but when Francis, literally fulfilling the advice, returned even more dirty with a request now to fulfill his prayer, Innocent, touched by such humility, treated him mercifully.

Spread of Franciscans across Europe

Since that time, the number of Franciscans is growing rapidly, and they are going to convert all nations. For this purpose, small missions were organized, put under the command of one of the brothers, who was called the "minister", that is, the smaller brother. The same desire for service prompted Francis to give his followers the title of Minorites - lesser ones.

At the same time, the desire to deviate from the original ideal intensifies in the brotherhood itself. With a large number of new brothers, not everyone was able to wander forever with a beggarly bag, especially since with the large spread of the order, already the difference in climate forced them to deviate from the original custom: for example, even before 1220, they ceased to comply with the prescription not to have two clothes. All this caused a revision of the first rule (regula) compiled by Francis, which has not come down to us. Others assisted Francis in drawing up the new rule of 1221, but it still bears the stamp of his personality. Two years later, a new rule was needed, approaching the usual form of the statutes of other monastic orders.

The Christ-loving itinerant brotherhood of Francis became a centralized and sedentary Franciscan order. It is headed by the Minister General, only he has the right to allow brothers to preach. Provincial ministers were placed over the regions; for the first time, custodes are mentioned, that is, heads of individual communities. The main novelty is the regulation that instead of the annual meetings of the brethren on Trinity Day, there should be meetings every three years of nothing but provincial ministers and custodians to discuss the actions of the general minister and re-elect him.

The position of Francis himself in the order also changed. Upon his return from Syria, he refused to be a minister and servant of the entire brotherhood and put in his place Peter of Catania, who accompanied him to the East. Peter died six months later, but Ilya of Kortonsky apparently immediately took his place: at least Ilya presided over the general chapter of 1223, while Francis sat at his feet, from time to time whispering in his ear, after which Ilya loudly announced : "Our brother declares to his brothers", etc.

In drawing up the rule of 1223, Ilya, in consultation with Ugolino, probably played a significant role. Sources call him either a vicar or a general minister. Francis lived for another 3 years after the issuance of the rule of 1223, enjoying the same respect, but having no influence on the leadership of the order. He did not approve of the trend that dominated the order, but, bowing before the authority of the church and bound by a vow of obedience, he did not rebel against him. However, his whole life was a protest against the distortion of his dear ideal.

The last years of the life of Francis of Assisi

Once a novice, having received permission from the Minister General to have a psalter, came to Francis, asking for his consent to this. Francis, who was afraid of bookish wisdom and rejected property, told the novice that, having received the psalter, he would also want to have a prayer book (breviary), and after that he would sit down as an important prelate and say to his comrade: “Bring me my breviary.” Then Francis bent down, grabbed a handful of ashes and sprinkled them on the monk's head, saying: "Here is your breviary, here is your breviary." A few days later, the monk spoke again about his psalter. Francis answered him: "Do what your minister told you," but then, having thought better of it, he caught up with the monk and asked him to take him to the place where he ordered the monk to fulfill the words of the minister. When they got there, Francis prostrated before the monk and said: "Forgive me, brother, for whoever wants to be a minority must have nothing but his clothes."

This story is too simple-hearted to be considered a later fiction. There is, however, a document that irrefutably proves that Francis in recent years condemned the direction taken by the order. This is the will of Francis; it consists of exhortations and instructions and represents, one might say, a continuous protest against the transformation of the impoverished humble brotherhood of Christ into a powerful monastic order.

Released from the worries of the order, Francis could again indulge in wandering and lonely prayer. As in the beginning, the image of Christ completely absorbs all his attention. Memories of Christ either evoke joy and bliss in Francis, expressed in childishly naive forms, or sobs and groans.

To depict in your life the earthly journey of the Savior, to experience all the significant moments of His life - that is what all the thoughts of Francis are aimed at. He arranges in the forest near Greccio a “living picture” of the Nativity of Christ (a manger, an ox, a donkey, shepherds and peasants praying all around). The arrangement of such mangers on Christmas Day in churches has been a custom in Italy since that time.

Under the influence of the same thought, Francis sets off in 1224 with his closest comrades to the high peak of Alverno, in the upper reaches of the Arno, where he spends time, away from his brothers, in fasting and solitary prayer. Here, on the morning of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Francis had a vision, after which, according to legend, stigmata remained on his hands and feet, that is, images of the heads and ends of the nails of the crucified Christ.

Critical historians give different explanations for the news of the stigmata. Gaza, bearing in mind that for the first time the stigmata became known from the district message of the successor of Francis, Elijah, considers him the culprit of the legend. Gausrat believes that Francis, wanting to fully experience the passions of Christ, inflicted wounds on himself, hiding them from his comrades during his lifetime. Sabatier, considering the stigmata a real fact, seeks an explanation in the mysterious manifestations of ecstasy and "mental pathology." The narration of the vision and stigmata of Francis greatly contributed to the idea of ​​him in later painting, depicting him in ecstasy and with suffering on his face.

Despite the fact that Francis really considered it his calling to “mourn the suffering of Christ throughout the world” and despite his own heavy suffering in the last two years of his life, Francis retained his poetic view of the world to the end. His brotherly love for every creature is the foundation of his poetry. He feeds bees with honey and wine in winter, raises worms out of the way so that they are not crushed, ransoms a lamb that is being led to the slaughterhouse, frees a hare caught in a trap, addresses the birds in the field with instructions, asks for “brother fire” when they make him moxibustion, do not cause him too much pain.

