A rigid wind arrived. The snow covered the roads. The branches of the trees bent under its weight. The starving birds went to the close fields near the houses. The wild animals got out of the wood in search of prey. The wolves at night howled and were a threat to the imprudent travelers that moved away from the inhabited places.
Anthony, during the season of Autumn wandered from city to city. In every place he was going, he had to deal with the Cathari. He visited Cremona, Brescia, Verona, Padova and Ferrara. However in nome of theswwe cities the heretics were as strong as he experienced in Rimini. The fame of the dangerous preacher whose words nobody could resist to hear and to follow spread everywhere. If they arrived at the dispute, the Cathari appeared quite polite. They were trying to make harmless the dangerous adversary with gentleness and adulation. But he, without allowing to surpass in kindness, was destroying their reasoning with words full of goodness and elegance. From this point of view he was very different from the other preachers of his order, even from Francis. These people were speaking simply, in the everyday language, avoiding any embellishment. Anthony made use of the literary language, rich of splendid locutions and of comparisons.
It was by now December, when a Friar minor who had a nose red because of the cold, that rose out from his hood as the beak of a bird and said to Anthony:
"Friar Francis sends a message to you. " in so saying he gave Anthony a piece of paper. On the other side of the slip of paper there the words of a poem. Francis often was tearing pieces of paper on which he was writing poems and chants and he used them for correspondence.
"Where is Friar Francis?" he asked.
"He has just returned from Rome. He has had the Pontiff’s approval of the new rule. He has worked for a long time in the cave of Fonte Columbus. He had with him two Friars to help him: Friar Leon and Friar Bonizio. While they were working they ate nothing else but a piece of dry bread and they didn’t drink other than water. Friar Francis didn’t allow anybody to disturb him. And now the rule has been blessed by the Holy Father…"
"Then Friar Francis is at the Porziuncola?"
"He is. But very soon, he will go away. He certainly would have written it to you…"
On the leaflet there were few words written in a fast handwriting, not so clear. Francis was writing:
"Dear Friar Anthony. I want you to come immediately here at Greccio. Our loyal Sir John Vellita has offered us, close to the city, a splendid hill thick of woods. I want to celebrate Christmas day and I desire you to be with me..."
"Very well, Friar." he said
"Friar Francis is asking for me. I will leave immediately."
Usually he was prudent in organizing his wanderings, when he received a command, he tried to carry it out immediately. He left the same day, taking with him the Friar who brought him the missive.
The years had changed him. In the past he was often weak and to face the trips caused him difficulty. But the last few years had strengthened him. His feet had hardened and he had no more sore by the attrition that his sandals caused to his feet. The night spent in the barns didn’t stop him to sleep soundly. The stomach had accustomed to any kind of food. Since he had found out the reason of his living, all the weaknesses had gone who knows where. Despite the snow that imperred, the sharp wind and the icy puddles in which the legs sink, they continued with hurry. Besides friar Caesar that accompanied Anthony incited the hurry.
"We must get there in time" he said "before Christmas eve because Friar Francis has given the order to prepare everything as it was in Bethlehem where our Lord was born. He has chosen a grotto, he ordered a manger full of hay. He asked to bring to the grotto an ox and a donkey. All as it was in Bethlehem… Friar Francis visited Bethlehem and has seen the place in which was born the Lord Jesus. He says that the people should honour Jesus portraying those events. He is very happy about this idea…"
In order to arrive before the eve they had to speed their footsteps. But they arrived in time. Francis greeting Anthony cordially.
"I am very happy, friar, that you have come. I missed you. I want us to pray together. We will speak after. Then you can leave for France, as I have recommended you. I believe that you will do great things there. I think that at your return you will not find me amongst the living. Because of this I wanted to see you..."
Francis didn`t really look well. He was almost blind, while walking he had to extend his hand in front of himself. He must have been tormented even by illnesses. He had lost lots of weight, he looked like a skeleton, hardly covered by the skin. His face had become hollow, he had an extremely bad breath.
