Il Poverello

Today is the feast day of perhaps the most popular Saint in history, Francis of Assisi.

Living in Italy from 26 Sept. 1181 to 3 Oct. 1226, he was a crucial figure in the mendicant movement, founding the order of Friars Minor (O.F.M., the little brothers). His life was pretty eventful: from receiving orders from God to rebuild the Church in San Damiano, to tossing off his clothes in the middle of the town square in obedience to the bishop's commands to return everything of his father's, to embracing lepers, to jumping into a rose bush at the sight of a beautiful woman, to trying to make peace with Sultan Melek-el-Kamel.

Although Francis was not in favour of his order becoming a teaching order like the Dominicans, one obvious problem being the ownership of books as a contradiction of his rule of absolute poverty, the Franciscans made their mark in Medieval education and had a large role in the development of universities, of which Paris and Oxford come to mind most readily. Famous Medieval Franciscan intellectuals include St Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus, Alexander of Hales, and Roger Bacon.

Here is a well-known poem Francis wrote in Italian, which in English is known as "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace":

Preghiera Semplice

O Signore, fa di me uno strumento della tua Pace:
Dove è odio, fa ch'io porti l'Amore.
Dove è offesa, ch'io porti il Perdono.
Dove è discordia, ch'io porti l'Unione.
Dove è dubbio, ch'io porti la Fede.
Dove è errore, ch'io porti la Verità.
Dove è disperazione,ch'io porti la Speranza.
Dove è tristezza, ch'io porti la Gioia.
Dove sono le tenebre, ch'io porti la Luce.

O Maestro, fa ch'io non cerchi tanto:
Essere consolato, quanto consolare.
Essere compreso, quanto comprendere.
Essere amato,quanto amare.

Poichè:
Si è: Dando, che si riceve;
Perdonando che si è perdonati;
Morendo, che si risuscita a Vita Eterna.

S.Francesco

Saint Spotlight: St Fiacre

Saint Spotlight is a new feature in which MSCU contributors will highlight certain Medieval saints. There are a multitude of Medieval saints, and each have an interesting story to tell.

Ryan's choice: St Fiacre

Now I am not currently, nor will I ever likely be, a saint. As a result of this large personal failing, I feel sorry for certain saints. Some seem to get the short end of the patronage stick. I'm sure that these saints would feel no sense of pride or accomplishment, but for a lowly sinner like me, I feel sorry for the less 'popular' saints.

Saint Fiacre would be an example of such a saint. In spite of a virtuous life, he was stuck being the patron of some rather embarrassing things.

St Fiacre is the patron saint of: gardeners; taxi cab drivers; venereal disease sufferers; hemorrhoid sufferers, brie, plough-boys.

Now as a lover of brie I truly hope that there isn't a connection between these things. In fact, I cannot decide how exactly he became the patron of these rather eclectic list. Perhaps a look at his life story would illuminate this mystery.

Here's an exerpt from his life story, a more in-depth account can be found here:

His relics at Meaux are still resorted to, and he is invoked against all sorts of physical ills, including venereal disease. He is also a patron saint of gardeners and of cab-drivers of Paris. French cabs are called fiacres because the first establishment to let coaches on hire, in the middle of the seventeenth century, was in the Rue Saint-Martin, near the hotel Saint-Fiacre, in Paris. Saint Fiacre's feast is kept in some dioceses of France, and throughout Ireland on this date. Many miracles were claimed through his working the land and interceding for others. Feast day is September 1st.

Even though the blessed saint never allowed women into his personal dwelling his relics were used to cure venereal diseases. I wonder what good old St Fiacre would have thought of that?

So there you have it.

If you have a favourite saint please send us an email or leave a comment.