The whole world, with all living beings and elements in it, turned for Francis into a loving family, descended from one father and united in love for him. This image was the source from which his poetic “praise” to the Lord poured out with all His creations, and most of all with the lord brother the sun, etc. Other poetic souls among the brethren joyfully responded to the call of Francis - Thomas (from) Celano, Jacopone from Todi, author of the Stabat Mater, and other Franciscan poets. It is, of course, an exaggeration to consider Francis, as Thaudet does, the creator of Italian poetry and art and the originator of the Renaissance; but it is impossible not to admit that the inspiration and upliftment of the spirit, manifested in the Franciscan cathedrals and in the frescoes of Giotto, were inspired by the humble and loving follower of the poor Christ.

On one side of his ideal - the succession of a mendicant, wandering Christ - Francis adjoined the ascetic, medieval, uncultured ideal; but the succession of Christ, as Francis understood it, also included love for man. Thanks to this, the ascetic ideal received a different, new, cultural purpose. “The Lord called us not so much for our salvation, but for the salvation of many,” was the motto of Francis. If his ideal, like the former monastic one, includes renunciation of the world, earthly goods and personal happiness, then this renunciation is not accompanied by contempt to the world, not by squeamish alienation from sinful and fallen man, but by pity for the world and compassion for the poverty and needs of man. It is not the escape from the world that becomes the task of the ascetic, but the return to the world to serve man. It is not the contemplation of the ideal divine kingdom in the heavenly heights that constitutes the vocation of a monk, but the preaching of peace and love, for the establishment and realization of the kingdom of God on earth. In the person of Francis, the ascetic ideal of the Middle Ages takes on a humanitarian character and extends its hand to the humanism of modern times.

The last days of Francis were very painful; his sufferings were alleviated by the departure of St. Clara and his own mood. He added to his Praise of the Lord and all creations a stanza with praise to "our sister, bodily death", and not as an ascetic, but as a poet, he ended his life with the words: "To live and die is equally sweet for me." Francis died on October 4, 1226; already two years later he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, a former cardinal of Ugolino. On the "heavenly hill" the construction of a magnificent Gothic cathedral named after the new saint began; but the comrades closest to his heart did not want to honor the memory of “poor Francis” so much - and one night Brother Leon, with others, overturned and broke a pillar with a mug, set by the Minister General Ilya to collect alms for the construction of the church of St. Francis Thus, at the tomb of the apostle of the world, a struggle flared up because of the ideal embodied by him.

Studies on the biography of Francis of Assisi

The discord between the ideal of Francis and the institution he created was reflected in the history of his life. At the time of the death of Francis, power over the order was in the hands of Ilya Kortonsky, who ruled it in the spirit of Gregory IX. This pope himself took care of compiling the life of the new saint and entrusted this work to Thomas of Celano, who was not personally close to Francis, but was a man of poetic gifts. The life of Celano bears the features of its semi-official purpose; Francis's relationship with Elijah is presented as friendly, the role of Francis's closest comrades remained in the background. The instructive character of the legend is very strong, and the facts from the worldly life of F. are extremely scarce.

A few years later, the power of the Minister General passed to the representatives of the harsh ideal. The chapter of the city invited all brothers who wished to write down their memoirs about Francis and present them to the general minister Crescentius. Then a legend arose of three comrades, Leon, Angel and Rufinus, the closest associates of Francis. In this legend, the factual and human side of Francis's biography appears more fully and brighter. Once again, however, the direction of the order changed. The chapter of the city instructed the minister general, the famous Franciscan theologian Bonaventure, to compose a new life and destroy all the old ones, so that there would be no contention over the memory of Francis. This life is the most finished in terms of literature and pays special attention to the miracles of Francis. grow, taking on an increasingly legendary character.

In the fourteenth century Bartholomew of Pisa compiled a book: “On the Similarities between the Life of Blessed Francis and the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” which lists 40 similarities. In the next century, a huge compilation appeared: "The Mirror of the Life of Blessed Francis." Along with this literary literature, the popular imagination also worked, on which the personality of Francis made a deep impression. Thus, stories about Francis were created, monastic in origin and content, but folk in language and spirit - the so-called Fioretti (Flowers).

In the XVIII century. the Bollandists included in their venerable edition the "Lives of the Saints" and the material concerning Francis, edited by Suissken (Acta Ss. Oct. II). The first critical biography of Francis was by the Protestant church historian, K. Hase ("Fr. v. Assisi", ). The anniversary of the birth of Francis in the city revived the literature about him again. There were works by Bonghi (in Italian, ), Thode ("Fr. v. As. und die Anfänge d. Kunst d. Renaissance", ), K. Muller, "Die Anfänge des Minoritenordens" (1885; the author especially tried to clarify the issue about the rules and tried to reconstruct the oldest rule of 1209-1210 from the rule of the city).

A new era was opened by the work of the Protestant pastor P. Sabatier, "Vie de S. François d'Assise" (P.,; until 1899, 24th ed.). The extraordinary success of the book in Catholic France is due, in addition to a talented presentation, both to the sympathetic, brightly outlined image of Francis, and to some renewal of him in modern French taste. The approval of the book by the pope, and then its prohibition, also contributed to its distribution. An extensive place was given to Francis and the movement called by him Hausrath, in the third part of his work: "Weltverbesserer im Mittelalter" (), ranking him among the Arnoldists, that is, the followers of Arnold of Brescia. The merit of Sabatier is not limited to the literary and artistic reproduction of the image of Francis; it is even more significant in the field of critical and in the development of sources. Already Professor G. Voigt'y managed to open and print (in "Abh. d. Sächs. Gesell. d. Wiss.", V-VI,

1181 or 1182-1226) - Catholic saint, founder of a religious brotherhood near Assisi (Italy). Referring to the ideas of early Christianity, he called for the rejection of all property, preached poverty and an ascetic lifestyle. After his death, the brotherhood became the official Catholic order of the Franciscans, which became widespread in many European countries.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Francis of Assisi

(Francis of Assisi, 11821226).

