By: Joanna, Janice, Rebecca, Ella and John
Jo's thoughts,
Q.4 - From Celano's stories, how do you understand Francis' relationship with the natural world?
- Celano puts a lot of emphasis on Francis' relationship with animals and nature. He states that it was these
relationships that Francis created which led to Pope John Paul II naming Francis the patron saint of Ecologists in 1983. So, Francis' work with nature and animals in the Middle Ages still relates to modern times because every April 22nd some choose to celebrate 'Earth Day' where people celebrate God's creation of all living things and caring for creation, just like Francis did.
- Celano uses stories that are highly descriptive and praising about Francis. Celano references the 'brother birds' of Spoleto, the 'Sister Swallows' from Alviano, and the 'Brother hare' from Greccio. Celano showcases Francis' great sympathy and patience with the natural world. None of Celano's stories show Francis dismissing any animals, he is always inclusive. As Francis was obedient to God, in return, God gave him the gift of having creatures obey him.
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| St Francis preaching to the birds by Giotto |
This is why Francis is radical - he recognised the importance of the natural world and therefore included natural life into his teachings. (According to Celano, it was as simple as calling birds "brothers and sisters") when others did not. (i.e. Merchants in new towns creating new roads, city life, not caring about the environment they were trampling over).
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| St Francis |
What I find interesting (as a side note), is that Francis' relationship with the natural world led to the birth of Italian Art. Again, as we know from the lectures art in the Middle Ages was very gothic - showing Christ in pain, helpless - a complete contrast to Roman Art.
However St. Francis is almost always depicted with a happy expression, with birds flying around him as he sings songs. He is always located in forests or in meadows to symbolise his relationship with the natural world. Even a little later with the Baroque artists, while Christ is still depicted as pale and skinny, Francis appears healthier with 'dreamlike' expressions on his faces.
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| St Francis preaching to the animals |
Rebecca's thoughts,
3. In Celano’s account of Francis’ life, with what values does he imbue the figure of Francis? Discuss with examples from the text.
· Embarks on a gradual conversion at the age of 23, after a ‘spirit led him to enter the church and pray’, leading him to reject his former life and his father’s wealth.
· Surrenders himself completely to God’s will, he is compassionate and loyal, preparing to ‘follow the blessed impulse of his soul, progressing to higher things and trampling worldly interests underfoot.’
· Described as a ‘new solider of Christ’, he completely moves away from ‘living riotously among his relations and acquaintances’ to being one who is ‘contemptuous of money, treating it as if it were dust’. His only wish is to possess wisdom.
· He ‘burns with a devotion toward the mother of all good’, living with lepers and rebuilding the church and is completely concerned with preaching the kingdom of God, penance and the gospels which he ‘diligently’ attempted to ‘fulfill to the letter’.
· Deeply humble, and ‘impelled by a higher desire’, devoutly wished for something else, not satisfied to just to live the life of a hermit or monk, as felt God held a different task for him.
· Francis is depicted as ‘that most blessed servant of God, a man of great fervor’ and sympathy toward the lower, irrational creatures’ (animals) which he loved with ‘maternal affection’. Through this ‘striking rapport with animals’, the Pope proclaimed Francis the patron saint of the ecological movement.
· Very concerned with purging himself of temptations from the devil, dressing in a rough tunic in order to crucify the vices and sins of the flesh.
· Francis and his followers practiced mortification of the flesh- not because they considered the body to be evil, it too is a creation of God, but in a ‘fallen world’ it could distract one from higher pursuits.
· Held a great emphasis on humility and a desire to imitate Christ with completely obedience.
· Described as ‘scattering the seeds of his blessing everywhere’, with people filled with so much love, belief and devotion for him that they trampled one another to see and hear him.
· In the presence of Francis, ‘heretical depravity was confounded, the faith of the Church was extolled’, and while the ‘faithful engaged in jubilation, heretics went into hiding’. For so many ‘signs of sanctity appeared in him’ that no one dared to oppose his words.
· However, although he received great attention, he felt great affection for priests and every ecclesiastical order. Performs several miracles, curing of various diseases and turning water into wine.
· His highest intention, greatest desire and supreme purpose was to observe the holy gospel in and through all things. He wanted to follow the doctrine and walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and to do so ‘perfectly, with all vigilance, all zeal complete desire of the mind complete fervor of the heart’ until his death.
· One needs to keep in mind that this work was of course commissioned by a pope, Gregory IX, and written in the period after his death and canonization by an early member of the Franciscan order and later additions of other brothers.