"You should think about your health" said Anthony.
"You are necessary."
"No. I am no longer necessary. You are here, there are others. Sister Chiara is occupying so magnificently of the women that have chosen poverty. When you will go to Padova please occupy yourself of a young lady called Helen. When the time comes I will speak to you about it. I am positive that we will have many satisfactions thanks to her..."
They went together to the grotto on the hill. Here, everything was ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Close to the manger there was a table on which had to be celebrated the mass.
"You will celebrate it" said Francis.
"And I will serve it. I will read the Gospel." The ceremony had to start the evening of the following day.
"As soon as the first stars shine," said Francis "we will come here with torches, singing. Just as the shepherd arrived at Bethlehem. Oh, how I would like that you had seen the manger when our Lord was born! You could practically touch the place where Jesus was born, could see the manger where He was layed. It is so small, so hard. Surely he would have hit his little hands by agitating them on the hard edge… On the wall are painted the three Magi... But if you had been there, Friar Anthony, you would have cried, the way I cried. The infidels enter in the temple, walk around, deride those who are praying, they demand a toll... They hit and throw away those who can’t pay. It is said that they have entered in the church on horseback and because of this it had been necessary to build a door so low, so that who enters in the church must bow. And even if they do not believe that Jesus is God their holy book imposes them to honour him. They however are so angered against us because of the aggression to Egypt. Moved by the anger they profane the most sacred memories. If it hadn’t been for the pass that the sultan gave me, they would have not allowed me to enter the temple. Then when I swept, they ridiculed me and reproached me… And would have been only them! Towards them we cannot have resentment. Our crusades have fought them, they have been cruel, they have violated the promises… But our brothers in Christ: the Greeks, the Copti… It seems that they hate us more than the Muslims. They do the most in order to keep us away from the sacred relics…"
He was silent for a moment, but a tear come down his cheek. Now he cried quite often.
"Oh, friar," he said softly. "it is so wonderful that you are here. You have arrived when I thought everything was lost... The rule... What I had prepared, has gone astray... The one that I have written is not as I would have wanted it to be... I wasn’t allowed to maintain the words: 'In your walk do not take not a baton, nor a sack, nor bread, nor money...'. I was not allowed to confide totally... A lot has changed, erased... Luckily it has remained the prohibition of accepting money... But this is little, very little!"
They came back through the high snow which had just fallen at the house of the Friars. Behind Francis ran a small lamb so domesticated that accompanied him everywhere like a dog.
"Are you looking at that small animal?" Francis asked Anthony. "That poor animal reminds me of Jesus when he was brought to death. When I hear him bleating I feel like crying. Once I met a farmer that was dragging with him two lambs to the slaughterhouse. I implored him to take my cloak in change of the small creatures. He accepted. I have given one to friar Jacopa. You know who am I speaking about? Of the noble lady Jacopa of the Seven Suns, who is our great protectress. Devout to us just as sister Chiara. The other remained with me. It doesn`t abandon me. In the morning, if I am still sleeping, it hits me with his little head so that I won’t be late to the prayers. Even when I went to the bishop he followed me. It is so game..."
The sky was serene. As soon as the first dusk made the blue become paler started the stars started to lit the night. The procession moved with songs. Ahead were Francis and Anthony, behind them there was a great group of Friars arrived to Greccio from various places. They had lit torches and the trembling flames in the wind reddened the cool and fresh snow. As soon as they came outside of the city houses, they saw another two processions, yet more numerous. In the meantime arrived the inhabitants of the small villages and of the small cities of the surroundings.
The people opened a passage on the high snow that had fallen during the night. The processions looked as quivering bright snakes that drew near one to the other till they were forming only one. In front of everyone proceeded the Friars. The bush seemed engulfed in fire. There seemed to be an enormous bonfire in the middle of the sleeping and silent field.
