He found himself in the same cell of four years before and once again he was facing Friar Elijah. The General Vicar had not changed. He seemed like in the past squirt by energy. Just as then he wasn’t able to stay put on the stool, but continued to stand up, to walk to and fro, gesticulating.
"I am glad that you have arrived so much in a hurry, Friar Anthony. I have sent for you right away. We need you here. I am aware of everything you have done in Languedoc and in France. It has been a good job. I have spoken more than once about you with Friar Francis, when he was sick. He admitted that thanks to you he understood that knowledge is important to the Friars. He even wrote you a letter. Here it is, in here there are his words.
He took from the hands of Friar Elijah a small leaflet filled by the known calligraphy little legible. He read:
"To Friar Anthony, my Bishop, Friar Francis wished good health. It is my wish that you teach theology to the Friars, as long as during the studies they don’t extinguish in themselves the spirit of prayer. Good bye."
At the bottom of the brief text there was a cross which seemed was drawn with trembing hands.
He touched the leaflet with his lips and looked inquiringly to Friar Elijah. Friar Elijah smiled and said:
"You did right to kiss this letter. Francis has lived like a Saint and he has died like a Saint. I spoke to the Pontif about him, and he has intention to raise him to the altars. The work he performed is enourmous. And it continues to grow. We will become the biggest order of the Church. Assisi will receive in pilgrimage innumerable crowds in the centuries to come. We have decided together with the Pontiff that on the hill we will build Francis sepulchre under the form of an immense convent. The Pontiff enthrusted this job to me. He blessed me and has consented for us to gather the money. In here will rise something that will shade all that has been built in the Christianity… I have already planned everything, I have spoken with the chief builders... Francis will be honoured as no other Saint.".
He waked to and fro in the cell without speaking with his hands intertwined behind his back. He had to give vent to his enthusiasm. Anthony kept silent. He too had at one time the same impulsive nature of Elijah. But years of work, years of prayer, the delusions and even his illness that tormented him, didn`t allow him to be as enthusiastic as Elijah.
Elijah finally stopped of walking to and fro. He re-started:
"During this year the General Chapter will be summoned. I think that the Friars may want that I engage myself as the guide of the order. In the meantime, on the base of the authority that I have, I nominate you Provincial of Romagna. There is the need to eradicate the cathara heresy. You must have acquired a lot of experience in France. All the same, more than to fight against heresy, it is necessary that you dedicate yourself to the teaching of our Friars in Bologna. I believe that after having read the letter you have no doubt about this. To Friar Stacia I have given the order to take up again the direction of the house of Bologna. Friar Francis was angry with him. But I am certain that after the interviews that I have had with him, in the period that preceded his death he will confirm my dispositions. I have sent away Friar Leon from Assisi...
"Friar Leon" is it allowed to know the motive? Elijah sat on the stool next to Anthony and placed in a friendly way his hand on Anthony’s knee.
"I have no obligation to unfold my dispositions, but I will tell it to you. You know Friar Leon. A sweet sheep, obedient. A simple man and not endowed with much acumen. In the first years Francis loved him very much and he took him with him wherever he went. He softened for his innocence. However Francis grew, while Leon has remained the small naïve man as he usual was. He and Friar Ginepro have become the buffoons of the order. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this, because even if the order evolves and acquires importance, the Friars should be good with those who were in the order at the beginning.
However Friar Leon in the last few months has started to dream most often. One night he saw in the dream Francis. And in which way! With claws on his hands and on his feet! Leon affirms that Francis said to him:
"I have golden and sharp claws so that with them I can tear to pieces my unworthy Friars. And naturally Friar Leon, the sheep, started to tell here and there his dream, and this naturally gave rise to a wasps’ nest of gossips of who is worthy or unworthy. I could not allow it."
For a little bit they both kept quiet, than Anthony asked:
"And what happened to the little lamb that was with Friar Francis?"
"It was all the time on the way, it didn’t want to obey to anybody. I believe that at the end it had been taken in the kitchen and had its throat cut.
Dear Friar Anthony, things have happened in the beginning which seemed important, however as we grow they become part of a legend. Life overcomes the legend, it evolves. In a hundred or two hundred years of Francis little lamb and of Leon people will talk as if it was a legend. Instead the convent that I will erect will last a thousand and more years. It will be the indestructible sign of the greatness of Francis and of the order of the Friars minor!"
There was once again silence in which was heard only the gasping breath of Friar Elia.
Anthony coughed.
Elijah lifted his head.
"How is your health?" he questioned "I know that it has not been the best."
