By Barbara Stinson Lee
Intermountain Catholic
SALT LAKE CITY – It’s always difficult when a reader learns that something he or she has taken as fact turns out to probably be legend. I had that experience while reading Dominican Father Augustine Thompson’s book Francis of Assisi: A New Biography. I learned, for example, that the often-portrayed wolf of Gubio may not have existed, and therefore Saint Francis could not have tamed him
In Francis of Assisi, Fr. Thompson has meticulously separated fact from fiction in the life of one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints, and he has done it to the greatest degree. In the book's introduction, he writes that the story of the wolf first appeared more than 100 years after Francis's death, making it impossible to evaluate the story's veracity. The author, therefore, simply set it aside as he did other late legends.
Fr. Thompson is professor of history at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and holds a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley.
"This reading of the sources for Francis has resulted in a number of divergences from the usual story," the author explains in his introduction. "The Francis I have come to know has proved a more complex and personally conflicted man than the saint of the legends."
An example of Francis’ conflicts is that of his search for a church when he reurned from Rome. He asked Bishop Guido of Assisi, the clergy of the Cathedral, and finally the Benedictines to give him a church. It was the Benedictines who rented him the Porziuncula.
Another conflict in Francis’ life was the military service all men of his age were expected to do at the time in France. Francis performed his duties, but this marked the beginning of a troubled life for him. His friends felt him drifting away from them both psychologically and spiritually. His friends had every sympathy for him, but Francis became more and more difficult to deal with. He preferred the company of nature and animals, especially birds, to his human friends.
The book is carefully divided into aspects of Francis’ life. It begins with "When I Was in My Sins," from 1181-1205, and ends with "From Penitent to Saint," 1225-1226. His canonization (by Pope Gregory IX) was remarkably quick due to Francis’ popularity, the customs of the time and his ability to begin separate orders for both men and women in a very short time. But the years between his sins and his canonization marked Francis’ conflicts. His early life was one of lavish and youthful exuberance, and by his death his life had changed radically to one of deep prayer and devotion to God and his Franciscan orders.
Francis’ father, a wealthy cloth merchant, watched in puzzlement as his son lost interest in the family business and stopped coming to the shop. Instead, Francis gave his clothes and alms to beggars. "When money ran out, he literally gave the shirt off his back…. Whatever the state of his soul, he chose the remedy of the age for expiating personal sin. He performed the traditional works of penance: almsgiving, prayer, and bodily mortification," according to Fr. Thompson.
Although lepers at one time sickened Francis, he and his brothers ended up working in a leprosarium, devoting their lives to the poor and the sick.
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