The universally recognized founder of the order of "small brothers" (Franciscans). Real name Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; was born in Assisi, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. Everyone's favorite, passionate young man was inspired by the ideals of chivalry and the poetry of the troubadours. In his early twenties, Francis experienced a gradual but very deep religious conversion, which was expressed in touching deeds: he exchanged clothes with a beggar, kissed a leper's sore hand. After Francis sold the family property in order to build a church with the proceeds, his enraged father forced him to appear before the episcopal court. At the trial, Francis voluntarily renounced his inheritance and took off his clothes as a sign that he was completely surrendering himself to God.

Francis spent the next few years as a hermit in the vicinity of Assisi. He provided spiritual support to those in need and helped repair temples. A small group of followers formed around him, attracted by the rule of poor life he had drawn up. In 1210, Francis achieved his main success, the nascent order received the approval of Pope Innocent III. Instead of being persecuted as another heretical movement, the "small brothers" became a stronghold of radical reforms within the official Church.

Having made a preaching mission to the Islamic East (where he managed to get an audience with the Egyptian sultan), Francis returned to his homeland in 1219 and found himself in a very difficult situation. The number of his followers grew to five thousand people; more and more insistently they demanded from him to formalize his order organizationally. Depressed by such a clear departure from the old ideals, Francis gradually moved away from the movement in order to realize the mission destined for him in his own life. When he indulged in prayerful reflections on the passions of Christ, the stigmata of the wound opened in him, exactly repeating the wounds of the Teacher. Although Francis was more of a preacher than a writer, in 1223 he created the Second Rule (later revised in accordance with the requirements of the official Charter of the order), and in 1224 his famous hymn "Song of the Sun", in which he glorified God and His creation. A few years later, the sick and almost blind Francis was brought from his hermitage back to Assisi, where he died on 3 Oct. 1226 In 1228 he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. The remains were moved to a purpose-built basilica.

Incomplete definition ↓

Preach the gospel at all times, and when absolutely necessary, use words...

Saint Francis of Assisi, born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone (1181 - October 3, 1226), was an Italian Catholic monk and preacher. St. Francis of Assisi founded a male monastic Franciscan Order, a monastic order of women from St. Clair, and an Order of St. Francis for men and women who have not taken a monastic vow. Although he was never ordained into the Catholic clergy, Francis of Assisi is one of the most revered religious figures in Christian history. He was a great mystic, confessor and prayer book, who revealed the first known and officially attested stigmata of Christ on his body (September 14, 1224 on Mount Alvern during the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross). St. Francis had the gift of clairvoyance, as those who were with him testified, that "when he spoke of something: it is so, or so it will be, it was always exactly done." While praying, he did not hide his emotions from the Divine Grace that visited him, entering into a mystical ecstasy.
Shortly after his death on October 3, 1226 in Assisi, Umbria, Papal States, he was canonized on July 16, 1228 by Pope Gregory IX. Saint Francis of Assisi is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Old Catholic Church and New Age worshippers.

Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, who visited Assisi in the winter of 1910-1911, called the life of St. Francis of Assisi "the greatest fact of Christian history after the life of Jesus Christ himself." St. Francis of Assisi proclaimed Christianity to the world as a religion of love, freedom and creativity in the Holy Spirit. Also St. Francis was a preacher of simplicity, patience and humility, setting an example for everyone with his own life. Excessive simplicity and humility of St. Francis and his followers often aroused the indignation of the priests: after all, the Franciscans preached the primacy of the Inner over the Outer and often did not even wear a cross, believing that it "should be inside." "Let no one be proud, but be glorified by the cross of the Lord"- said St. Francis of Assisi. Take a look at the lifetime image of St. Francis of Assisi:

The oldest known lifetime
image of St. Francis on the wall of the monastery
St. Benedict in Subiaco, Lazio, Italy.

Dmitry Merezhkovsky in the book "Eternal Companions" spoke of St. Francis of Assisi as a preacher who united "the universe with Christianity", the earthly and human with the Divine. St. Francis of Assisi affirmed the human hypostasis not at all in opposition to Christ, but in it: first of all, emphasizing the humanity of Christ.

Sermons of St. Francis of Assisi were far from speculative, divorced from life "reasoning" for their own sake. In his sermons, St. Francis of Assisi affirmed the primacy of the love of Christ and the knowledge of the Faith, which is capable of enlightening, and not overshadowing the mind. St. Francis of Assisi treated the sun, fire, water, stones, trees and birds in a special way, for they reminded him of Christ. “The love of Francis for birds and all kinds of animals that filled the dormitories of the brothers arranged by him, as well as for flowers and everything in nature, is a very essential feature of his spiritual appearance, making him even closer and more understandable,” she wrote about St. Francis of Assisi, writer Z. A. Vengerova at the end of the 19th century (1897). He taught that the grace of God lives in every earthly creature, is poured into everything that exists - in the stars, plants, animals, which he called the brothers of man. St. Francis of Assisi understood the language of birds, and with his gaze he was able to tame a wolf. In the paintings of the Assisi church by Giotto there is a scene: St. Francis preaches to the birds.