"I have never been very healthy. I felt often very tired, my feet would swell...When Friar Francis sent me to France, I felt strong as I had never been. Unfortunately that didn`t last for very long. Sometimes I get tired to even breath and I swell..."
"I order you Friar to have yourself visited by a doctor. And this is an order" he raised his finger in a jocose way.
"Well, well, I know that you always obey the rules. But I want a healthy friar. You will be very necessary to me."
He spoke about the projects to restore the centre of the studies in Bologna. But very quickly he returned to the argument of the construction of the sepulchre-convent. One could perceive that he was thinking in continuation about it and that such a question had taken the upper hand over his other dreams.
"As I have already told you, Friar, the plans that I have prepared are of an enormous beauty. The convent will have to magnificent Churches, an upper and a lower one. The building will be surrounded by porticos. From the city side, the entrance will be wide. Thousands, what do I say, hundreds of thousands of people could enter the convent, go down to the crypt, admire the work of art ..."
"And who will fund it, Friar?"
"Some funds have been promised by the pontiff. The remainder should be gathered by the Friars."
"However, Friar Francis has forbidden to accept money."
"He has forbidden to accept money for itself, but not for the Church and for the convent. It is something that has to be well understood. Francis taught us that a Friars minor shouldn’t own anything. All the same is this possible? The single may not need anything, but the order has to have its houses, those who study need to have books, paper, ink. There, where there is a house of Friars, there is the need to be food reserves, material for the new habits... These are the laws of life. Our Friars are returning from countries in which winters are cruder than in our country. In those countries the snow takes entire months to melt. There is the need of wood to burn. We have Friars in England, Poland and Lithuania. And then houses of study, libraries. Friar Pacific has founded a house in Paris. Recently have risen several universities. In Naples, in Salerno, in Toulouse, in Salamanca... Nearby each of them must rise the houses for our Friars that study... You believe in that, don’t you, Friar?"
He bent slowly his head in gesture of assent.
He was not able to give an answer. Friar Elijah spoke in a persuasive way. One cannot live in the world and transform it without having the means to do it. Yet Francis repeated: poverty, poverty, poverty… Can man be poor for himself, and rich for the cause? Here is the mystery of the times to come. Here is the mystery of a new Holiness and different from the one of the man who went to teach without possessing a baton, a haversack and sandals.
Chapter 28
<
Chapter 28
<
He found himself in the same cell of four years before and once again he was facing Friar Elijah. The General Vicar had not changed. He seemed like in the past squirt by energy. Just as then he wasn’t able to stay put on the stool, but continued to stand up, to walk to and fro, gesticulating.
"I am glad that you have arrived so much in a hurry, Friar Anthony. I have sent for you right away. We need you here. I am aware of everything you have done in Languedoc and in France. It has been a good job. I have spoken more than once about you with Friar Francis, when he was sick. He admitted that thanks to you he understood that knowledge is important to the Friars. He even wrote you a letter. Here it is, in here there are his words.
He took from the hands of Friar Elijah a small leaflet filled by the known calligraphy little legible. He read:
"To Friar Anthony, my Bishop, Friar Francis wished good health. It is my wish that you teach theology to the Friars, as long as during the studies they don’t extinguish in themselves the spirit of prayer. Good bye."
At the bottom of the brief text there was a cross which seemed was drawn with trembing hands.
He touched the leaflet with his lips and looked inquiringly to Friar Elijah. Friar Elijah smiled and said:
"You did right to kiss this letter. Francis has lived like a Saint and he has died like a Saint. I spoke to the Pontif about him, and he has intention to raise him to the altars. The work he performed is enourmous. And it continues to grow. We will become the biggest order of the Church. Assisi will receive in pilgrimage innumerable crowds in the centuries to come. We have decided together with the Pontiff that on the hill we will build Francis sepulchre under the form of an immense convent. The Pontiff enthrusted this job to me. He blessed me and has consented for us to gather the money. In here will rise something that will shade all that has been built in the Christianity… I have already planned everything, I have spoken with the chief builders... Francis will be honoured as no other Saint.".
He waked to and fro in the cell without speaking with his hands intertwined behind his back. He had to give vent to his enthusiasm. Anthony kept silent. He too had at one time the same impulsive nature of Elijah. But years of work, years of prayer, the delusions and even his illness that tormented him, didn`t allow him to be as enthusiastic as Elijah.
