Vigils Reading – St Francis

THE HUMILITY OF ST FRANCIS

From “The Life of St Francis” by St Bonaventure1

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In order to render himself contemptible to others, he did not spare

himself the embarrassment of bringing up his own faults when he preached

before all the people. Once it happened that when he was weighed down with

sickness, he relaxed a little the rigor of his abstinence in order to recover his

health. When his strength of body returned, he was aroused to insult his own

body out of true self-contempt: “It is not right,” he said, “that the people should

believe I am abstaining while, in fact, I eat meat on the sly.”

Inflamed with the spirit of true humility, he called the people together in

the square of the town of Assisi and solemnly entered the principal church with

many of the friars whom he had brought with him. With a rope tied around his

neck and stripped to his underwear, he had himself dragged before the eyes of

all to the stone where criminals received their punishment. He climbed up upon

the stone and preached with much vigor and spirit although he was suffering

from a fever and the weather was bitter cold. He asserted to all his hearers that

he should not be honored as a spiritual man but rather he should be despised

by all as a carnal man and a glutton.

Therefore, those who had gathered there were amazed at so great a

spectacle. They were well aware of his austerity, and so their hearts were struck

with compunction; but they professed that his humility was easier to admire

than to imitate. Although this incident seemed to be more a portent like that of

the Prophet [Isaiah] than an example, nevertheless it was a lesson in true

humility instructing the follower of Christ that he should despise the fame of

transitory praise, suppress the arrogance of bloated bragging and reject the lies

of deceptive pretense.

He often did many things like this so that outwardly he might become like

a discarded utensil while inwardly possessing the spirit of holiness. He strove

to hide the gifts of his Lord in the secret recesses of his heart, not wanting them

to be exposed to praise, which could be an occasion of a fall. For often when he

was praised by the crowds, he would answer like this: “I could still have sons

and daughters; don’t praise me as if I were secure! No one should be praised

whose end is still uncertain.” This is what he would say to those who praised

him, and to himself he would say: “If the Most High had given so much to a

brigand, he would be more grateful than you, Francis.” He often used to tell the

friars: “No one should flatter himself for doing anything a sinner can also do. A

sinner,” he said, “can fast, pray, weep and mortify his flesh. This one thing he

cannot do: be faithful to his Lord. Therefore, we should glory in this: if we give

back to the Lord the glory that is his, if we serve him faithfully and ascribe to

him whatever he gives to us.”