Bonaventure (12211274), an Italian theologian and monk, is widely considered the greatest Franciscan mystic after St. Francis himself. Commissioned by the Franciscan Order, Bonaventure wrote this official biography of St. Francis of Assisi in 1260 his riveting account is simple yet inspiring, and essential reading for those looking to understand the remarkable life and spirituality of this revered saint.

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Bonaventure
The Life of St. Francis

Chapter One

On Saint Francis's Manner of LifeWhile in Secular Attire

There was a man
in the town of Assisi,
Francis by name,
whose memory is held in benediction
because God in his generosity
foreordained goodly blessings for him,
mercifully snatching him from the dangers of
the present life
and richly filling him with gifts of heavenly
grace.
As a young boy,
he lived among worldly sons of men
and was brought up in worldly ways.
After acquiring
a little knowledge of reading and writing,
he was assigned
to work in a lucrative merchant's business.
Yet with God's protection,
even among wanton youths,
he did not give himself over
to the drives of the flesh,
although he indulged himself in pleasures;
nor even among greedy merchants
did he place his hope in money or treasures
although he was intent
on making a profit.

God implanted in the heart of the youthful Francis a certainopenhanded compassion for the poor. Growing from his infancy,this compassion had so filled his heart with generosity that evenat that time he determined not to be deaf to the Gospel but togive to everyone who begged, especially if he asked "for the loveof God." On one occasion when Francis was distracted by thepress of business, contrary to his custom, he sent away emptyhandeda certain poor man who had begged alms for the love ofGod. As soon as he came to his senses, he ran after the man andgave him a generous alms, promising God that from thatmoment onward, while he had the means, he would neverrefuse those who begged from him for the love of God. He keptthis promise with untiring fidelity until his death and merited anabundant increase of grace and love for God. Afterwards, whenhe had perfectly put on Christ, he used to say that even while hewas in secular attire, he could scarcely ever hear any mention ofthe love of God without being deeply moved in his heart.

His gentleness, his refined manners, his patience, his superhumanaffability, his generosity beyond his means, marked him as ayoung man of flourishing natural disposition.This seemed to be aprelude to the even greater abundance of God's blessings thatwould be showered on him in the future. Indeed a certain man ofAssisi, an exceptionally simple fellow who, it is believed, wasinspired by God, whenever he chanced to meet Francis going through the town, used to take off his cloak and spread it underhis feet saying that Francis deserved every sign of respect since hewas destined to do great things in the near future and would bemagnificently honored by the entire body of the faithful.

Up to this time, however, Francis was ignorant of God's planfor him. He was distracted by the external affairs of his father'sbusiness and drawn down toward earthly things by the corruptionof human nature. As a result, he had not yet learned how tocontemplate the things of heaven nor had he acquired a taste forthe things of God. Since affliction can enlighten our spiritualawareness, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and the righthand of God effected a change in him. God afflicted his bodywith a prolonged illness in order to prepare his soul for theanointing of the Holy Spirit. After his strength was restored,when he had dressed as usual in his fine clothes, he met a certainknight who was of noble birth, but poor and badly clothed.Moved to compassion for his poverty, Francis took off his owngarments and clothed the man on the spot. At one and the sametime he fulfilled the twofold duty of covering over the embarrassmentof a noble knight and relieving the poverty of a poor man.

The following night, when he had fallen asleep, God in hisgoodness showed him a large and splendid palace full of militaryweapons emblazoned with the insignia of Christ's cross. ThusGod vividly indicated that the compassion he had exhibitedtoward the poor knight for love of the supreme King would berepaid with an incomparable reward. And so when Francis askedto whom these belonged, he received an answer from heaven that all these things were for him and his knights. When he awoke inthe morning, he judged the strange vision to be an indicationthat he would have great prosperity; for he had no experience ininterpreting divine mysteries nor did he know how to passthrough visible images to grasp the invisible truth beyond.Therefore,still ignorant of God's plan, he decided to join a certaincount in Apulia, hoping in his service to obtain the glory ofknighthood, as his vision seemed to foretell.

He set out on his journey shortly afterwards; but when he hadgone as far as the next town, he heard during the night the Lordaddress him in a familiar way, saying: "Francis, who can do morefor you, a lord or a servant, a rich man or a poor man?" WhenFrancis replied that a lord and a rich man could do more, he wasat once asked:"Why, then, are you abandoning the Lord for a servantand the rich God for a poor man?" And Francis replied:"Lord, what will you have me do?" And the Lord answered him:"Return to your own land, because the vision which you haveseen foretells a spiritual outcome which will be accomplished inyou not by human but by divine planning." In the morning, then,he returned in haste to Assisi, joyous and free of care; already amodel of obedience, he awaited the Lord's will.

Bonaventure
The Life of St. Francis. Copyright © by Frank HarperCollins Spiritual Classics. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Bonaventure: The Life of St. Francis by HarperCollins Spiritual Classics Staff, Emilie Griffin
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