The religious philosopher and mystic Mitrofan Lodyzhensky (1912) drew numerous parallels between the life and spiritual exploits of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Seraphim of Sarov. At the same time, many priests of the Russian Orthodox Church question the holiness of St. Francis of Assisi. Saint Ignatius Bryacheninov advised his children to engage in “reading the New Testament and the holy fathers of the Orthodox Church (not Teresa, not Francis and other Western madmen whom their heretical church passes off as saints)”…

Less critical of the personality of St. Francis of Assisi included Orthodox priests from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Professor of St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York N. S. Arseniev (1948) wrote: "The Christian great saints and mystics of the West are true brothers in spirit of the great saints of the Christian East. Some kind of excess, some kind of delight, some immensity of love for one's neighbor and humble loving service to him breathe stories about Francis of Assisi. He has immeasurable love and compassion for all creatures in Christ, as with Isaac the Syrian. N.S. Arseniev compared St. Francis of Assisi as God's saint with Dmitry Rostov and Tikhon Zadonsky.

The ideas of St. Francis of Assisi were embodied in the images of the elder Zosima in F. M. Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and the elder Pamva in N. S. Leskov’s The Sealed Angel. In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov, turning to Alyosha, says: “Well, go, go to your father seraphicus.” "Pater Seraphicus" is the well-known nickname of Francis of Assisi ("Faust" by Goethe, part 2, act 5, lines 11918-25), reflecting the essence of a true monk as a seraph angel in the flesh. It is possible that the reference specifically to the angelic rank of Seraphim is due to the fact that the stigmata of Christ at St. Francis of Assisi appeared after the excision of his body by rays of light, sent down to him from heaven by the six-winged angel Seraphim.

Greetings of St. Francis of Assisi

May the peace of God be with you!

Holy Jesus Prayer Francis of Assisi

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, Thy servant, a sinful lion!

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injustice - mercy;
where there is doubt - faith;
where despair is hope;
where darkness is light;
and where there is sadness, there is joy.
Make it so that I may not be looking so much
to console me as much as I consoled myself;
not so much to be understood as understanding;
not so much to be loved as loving;
for in what we receive,
forgiving - we will be forgiven,
and dying to ourselves, we are born for eternal life!

Wise thoughts of St. Francis of Assisi

The one who works with his hands is a worker.
The one who works with his hands and head is a master.
The one who works with his hands, head and heart is an artist.

Each of us is worth exactly as much as God estimates him.

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.

One ray of sunshine is enough to drive away many shadows.

And love those who treat you so badly, and do not desire anything else from them, unless the Lord has judged otherwise.
Love them for who they are without demanding that they be the best Christians.

Demons are God's executioners. And just as a ruler punishes a criminal through an executioner, so the Lord sends His executioners, i.e. demons, to correct and punish those whom He loves...

The Lord has called us to maintain the faith and to help the clergy of the Holy Roman Church, whom we must love, honor and respect to the best of our ability... But I want to love and honor and obey not so much the bishops as the poorest priests...

I expressly enjoin, in the name of obedience, to all brethren, wherever they may be, that they should not dare to ask for any privilege from the papacy, either for themselves or for third parties, or for the church, or for the monastery, or for preaching, nor for protection from persecution.

I desire for myself one privilege from the Lord: never to have a privilege from anyone, except that to serve everyone, and by obedience to our holy rule to convert everyone more by example than by word.

Let those who are placed above others be as proud of this leadership as if they were destined to perform the office of washing the feet of the brothers. And if they are more embarrassed about the leadership taken from them than about the loss of the obligation to wash others' feet, the more they fill themselves with money boxes for the destruction of the soul.

Making money for the sake of money is worse than Sodomy.

The apostle says: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." Those are dead from the letter who strive to know only words, so that among others they will be considered very wise and acquire great wealth for relatives and friends. And those monks are dead from the letter, who do not want to follow the spirit of the divine letter, but want to know better only the words and explain to others.

Blessed is the servant who is as humbly among his subjects as if he were among his masters.

Start doing what you have to do, then do what you can, and one day you will find that you are able to do what was previously impossible.

A person who does not treat with compassion any of God's creatures will treat people in the same way.

Hymn to Brother Sun St. Francis of Assisi

Almighty, almighty, all-good Lord!
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor
And every blessing.

To you alone, O Lord, they belong.
No mortal mouth is worthy
Say your name.

All praise be to Thee, my Lord, from all Thy creation,
First of all, from the lord brother of the Sun,
Who brings the day, and You give us light through it.
How beautiful he is, how sparkling in all his splendor,
Remembering You, Almighty!

All praise be to Thee, my Lord, from the sister of the Moon and from the Stars;
In heaven You made them bright
Both precious and beautiful.

All praise be to Thee, my Lord, from the brothers of Wind and Air,
And clear, and stormy, and any other weather,
With which you cherish all of your creation.

All praise be to You, my Lord, from Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and virgin.

All praise be to You, my Lord, from Brother Fire,
With which You brighten the night.
How beautiful he is, how joyful, full of energy and strength!

All praise be to You, my Lord, from the sister of the Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us and rules us,
And produces a variety of fruits, and colorful flowers, and herbs.

All praise be to Thee, my Lord, from those who forgive
For your love; from those who endure
Weaknesses and temptations.

Blessed are those who endure this in the world,
By You, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be to Thee, my Lord, from the sister of Death,
Whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Blessed are those whom she finds doing Your will!
The second death will not harm them.
Praise and bless my Lord and give thanks to him,
And serve Him with great humility!

Orthodox prayers for different occasions:

St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226). Born Giovanni Bernardone. He wears a brown or gray cassock with three knots at the waist, symbolizing the three religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
He is easily recognizable by the stigmas (five signs corresponding to the wounds of Christ) on his arms, legs and chest - the latter is sometimes shown through an oval slit in his cassock.