The groups of people from the nearby villages formed a semicircle in front of the grotto. Only the Friars found place inside it. At the manger were tied an ox and a donkey. On the table that served as an altar finally started the Christmas mass. Anthony sang:
"Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. Quare fremuerunt gentes et populi meditati sunt inania?"
The singers’ voice was raising sonorous toward the disseminated villages. The night ceases of being such. The stars palpitated in an unbelievable way. Their light flowed low towards the fields, similar to a flashing stream.
Francis read the Gospel:
"Factum east autem cum essent ibi impleti sunt dies ut pareret..."
And then he said:
"O brothers and sisters that have gathered here in this miraculous night. Who have you come to see? The child just born? Or rather the king of glory and of love, hidden under the semblance of a crying baby? Rejoice, you rejoice! The Virgin has given to light the Son. This is the miracle of miracles. The Creator has descended between his creatures to show them mercy. The one that reign over the centuries has become a crumb of man, that shivers in the cold and has need of protection. Rejoice, rejoice all! Men, birds and animals. Rejoice: sun, moon, rejoice stars. Rejoice mountains, rocks and valleys! Praised be God by the clouds, the snow and wind, and even by the fire that warms us and that illuminates us. Rejoice! Who ever, if not him, our God, has been so good to become a weak little child and to place himself in our hands? Here is the one who holds every thing on his palm, now he is lying in front of us in a manger. We could hold him in our arms. Oh, rejoice, rejoice brothers and sisters!
… There is, in a distant land, a small city same as the ones here. It is called Bethlehem. In that city, a certain night arrived two people: Mary and Joseph. There was no place for them in the inn, so they had to take refuge in a grotto that served as a refuge to the livestock.
And just in that grotto, when night arrived, Mary gave birth to the child. She didn’t have a place to put him, so she placed him in the manger, the same as this…"
He fell on his knees. On his knees he approached the manger. He bent. His hands seemed to caress gently something. Even Anthony extended his hands. But certainly, there on the hay lay something of little, of clear, similar to a ray of sun curled up.
Francis’ hands seemed to support a minuscule head. He stood up. Straight in front of the manger, he seemed to be tightening something between his arms. He bent and snapped slowly his lips, as if he was trying to calm the crying of a child. He smiled as smiles a mother at the sight of the first smile of the newly born. And when Anthony at the altar raised high the wafer, above which he had just pronounced the words of the transubstantiation, Francis too, raised the hands with his fingers wide open as if he wanted to show to everybody what he was holding…
When mass finished, around the manger shouts and chants exploded. And it was so until late night. The blazes and glares from the torches lit the white mountains as if they were eveloped by fire which glowed but did not burn. The chants kept on going. And when the people were stopping for a moment to sing, the song seemed to be suspended in the breath
The Friars enthusiastically kept on singing
"Rejoice, brothers! Jesus was born for us! Rejoice! Hallelujah!"
Dragged by the enthusiasm the friars ran happily between the rocks and the trees. The dogs were barking and the lamb was bleating. The shadows of the animals of the forest was visible in the snowy mountain. The birds awaken by the light, convinced that was day time, fluttered from branch to branch. The crows walked seriously stiff, rippling their long beaks…
Francis continued to stay close to the manger. It seemed he was holding something in his arms. Sometimes smiling joyously, sometime with an expression of sadness and anguish.
And only at dawn the songs stopped, the torches were put out and the friars started to gather in order to return home, Francis tore himself away from his dreams. He called to him Anthony. He placed a hand over Anthony arm and said:
"The little Jesus was laying as dead. But when I took him in my arms, he opened his eyes and smiled. Now it is you who have to make sure that he doesn’t shut his eyes and fall in torpor. He has come from love and he wants love. The world must remember that. We need to wake him up, we need to talk to him, to recommend ourselves to him. I was afraid of your science, friar, but now I don’t fear it any longer. You will speak... Go to France... And then... "
But he didn’t say what it was going to happen later.