Janice's thoughts,
THE DOMINICANS
The
Dominican Order, also called the Order of Preachers, was initially
founded by a Spanish priest, Dominic de Guzman, to try and control the Cathar
heresy. They were itinerant preachers of the Gospel, walking everywhere to try
and engage the Cathar leaders in debate. In 1215 Dominic went to Rome to ask
the Pope for permission to set up a new order, but the Fourth Lateran Council,
in session at the time, refused as they thought there were too many religious
groups running around and should adopt an existing rule, so Dominic chose the Rule of Augustine (created in the fifth
century by St Augustine of Hippo) since he was already affiliated with that
Order. The Augustinian monks adhered to a pattern of discipline and spiritual
life, served in churches and cathedrals and were involved in the social needs
of their local town.
Dominic was university educated and from
the beginning the Dominicans focussed
more on learning and education. Ultimately his best recruits came from the
finest intellectual institutions in Europe. Manual labour was discarded to
allow for more study and preaching, meanwhile living a life of poverty. Dominic
was very devout and said to be always preaching or talking or arguing about
God. He was very skilled in administration and organisation and was responsible
for the first set of statutes governing internal matters in 1228 which became
their new constitution modelled on monastic traditions and daily choral
recitations.
Like Francis he also attracted women and
the sisters were known as the Poor Clares
who became an associate order of the Dominicans.
Things to think about –
- What were the differences between the Franciscans and the Dominicans and why?
- Why were the Dominicans so popular with the masses?
Good luck with the readings everyone.
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| St Dominic |
Must admit – I was pretty frightened when I saw that we had three readings to do for this week! Thankfully they were all a reasonable length. Overall, I felt that the readings worked very well together.
ReplyDeleteThe first reading (Goff’s) did mention Francis of Assisi but did not provide any real information on the life of the saint. It instead gave a basic idea of the world that Francis was born into, and how Western Europe progressed in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. I particularly enjoyed the comparisons that I was able to draw between Goff’s depiction and the world we live in today. I was beginning to wonder when the sheer power and day-to-day influence exercised by the church would begin to subside – though the church in reality does remain a powerful force in contemporary society, just not as obviously as in the early medieval period. Things like the emergence of currency exchange, alteration of the manner of confession and the reformed judicial system allowed such comparisons to be evoked. The emergence of wealth and luxury in contrast to the old ideals of piety and simplicity definitely appear an appropriate setting for Francis of Assisi to rise to prominence and try to ‘mend’ society. Furthermore, the progression of education, especially with the materialization of law as a branch of study (as was mentioned in lectures about 6 weeks back) definitely indicated the growth that Western Europe was experiencing during this time.
Reading number two (Slocum’s) was more focused on the specific religious movements (Particularly the Franciscans and Dominicans) but again there was very little emphasis on the life of Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans. The early dedication of the reading to explain the inquisition and how this functioned was very interesting. Particularly I enjoyed the closing comments when it was mentioned that even if a heretic went their whole life without being discovered they would still have their bones dug up and burned if their heresy was revealed after their death. It was as if there was no escape for heretics, even in death. One other interesting piece of information I pulled out of this reading was the way that the rules of the Franciscans were altered so soon after Francis’ death in 1226. Within four years, the pope decreed that Franciscans could hold land – going against one of the key ideals that Francis had set when forming the religious body. The differences between Francis of Assisi and Dominic de Guzman (founder of the Dominicans) are also an interesting study. While information on the personal attributes of each man is scarce in Slocum’s reading, it is mentioned that Dominic’s organisational abilities were far superior to those of Francis. Furthermore, while both men were obviously highly persuasive, I get the impression that while Francis’ persuasive ability came solely from his blinded passion, Dominic’s (while influenced by his passion also) came from a greater ability to argue and reason, a result of his superior education. Certainly, such skills would have been necessary for Dominic who spent the majority of the early days of his organisation, engaging in debates with opposition leaders. That is, Dominic appears more of a politician than they highly spiritual figure that is Francis.