Born in Assisi in 1182. There is a story that he got the nickname Francesco (meaning "Frenchman") because from an early age he learned French and liked to sing popular Provençal ballads at the time.
Francis was a brave soldier and a cheerful young man. But, according to legend, his spiritual qualities began to manifest even before he dedicated himself to God, for a certain man from Assisi, meeting Francis, each time extended his cloak before him in recognition that he was a great man.

The final decision to consecrate himself to God came to Francis at the age of twenty-one. One day, on his way to the city, he met a beggar soldier, to whom, out of compassion, he gave his rich clothes. That night, Francis had a vision: Christ appeared before him and, pointing him to a beautiful building in which many weapons and banners were stored, announced that all this belonged to St. Francis and his soldiers. At first, Francis, trying to interpret this dream, decided that he should continue his life as a soldier.

But in fact, the Lord told him to change his plans, for, passing by the abandoned church of St. Damian of Assisi, Francis looked into it to pray before the crucifixion, and a voice from the crucifix said:
"Francis, go and rebuild my temple, for you see that it has been turned into ruins."
Realizing his mission, this ardent young man, in order to find money for the project, secretly sold silks from his father's warehouse, as a result of which his father held him accountable.

At the court of the bishop, Francis tore off his beautiful clothes, shook out all the money, giving it all to his angry parent, and forever renounced a rich life. Then the bishop put on him a mantle.

The words of St. Luke: “And he said to them: Take nothing for the road: neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor silver, and do not have a garment” (John 9: 3) inspired St. Francis to establish for his order simple rules. It is purity, meekness, obedience and absolute poverty - "my Lady Poverty", as St. Francis used to put it.

St. Francis went to Rome to ask for approval of the charter of the order he had drawn up. At first, Pope Innocent III disapproved of the rules, because his cardinals considered them too harsh for a man. They say; that the Pope had a vision: he saw St. Francis propping up the leaning Lateran Cathedral with his shoulder. Shortly thereafter, the request for permission for the order to preach was granted.

St. Francis called the members of his order "Frati Minori", which means "little brothers". With their modest life, they gained immense popularity, and soon they could be seen everywhere. Their sermons and life dedicated to the Lord kindled religious aspirations in people. One day, when St. Francis was unable to appear before his flock in human form, he revealed himself to her in spirit form. It is said that during the sermon of St. Anthony of Padua in the provincial chapter of the order in Arles, St. Francis of Assisi appeared to the flock, holding his hands crosswise. On another occasion he appeared to his brothers in Assisi in the form of a dazzling light illuminating a fiery chariot which passed through the house thrice.

St. Francis traveled through Spain, North Africa, and eventually ended up in Syria, where the crusaders were fighting the Saracens. He safely entered the palace of the Sultan himself, where he offered to measure strength to the followers of Christianity and Islam, asking them to go through the fire. The sultan's clergy refused to participate in the dispute, and the sultan himself, although he remained greatly admired by the saint, rejected the conversion to the Christian faith, for he was afraid that his people might rebel against him.

St. Francis always began his sermons with the words, "May God rest you." He gained such great fame that he was asked to read a sermon before Pope Honorius III. In the presence of Pope Francis forgot the words of the sermon, after which the Holy Spirit descended on him.

The kindness inherent in the Franciscans was expressed not only in healings and other miracles attributed to St. Francis, such as the expulsion of the devil from Arezzo, the miracle at the Christmas service in Greccio, where the Baby Jesus appeared in the arms of St. Francis, a prayer for water, on which was answered by scorching the spring, the death of the knight Celano, according to the prediction of St. Francis, but in many stories about his love for wild animals and other creatures and about his power over them, which found their culminating expression in his beautiful sermon to the birds.

The culmination of the life of St. Francis was his forty days of fasting with prayers, which he spent secluded on the mountain. During this departure from the world, a seraphim appeared to him, opening his wings to the whole sky.

In this vision, the main figure was the crucified Christ, from whom St. Francis received the stigmata. Until the end of his life, he wore these stigmata, indicating his spiritual identity with the Teacher, whom he meekly followed. The simple, noble, and truly joyful humanity of the life of St. Francis has become for the whole world an expression of the true humanity of the Savior, a humanity that, unfortunately, is often forgotten.

Two years after receiving the stigmata, St. Francis, suffering from blindness and other ailments, asked to be transported to the church of St. Mary Portiuncula. There, in October 1226, he died. It is said that one monk watched the soul of St. Francis ascend on a white cloud to Heaven, and a certain doubter named Jerome, touching the stigmata on the body of the saint, believed in Christ. In 1228 St. Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. St. Francis is usually depicted wearing the dark brown robe of his order. In addition to the stigmata, its main attributes are a skull, a lily, a crucifix, a wolf and a lamb.

In the cycle of works of art reflecting the life of St. Francis, the symbolic scenes of the marriage of this saint with poverty and the acceptance of the Infant Christ from the hands of Mary are most popular.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Francis of Assisi. PRAYER. Alexsandro Marcello.Adagio.

✪ Saint Francis

✪ Saint Francis before and after conversion

✪ brother Sun, sister Moon (excerpt in the church)

✪ Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

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Historical context

The old monasticism, in its renunciation of the world, imposed a vow of poverty on the individual monk, but this did not prevent the monasteries from becoming large landowners, and the abbots from competing in wealth and luxury with merchants and princes. Francis deepened the idea of ​​poverty: from a negative sign of renunciation of the world, he raised it to a positive, vital ideal, which stemmed from the idea of ​​following the example of poor Christ. At the same time, Francis transformed the very purpose of monasticism, replacing the monk-hermit with an apostle-missionary who, having renounced the world inwardly, remains in the world in order to call people to peace and repentance among it.