Chapter 26
Chapter 26
A rigid wind arrived. The snow covered the roads. The branches of the trees bent under its weight. The starving birds went to the close fields near the houses. The wild animals got out of the wood in search of prey. The wolves at night howled and were a threat to the imprudent travelers that moved away from the inhabited places.
Anthony, during the season of Autumn wandered from city to city. In every place he was going, he had to deal with the Cathari. He visited Cremona, Brescia, Verona, Padova and Ferrara. However in nome of theswwe cities the heretics were as strong as he experienced in Rimini. The fame of the dangerous preacher whose words nobody could resist to hear and to follow spread everywhere. If they arrived at the dispute, the Cathari appeared quite polite. They were trying to make harmless the dangerous adversary with gentleness and adulation. But he, without allowing to surpass in kindness, was destroying their reasoning with words full of goodness and elegance. From this point of view he was very different from the other preachers of his order, even from Francis. These people were speaking simply, in the everyday language, avoiding any embellishment. Anthony made use of the literary language, rich of splendid locutions and of comparisons.
It was by now December, when a Friar minor who had a nose red because of the cold, that rose out from his hood as the beak of a bird and said to Anthony:
"Friar Francis sends a message to you. " in so saying he gave Anthony a piece of paper. On the other side of the slip of paper there the words of a poem. Francis often was tearing pieces of paper on which he was writing poems and chants and he used them for correspondence.
"Where is Friar Francis?" he asked.
"He has just returned from Rome. He has had the Pontiff’s approval of the new rule. He has worked for a long time in the cave of Fonte Columbus. He had with him two Friars to help him: Friar Leon and Friar Bonizio. While they were working they ate nothing else but a piece of dry bread and they didn’t drink other than water. Friar Francis didn’t allow anybody to disturb him. And now the rule has been blessed by the Holy Father…"
"Then Friar Francis is at the Porziuncola?"
"He is. But very soon, he will go away. He certainly would have written it to you…"
On the leaflet there were few words written in a fast handwriting, not so clear. Francis was writing:
"Dear Friar Anthony. I want you to come immediately here at Greccio. Our loyal Sir John Vellita has offered us, close to the city, a splendid hill thick of woods. I want to celebrate Christmas day and I desire you to be with me..."
"Very well, Friar." he said
"Friar Francis is asking for me. I will leave immediately."
Usually he was prudent in organizing his wanderings, when he received a command, he tried to carry it out immediately. He left the same day, taking with him the Friar who brought him the missive.
The years had changed him. In the past he was often weak and to face the trips caused him difficulty. But the last few years had strengthened him. His feet had hardened and he had no more sore by the attrition that his sandals caused to his feet. The night spent in the barns didn’t stop him to sleep soundly. The stomach had accustomed to any kind of food. Since he had found out the reason of his living, all the weaknesses had gone who knows where. Despite the snow that imperred, the sharp wind and the icy puddles in which the legs sink, they continued with hurry. Besides friar Caesar that accompanied Anthony incited the hurry.
"We must get there in time" he said "before Christmas eve because Friar Francis has given the order to prepare everything as it was in Bethlehem where our Lord was born. He has chosen a grotto, he ordered a manger full of hay. He asked to bring to the grotto an ox and a donkey. All as it was in Bethlehem… Friar Francis visited Bethlehem and has seen the place in which was born the Lord Jesus. He says that the people should honour Jesus portraying those events. He is very happy about this idea…"
In order to arrive before the eve they had to speed their footsteps. But they arrived in time. Francis greeting Anthony cordially.
"I am very happy, friar, that you have come. I missed you. I want us to pray together. We will speak after. Then you can leave for France, as I have recommended you. I believe that you will do great things there. I think that at your return you will not find me amongst the living. Because of this I wanted to see you..."
Francis didn`t really look well. He was almost blind, while walking he had to extend his hand in front of himself. He must have been tormented even by illnesses. He had lost lots of weight, he looked like a skeleton, hardly covered by the skin. His face had become hollow, he had an extremely bad breath.