The third reading (extracts from Celano’s biography of Francis of Assisi) was definitely a fascinating source to read. I don’t wish to start a major religious controversy by declaring many of the events Celano mentions as impossible, but let’s face it – they are. Naturally, comparisons spring to mind between Celano’s work and Einhard’s biography on Charlemagne (read earlier in the semester) and it seems clear to me that both men are blinded by their infatuation for their respective leaders. Notably, the relationship shared between Francis and animals was one revelation that I doubted – or at least took with a grain of salt as being highly exaggerated. “My sisters the swallows, it’s my turn to speak now, because you’ve already said enough. Listen to the word of god. Stay still and be quiet until it’s over” – If those aren’t the words of a mad man (and an equally mad man to believe that the birds responding to this is truly what happened) then I don’t know what is. Also, the idea that anything Francis touched would become blessed was highly questionable. That being said – obviously there were many that agreed with this point of view, and I would love to have been able to observe exactly how Assisi was worshipped (and how widely this worship spread) because there is obviously some reason that such mystical ideas were believed. All this being said there were of course many interesting truths within Celano’s biography. It seems reasonable that the passion and uncompromising beliefs of Francis were in fact as described by Celano. Furthermore, the transformation undertaken by Assisi after his year of imprisonment by the Perugians in 1202 resonates with what Slocum mentioned in his own reading, and is a very fascinating idea. Again, it is likely the skeptic in me that wonders what did happen to Francis during his imprisonment that made him lose his mind the way he did. Who knows, maybe god really did speak to Francis and ask him to repair the church. And then again, maybe animals could understand Francis. And once more, maybe Francis did have special healing abilities. And finally, maybe the marks of nails and spears did appear in Francis’ hands, feet and sides. But I doubt it.
DeleteAs a set, I think that this group of readings (maybe because there were three rather than two) was one of the more complete studies that we have undertaken so far. The readings were interesting, relevant and easy to follow, which also helped. Very pleased overall.
Apparently there is a word limit to the blog posts? whoops! I'll try and keep my posts a bit more brief in upcoming weeks.
Hi Phil (and everyone)
DeleteThere is no word limit on blog posts - they can be as long or as short as one feels. This is an excellent post that you have produced though and it is clear you have spent time thinking about the connections and implications in this week's readings. Good job!
All the best,
Diana
I found this weeks readings quite interesting, and best of all, they weren't very long.
ReplyDeleteThe first reading gave great insight into the conditions of Western Europe at the time of St Francis. I thought this was very good, because it helped put him in context and through that, the rest of the readings became easier to understand.
Seeing as this was a time of huge population and economical boom, it ws interesting to read about the emergence of luxury, and materialism. It seemed that for once, there were greater desires within the people of Western Europe than to be pious and devoted to God. As people begin to think for themselves and be more rational, ideologies evolve which may contradict/contend with each other, and hence I think the development of Universities, and a greater influence on education also helped o bring this change about.
In that sense, it could not have been a better time for Francis to aim to re-shape society.
The part of the second reading describing the Franciscan's was quite interesting, especially the focus on mingling with people, opposed to the original act of complete servitude of living secluded in a monastery. I thought this was interesting, and begged me to question where this change came from.
The practical difference between the Dominicans and the Franciscans was also very interesting. I never knew about that.
In that sense, he second reading was a great build up to the third reading. It set up the idea for new forms of spirituality forming within society at this point, and therefore set context for the third reading, which is always helpful when reading primary source.
Overall, very interesting readings, and I thought they built on each other well. Something which seems to be lacking in other units.
Cheers.
Hi all!
ReplyDeleteIn agreeance with most of the others, I found this week's reading to work well together!
We got a great explanation of the differing time period into which both Francis and Dominic's orders were born into. With the uprising of towns- economy and wealth were booming, and for once people started to love the material things in life.
Basically the Church was losing it's mojo. Perfect time for Francis to enter and attempt to fix the ideals of society.
I understand the Francis wanted to emulate the life of Jesus and wanted people to focus on poverty and peace- rather than wealth and stife.
What I don't particularly understand is why Francis was so opposed to education (I get that he perceived at as material entity)? Perhaps this is why Dominic's order was more popular with the masses? Not too sure.
Maybe this is why Francis' followers began to embrace education following his death? Had they caught on to Dominic's thinking?
I definitely think a key point with both orders is that, they weren't allowed to live in cloistered societies- rather live amongst the people (this is probably why both generated so many followers- both male and female).
As for Celano's work- I love early biographies of saints (there are so many things that are exaggerated!)
-Like just because Francis had held the reigns of his horse, a woman who would've surely died from childbirth, was able to hold those exact same reigns and then magically be cured? Truly the work of a saint!
That's all from me, ciao!
Well the readings this week were certainly informative. What am I saying! The readings EVERY week are certainly informative.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what I drew from this weeks reading is the grounding of spirituality begins.
Suddenly religion starts to become a thing of the people. This I think is evidenced by the monks living amongst the population and working FOR them. Rather than for themselves. Religion is found not on some snowy mountain, stuck there forever, wearing clothes not suited to the elements, but rather having blue birds put on their robes in a left glade. Was it just me, or does some of the art remind you of Snow White.
Props to the people presenting this week, great blog post. I really enjoyed reading it.
Look forward to you presenting tomorrow!
Jess Kopp