The old landed monasticism corresponded to the agrarian period of Western Europe; but cities arose, with a dense population of rich and poor - and the disciples of Francis turned to them, preaching to some for edification, to others for consolation, "poor living", as the ideal of "gospel perfection." As a preacher of "poor living", Francis had predecessors. The wealth of the clergy has long provoked protest both from the guardians of the ascetic ideal (Bernard  of Clairvaux) and from the opponents of the clergy (Arnold  of Brescia). A special resemblance to Francis is represented by his older contemporary, Valdez from Lyon, from whose preaching the sect of the Valdensians, which later fell away from Catholicism, was born.

The attempts of historians to find the threads connecting Francis with his predecessors, however, have led, however, only to hypotheses poorly founded and, moreover, unnecessary, since the aspirations of Francis can be quite satisfactorily explained by his personality and the spirit of his time. The idea of ​​voluntary poverty "according to the Gospel" could easily have independently originated both in the wealthy Lyon banker and in the spendthrift son of a wealthy merchant in a provincial Italian town; but the preaching of both took a different direction, which depended both on the environment and circumstances of life, and on the personality of both.

Personality of Francis of Assisi

Biography

Youth

Born into a wealthy family. Francis' father, named Pietro de Bernardone dei Moriconi, traded in silk, an expensive international commodity. Trade turnover encouraged Bernardone to make frequent trips to France, in whose memory he named his son Francis. Francis knew the songs of the troubadours and often sang them in French. Little is known about the mother of Francis Piqué de Bourlemont, other than that she was a noblewoman from Provence.

Pietro was on business in France when Francis was born in Assisi, and Pica baptized her son under the name Giovanni. When his father returned, he named his newborn son Francesco (meaning "Frenchman"), perhaps in honor of his commercial success and his love of all things French.

He was the only son in a family that had six more daughters; his parents did not refuse him anything. As a young man, he led a wild life with the youth of his city, who chose him as the "king" of feasts. Parents did not interfere with their son, they were proud of his acquaintance with the noble youth; Francis's mother made no secret of what a glorious future awaits her son. And Francis himself at this time was not without vanity: the sources say that he did not want "anyone to surpass him." Francis took part in the war between Assisi and Perugia, was taken prisoner, but did not lose his cheerfulness and confidence in his great future. He endured a serious illness, but upon recovery he began to lead a former way of life and undertook a campaign with young knights in southern Italy in favor of the pope.

From the very first night Francis returned; according to legend, he had a dream that directed him to another path. Obviously, his heart was no longer satisfied with external brilliance and showed him the way to exploits of a different kind. Francis has always been very generous to the poor. Once, distracted by business, he refused one of the beggars who pestered him with the name "Lord", but then, realizing that if the beggar had asked him for the name of some earthly lord, he would not have refused him, he caught up with the beggar and gave his.

Francis spent two years in the vicinity of Assisi, doing, in addition to prayer, repairing churches, for which he begged for stones; the dilapidated chapel of St. Virgin, called Portiuncula. Having corrected her, Francis arranged for himself a hut near her. He ate scraps that he collected around the city at lunchtime. Many began to consider him crazy, but rich citizen Bernard de Quintavalle joined his poor life, who, according to the Gospel, sold his property and distributed it to the poor; others joined. In the clothes of wanderers, they went to neighboring cities and villages, calling for peace and repentance. When asked who they were, they answered: "repentant sinners"; but they were cheerful in spirit, calling themselves "those rejoicing in the Lord" or "the Lord's jocks." Some of them, like Francis himself, were engaged in manual labor, sometimes helping the peasants in rural work, but they did not accept money, being content with only a modest meal.

Founding of the Franciscan Order

The number of his disciples increased, and he went to Rome to ask the pope for approval of the charter he had drawn up for his brotherhood. The text of this charter has not been preserved, but it was probably a simple instruction to the brothers, compiled on the basis of suitable gospel texts. Pope was then Innocent III. A significant moment in history is the meeting of these two people, personifying two different worldviews that grew out of the same root: on the one hand, the vicar of Christ, who became the ruler of the world, handing out royal crowns, a representative of authority and power, and in front of him is a follower of Christ, a barefoot beggar , in the clothes of a shepherd, a preacher of love and humility. There is no accurate information about the meeting itself, but it greatly occupied the imagination of contemporaries and descendants and gave rise to many characteristic stories. On the one hand, the Franciscan legends tell how the pope treated the beggar with disdain and how later in his dreams he knew his great significance for the church: now a palm tree grows from under the pope’s feet to the sky, then the pope sees how the monk props up the leaning Lateran with his shoulder. Cathedral ; or Francis in reality convinces the pope with a poetic parable about the sons of a poor woman in the desert, who turned out to be royal sons and were recognized by their father. On the other hand, we have the story of the Benedictine chronicler, in which one can hear both disdain for the beggarly life of Francis and recognition of his humility: the pope was so struck by the dirty appearance of Francis that he sent him to the pigs; but when Francis, literally fulfilling the advice, returned even more dirty with a request now to fulfill his prayer, Innocent, touched by such humility, treated him mercifully.

Spread of Franciscans across Europe

Since that time, the number of Franciscans is growing rapidly, and they are going to convert all nations. For this purpose, small missions were organized, put under the command of one of the brothers, who was called the "minister", that is, the smaller brother. The same desire for service prompted Francis to give his followers the title of Minorites - lesser ones.