"You should think about your health" said Anthony.
"You are necessary."
"No. I am no longer necessary. You are here, there are others. Sister Chiara is occupying so magnificently of the women that have chosen poverty. When you will go to Padova please occupy yourself of a young lady called Helen. When the time comes I will speak to you about it. I am positive that we will have many satisfactions thanks to her..."
They went together to the grotto on the hill. Here, everything was ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Close to the manger there was a table on which had to be celebrated the mass.
"You will celebrate it" said Francis.
"And I will serve it. I will read the Gospel." The ceremony had to start the evening of the following day.
"As soon as the first stars shine," said Francis "we will come here with torches, singing. Just as the shepherd arrived at Bethlehem. Oh, how I would like that you had seen the manger when our Lord was born! You could practically touch the place where Jesus was born, could see the manger where He was layed. It is so small, so hard. Surely he would have hit his little hands by agitating them on the hard edge… On the wall are painted the three Magi... But if you had been there, Friar Anthony, you would have cried, the way I cried. The infidels enter in the temple, walk around, deride those who are praying, they demand a toll... They hit and throw away those who can’t pay. It is said that they have entered in the church on horseback and because of this it had been necessary to build a door so low, so that who enters in the church must bow. And even if they do not believe that Jesus is God their holy book imposes them to honour him. They however are so angered against us because of the aggression to Egypt. Moved by the anger they profane the most sacred memories. If it hadn’t been for the pass that the sultan gave me, they would have not allowed me to enter the temple. Then when I swept, they ridiculed me and reproached me… And would have been only them! Towards them we cannot have resentment. Our crusades have fought them, they have been cruel, they have violated the promises… But our brothers in Christ: the Greeks, the Copti… It seems that they hate us more than the Muslims. They do the most in order to keep us away from the sacred relics…"
He was silent for a moment, but a tear come down his cheek. Now he cried quite often.
"Oh, friar," he said softly. "it is so wonderful that you are here. You have arrived when I thought everything was lost... The rule... What I had prepared, has gone astray... The one that I have written is not as I would have wanted it to be... I wasn’t allowed to maintain the words: 'In your walk do not take not a baton, nor a sack, nor bread, nor money...'. I was not allowed to confide totally... A lot has changed, erased... Luckily it has remained the prohibition of accepting money... But this is little, very little!"
They came back through the high snow which had just fallen at the house of the Friars. Behind Francis ran a small lamb so domesticated that accompanied him everywhere like a dog.
"Are you looking at that small animal?" Francis asked Anthony. "That poor animal reminds me of Jesus when he was brought to death. When I hear him bleating I feel like crying. Once I met a farmer that was dragging with him two lambs to the slaughterhouse. I implored him to take my cloak in change of the small creatures. He accepted. I have given one to friar Jacopa. You know who am I speaking about? Of the noble lady Jacopa of the Seven Suns, who is our great protectress. Devout to us just as sister Chiara. The other remained with me. It doesn`t abandon me. In the morning, if I am still sleeping, it hits me with his little head so that I won’t be late to the prayers. Even when I went to the bishop he followed me. It is so game..."
The sky was serene. As soon as the first dusk made the blue become paler started the stars started to lit the night. The procession moved with songs. Ahead were Francis and Anthony, behind them there was a great group of Friars arrived to Greccio from various places. They had lit torches and the trembling flames in the wind reddened the cool and fresh snow. As soon as they came outside of the city houses, they saw another two processions, yet more numerous. In the meantime arrived the inhabitants of the small villages and of the small cities of the surroundings.
The people opened a passage on the high snow that had fallen during the night. The processions looked as quivering bright snakes that drew near one to the other till they were forming only one. In front of everyone proceeded the Friars. The bush seemed engulfed in fire. There seemed to be an enormous bonfire in the middle of the sleeping and silent field.