Elijah finally stopped of walking to and fro. He re-started:
"During this year the General Chapter will be summoned. I think that the Friars may want that I engage myself as the guide of the order. In the meantime, on the base of the authority that I have, I nominate you Provincial of Romagna. There is the need to eradicate the cathara heresy. You must have acquired a lot of experience in France. All the same, more than to fight against heresy, it is necessary that you dedicate yourself to the teaching of our Friars in Bologna. I believe that after having read the letter you have no doubt about this. To Friar Stacia I have given the order to take up again the direction of the house of Bologna. Friar Francis was angry with him. But I am certain that after the interviews that I have had with him, in the period that preceded his death he will confirm my dispositions. I have sent away Friar Leon from Assisi...
"Friar Leon" is it allowed to know the motive? Elijah sat on the stool next to Anthony and placed in a friendly way his hand on Anthony’s knee.
"I have no obligation to unfold my dispositions, but I will tell it to you. You know Friar Leon. A sweet sheep, obedient. A simple man and not endowed with much acumen. In the first years Francis loved him very much and he took him with him wherever he went. He softened for his innocence. However Francis grew, while Leon has remained the small naïve man as he usual was. He and Friar Ginepro have become the buffoons of the order. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this, because even if the order evolves and acquires importance, the Friars should be good with those who were in the order at the beginning.
However Friar Leon in the last few months has started to dream most often. One night he saw in the dream Francis. And in which way! With claws on his hands and on his feet! Leon affirms that Francis said to him:
"I have golden and sharp claws so that with them I can tear to pieces my unworthy Friars. And naturally Friar Leon, the sheep, started to tell here and there his dream, and this naturally gave rise to a wasps’ nest of gossips of who is worthy or unworthy. I could not allow it."
For a little bit they both kept quiet, than Anthony asked:
"And what happened to the little lamb that was with Friar Francis?"
"It was all the time on the way, it didn’t want to obey to anybody. I believe that at the end it had been taken in the kitchen and had its throat cut.
Dear Friar Anthony, things have happened in the beginning which seemed important, however as we grow they become part of a legend. Life overcomes the legend, it evolves. In a hundred or two hundred years of Francis little lamb and of Leon people will talk as if it was a legend. Instead the convent that I will erect will last a thousand and more years. It will be the indestructible sign of the greatness of Francis and of the order of the Friars minor!"
There was once again silence in which was heard only the gasping breath of Friar Elia.
Anthony coughed.
Elijah lifted his head.
"How is your health?" he questioned "I know that it has not been the best."
"I have never been very healthy. I felt often very tired, my feet would swell...When Friar Francis sent me to France, I felt strong as I had never been. Unfortunately that didn`t last for very long. Sometimes I get tired to even breath and I swell..."
"I order you Friar to have yourself visited by a doctor. And this is an order" he raised his finger in a jocose way.
"Well, well, I know that you always obey the rules. But I want a healthy friar. You will be very necessary to me."
He spoke about the projects to restore the centre of the studies in Bologna. But very quickly he returned to the argument of the construction of the sepulchre-convent. One could perceive that he was thinking in continuation about it and that such a question had taken the upper hand over his other dreams.
"As I have already told you, Friar, the plans that I have prepared are of an enormous beauty. The convent will have to magnificent Churches, an upper and a lower one. The building will be surrounded by porticos. From the city side, the entrance will be wide. Thousands, what do I say, hundreds of thousands of people could enter the convent, go down to the crypt, admire the work of art ..."
"And who will fund it, Friar?"
"Some funds have been promised by the pontiff. The remainder should be gathered by the Friars."
"However, Friar Francis has forbidden to accept money."
"He has forbidden to accept money for itself, but not for the Church and for the convent. It is something that has to be well understood. Francis taught us that a Friars minor shouldn’t own anything. All the same is this possible? The single may not need anything, but the order has to have its houses, those who study need to have books, paper, ink. There, where there is a house of Friars, there is the need to be food reserves, material for the new habits... These are the laws of life. Our Friars are returning from countries in which winters are cruder than in our country. In those countries the snow takes entire months to melt. There is the need of wood to burn. We have Friars in England, Poland and Lithuania. And then houses of study, libraries. Friar Pacific has founded a house in Paris. Recently have risen several universities. In Naples, in Salerno, in Toulouse, in Salamanca... Nearby each of them must rise the houses for our Friars that study... You believe in that, don’t you, Friar?"
He bent slowly his head in gesture of assent.
He was not able to give an answer. Friar Elijah spoke in a persuasive way. One cannot live in the world and transform it without having the means to do it. Yet Francis repeated: poverty, poverty, poverty… Can man be poor for himself, and rich for the cause? Here is the mystery of the times to come. Here is the mystery of a new Holiness and different from the one of the man who went to teach without possessing a baton, a haversack and sandals.