At the same time, the desire to deviate from the original ideal intensifies in the brotherhood itself. With a large number of new brothers, not everyone was able to wander forever with a beggarly bag, especially since, with the large spread of the order, the difference in climate already forced them to deviate from the original custom: for example, even before 1220 they ceased to comply with the prescription not to have two clothes. All this caused a revision of the first rule (regula) compiled by Francis, which has not come down to us. Others assisted Francis in drawing up the new rule of 1221, but it still bears the stamp of his personality. Two years later, a new rule was needed, approaching the usual form of the statutes of other monastic orders.

The Christ-loving itinerant brotherhood of Francis became a centralized and sedentary Franciscan order. It is headed by the Minister General, only he has the right to allow brothers to preach. Provincial ministers were placed over the regions; for the first time, custodes are mentioned, that is, heads of individual communities. The main novelty is the regulation that instead of the annual meetings of the brethren on Trinity Day, there should be meetings every three years of nothing but provincial ministers and custodians to discuss the actions of the general minister and re-elect him.

The position of Francis himself in the order also changed. Upon his return from Syria, he refused to be a minister and servant of the entire brotherhood and put in his place Peter of Catania, who accompanied him to the East. Peter died six months later, but his place, apparently, was immediately taken by Ilya of Kortonsky: at least at the general chapter of 1223, Ilya presided, while Francis sat at his feet, from time to time whispering in his ear, after which Ilya loudly announced: “Our brother declares to his brothers,” etc.

In drawing up the rule of 1223, Ilya, in consultation with Ugolino, probably played a significant role. Sources call him either a vicar or a general minister. Francis lived for another 3 years after the issuance of the rule of 1223, enjoying the same respect, but having no influence on the leadership of the order. He did not approve of the trend that dominated the order, but, bowing before the authority of the church and bound by a vow of obedience, he did not rebel against him. However, his whole life was a protest against the distortion of his dear ideal.

The last years of the life of Francis of Assisi

Once a novice, having received permission from the Minister General to have a psalter, came to Francis, asking for his consent to this. Francis, who was afraid of bookish wisdom and rejected property, told the novice that, having received the psalter, he would also want to have a prayer book (breviary), and after that he would sit down as an important prelate and say to his comrade: “Bring me my breviary.” Then Francis bent down, grabbed a handful of ashes and sprinkled them on the monk's head, saying: "Here is your breviary, here is your breviary." A few days later, the monk spoke again about his psalter. Francis answered him: "Do what your minister told you," but then, having thought better of it, he caught up with the monk and asked him to take him to the place where he ordered the monk to fulfill the words of the minister. When they got there, Francis bowed to the ground before the monk and said: "Forgive me, brother, for whoever wants to be a minister should have nothing but his clothes."

This story is too simple-hearted to be considered a later fiction. There is, however, a document that irrefutably proves that Francis in recent years condemned the direction taken by the order. This is the will of Francis; it consists of exhortations and instructions and represents, one might say, a continuous protest against the transformation of the impoverished humble brotherhood of Christ into a powerful monastic order.

Released from the worries of the order, Francis could again indulge in wandering and lonely prayer. As in the beginning, the image of Christ completely absorbs all his attention. Memories of Christ sometimes evoke joy and bliss in Francis, expressed in childishly naive forms, then sobs and groans.

To portray in your life the earthly journey of the Savior, to experience all the significant moments of His life - this is what all the thoughts of Francis are aimed at. He arranges in the forest near Greccio a “living picture” of the Nativity of Christ (a manger, an ox, a donkey, shepherds and peasants praying all around). The arrangement of such mangers on Christmas Day in churches has been a custom in Italy since that time.

Influenced by the same thought, Francis sets off in 1224 with his closest companions to the high peak of La Verne, in the upper reaches of the Arno, where he spends time, away from his brothers, in fasting and solitary prayer. Here, on the morning of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Francis had a vision, after which, according to legend, stigmata remained on his hands and feet, that is, images of the heads and ends of the nails of the crucified Christ.

Critical historians give different explanations for the news of the stigmata. Gaza, bearing in mind that for the first time the stigmata became known from the district message of the successor of Francis, Elijah, considers him the culprit of the legend. Gausrat believes that Francis, wanting to fully experience the passions of Christ, inflicted wounds on himself, hiding them from his comrades during his lifetime. Sabatier, considering the stigmata a real fact, seeks an explanation in the mysterious manifestations of ecstasy and "mental pathology." The narration of the vision and stigmata of Francis greatly contributed to the idea of ​​him in later painting, depicting him in ecstasy and with suffering on his face.

Despite the fact that Francis really considered it his calling to “mourn the suffering of Christ throughout the world” and despite his own heavy suffering in the last two years of his life, Francis retained his poetic view of the world to the end. His brotherly love for every creature is the foundation of his poetry. He feeds bees with honey and wine in winter, raises worms out of the way so that they are not crushed, ransoms a lamb that is being led to the slaughterhouse, frees a hare caught in a trap, addresses the birds in the field with instructions, asks for a “brother of fire” when they make him moxibustion, do not cause him too much pain.

The whole world, with all living beings and elements in it, turned for Francis into a loving family, descended from one father and united in love for him. This image was the source from which his poetic “praise” to the Lord poured out with all His creations, and most of all with the lord brother the sun, etc. Other poetic souls among the brethren joyfully responded to the call of Francis - Thomas (from) Celano, Jacopone from Todi , author of "Stabat Mater", and other Franciscan poets. It is an exaggeration, of course, to consider Francis, as Thaudet does, the creator of Italian poetry and art and the originator of the Renaissance; but it is impossible not to admit that the animation and upliftment of the spirit, manifested in the Franciscan cathedrals and in the frescoes of Giotto, were inspired by the humble and loving follower of the poor Christ.