The groups of people from the nearby villages formed a semicircle in front of the grotto. Only the Friars found place inside it. At the manger were tied an ox and a donkey. On the table that served as an altar finally started the Christmas mass. Anthony sang:
"Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. Quare fremuerunt gentes et populi meditati sunt inania?"
The singers’ voice was raising sonorous toward the disseminated villages. The night ceases of being such. The stars palpitated in an unbelievable way. Their light flowed low towards the fields, similar to a flashing stream.
Francis read the Gospel:
"Factum east autem cum essent ibi impleti sunt dies ut pareret..."
And then he said:
"O brothers and sisters that have gathered here in this miraculous night. Who have you come to see? The child just born? Or rather the king of glory and of love, hidden under the semblance of a crying baby? Rejoice, you rejoice! The Virgin has given to light the Son. This is the miracle of miracles. The Creator has descended between his creatures to show them mercy. The one that reign over the centuries has become a crumb of man, that shivers in the cold and has need of protection. Rejoice, rejoice all! Men, birds and animals. Rejoice: sun, moon, rejoice stars. Rejoice mountains, rocks and valleys! Praised be God by the clouds, the snow and wind, and even by the fire that warms us and that illuminates us. Rejoice! Who ever, if not him, our God, has been so good to become a weak little child and to place himself in our hands? Here is the one who holds every thing on his palm, now he is lying in front of us in a manger. We could hold him in our arms. Oh, rejoice, rejoice brothers and sisters!
… There is, in a distant land, a small city same as the ones here. It is called Bethlehem. In that city, a certain night arrived two people: Mary and Joseph. There was no place for them in the inn, so they had to take refuge in a grotto that served as a refuge to the livestock.
And just in that grotto, when night arrived, Mary gave birth to the child. She didn’t have a place to put him, so she placed him in the manger, the same as this…"
He fell on his knees. On his knees he approached the manger. He bent. His hands seemed to caress gently something. Even Anthony extended his hands. But certainly, there on the hay lay something of little, of clear, similar to a ray of sun curled up.
Francis’ hands seemed to support a minuscule head. He stood up. Straight in front of the manger, he seemed to be tightening something between his arms. He bent and snapped slowly his lips, as if he was trying to calm the crying of a child. He smiled as smiles a mother at the sight of the first smile of the newly born. And when Anthony at the altar raised high the wafer, above which he had just pronounced the words of the transubstantiation, Francis too, raised the hands with his fingers wide open as if he wanted to show to everybody what he was holding…
When mass finished, around the manger shouts and chants exploded. And it was so until late night. The blazes and glares from the torches lit the white mountains as if they were eveloped by fire which glowed but did not burn. The chants kept on going. And when the people were stopping for a moment to sing, the song seemed to be suspended in the breath
The Friars enthusiastically kept on singing
"Rejoice, brothers! Jesus was born for us! Rejoice! Hallelujah!"
Dragged by the enthusiasm the friars ran happily between the rocks and the trees. The dogs were barking and the lamb was bleating. The shadows of the animals of the forest was visible in the snowy mountain. The birds awaken by the light, convinced that was day time, fluttered from branch to branch. The crows walked seriously stiff, rippling their long beaks…
Francis continued to stay close to the manger. It seemed he was holding something in his arms. Sometimes smiling joyously, sometime with an expression of sadness and anguish.
And only at dawn the songs stopped, the torches were put out and the friars started to gather in order to return home, Francis tore himself away from his dreams. He called to him Anthony. He placed a hand over Anthony arm and said:
"The little Jesus was laying as dead. But when I took him in my arms, he opened his eyes and smiled. Now it is you who have to make sure that he doesn’t shut his eyes and fall in torpor. He has come from love and he wants love. The world must remember that. We need to wake him up, we need to talk to him, to recommend ourselves to him. I was afraid of your science, friar, but now I don’t fear it any longer. You will speak... Go to France... And then... "
But he didn’t say what it was going to happen later.