On one side of his ideal - the succession of a mendicant, wandering Christ - Francis adjoined the ascetic, medieval, uncultured ideal; but the succession of Christ, as Francis understood it, also included love for man. Thanks to this, the ascetic ideal received a different, new, cultural purpose. “The Lord called us not so much for our salvation, but for the salvation of many,” was the motto of Francis. If his ideal, like the former monastic one, includes renunciation of the world, of earthly goods and personal happiness, then this renunciation is accompanied not by contempt for the world, not by squeamish alienation from sinful and fallen man, but by pity for the world and compassion for poverty. and human needs. It is not the escape from the world that becomes the task of the ascetic, but the return to the world for the salvation of man. It is not the contemplation of the ideal divine kingdom in the heavenly heights that constitutes the vocation of a monk, but the preaching of peace and love, for the establishment and realization of the kingdom of God on earth. In the person of Francis, the ascetic ideal of the Middle Ages takes on a humanitarian character and extends its hand to the humanism of modern times.

The last days of Francis were very painful; his sufferings were alleviated by the departure of St. Clara and his own mood. He added to his Praise of the Lord and all creations a stanza with praise to "our sister, bodily death", and not as an ascetic, but as a poet, he ended his life with the words: "To live and die is equally sweet for me." Francis died on October 4, 1226; already two years later he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, a former cardinal of Ugolino. On the "heavenly hill" the construction of a magnificent Gothic cathedral named after the new saint began; but the comrades closest to his heart did not want to honor the memory of “poor Francis” so much - and one night Brother Leon, with others, overturned and broke a pillar with a mug, set by the Minister General Ilya to collect alms for the construction of the church of St. Francis. Thus, on the grave of the apostle of the world, a struggle broke out over the ideal he embodied.

Studies on the biography of Francis of Assisi

The discord between the ideal of Francis and the institution he created was reflected in the history of his life. At the time of the death of Francis, power over the order was in the hands of Ilya Kortonsky, who ruled it in the spirit of Gregory IX. This pope himself took care of compiling the life of the new saint and entrusted this work to Foma of Celano, who was not personally close to Francis, but was a man of poetic gifts. The life of Celano bears the features of its semi-official purpose; Francis's relationship with Elijah is presented as friendly, the role of Francis's closest comrades remained in the background. The instructive character of the legend stands out very strongly, and the facts from the worldly life of Francis are extremely scarce.

A few years later, the power of the Minister General passed to the representatives of the harsh ideal. The chapter of the city invited all brothers who wished to write down their memoirs about Francis and present them to the general minister Crescentius. Then arose the legend of three comrades, Leon, Angel and Rufinus, the closest associates of Francis. In this legend, the factual and human side of the biography of Francis appears more fully and brighter. Once again, however, the direction of the order changed. The chapter of the city instructed the minister general, the famous Franciscan theologian Bonaventure, to draw up a new life and destroy all the old ones, so that there would be no contention over the memory of Francis. This life is the most finished in terms of literature and pays special attention to the miracles of Francis. The literature about Francis, however, continued to grow, taking on an increasingly legendary character.

Compositions

Among the surviving texts of Francis are prayers, canons, exhortations to the brethren, and a small epistolary. A unique place in the heritage is occupied by the “Song of the Sun” composed by him on his deathbed (1224 or 1225) (in the genre of lauda), a glorification of the Lord and all His creations, first of all, Brother Sun (frate sole) and Sister Moon (sora luna), as well as Brother Wind (frate vento), Sister Water (sor "aqua), Brother Fire (frate focu), Mother Earth (matre terra), and finally even Sister Death (sora morte). Written in rhythmic prose in the Umbrian dialect, "Song about the Sun" Francis is now considered the first monument in the world specifically Italian literature.

Appearance of Saint Francis

The earliest and most detailed description of the appearance of the Saint is preserved in the First Life of Thomas of Chelan (the date of compilation is 1229, that is, three years after the death of Francis, when his image was still well preserved in the memory of contemporaries):

“A most eloquent person, with a smile on his lips, with an affectionate look, not knowing laziness, free from whims. He was of medium height, rather short, his head was also of moderate size, round, his face was slightly elongated and long, his forehead was smooth and small, his eyes were small, black and clean, his hair was dark, his eyebrows were straight, his nose was even, straight and graceful, his ears were raised. , but small, temples sunken, meek tongue, fiery and polished, voice powerful and sweet, clear and sonorous, teeth even, white, close together, lips small and finely defined, black beard, not densely overgrown with hair, neck thin, shoulders straight , hands are short, hands are tender, fingers are long, nails are extended, ankles are narrow, legs are small, skin is almost transparent, body is withered, clothing is tough, sleep is the shortest, hand is generous to everyone. (XXIX, 83)

In general, it also corresponds to the earliest pictorial depiction of the appearance of the Saint on the fresco of the monastery of St. Benedict in Subiaco (probably made during the life of Francis). Later, the authors of the lives proceeded precisely from these two images, adding only details to them. An exception is the Great Legend of St. Bonaventure (1263), which depicts in detail the stigmata of St. Francis:

“Both on his hands and on his feet, traces began to appear as if from nails ... It seemed that both his hands and feet in the very middle were pierced through with nails, so that a mark from the nail head appeared on the inside of the hands and on the outside of the feet, and the point seemed to come out from the other side, since the mark from the head of the nail was black and rounded, and from the point - elongated and twisted, as if in this place the flesh had stretched, risen and burst, and around the flesh receded and fell.

On his right side, as if pierced by a spear, a crimson scar swelled up, from which holy blood has often oozed since then, irrigating