"Father Fernando! Father Fernando! Have you heard the great news?"
Fernando had, by this time, spent eight years in the Monastery of
Saint Cross in Coimbra studying incessantly and eventually becoming a Priest. The silence of the Monastery, the separation of all the worldly matters, the aswsiduous studies and the ardent prayers had silenced the impetus of his blood. By this time Fernando was convinced to have found the way to follow and thus he was tenaciously believing that he would proceed on this path till the end olf his earthly days.
When the family had discovered where the runaway was, his brothers had gone to the capital asking for the restitution of Fernando. The prior of the canonical had opposed. The brothers had put in motion all the possible influences. They had even gone to the almighty queen. It didn’t serve to anything: both the court and the bishop supported the monastery and the runaway. The storm lasted several months before it calmed down.
Fernando finally could dedicate his life calmly to his studies.
He studies a lot devouring a book after the other. He had excellent memory. In a brief period of time he became famous in his knowledge of the New Testament. In fact if someone opened the New Testament and read a verse, Fernando was able to quote by heart without hesitation the verses that followed. He investigated with enthusiasm the texts of the Fathers of the Church. He deepened with delight the writing of Saint Augustine and Saint Isidoro of Seville. He overcame all the other novices. He became the pride of the monastery. He was ordered Priest. The canonicals made him intervene in public disputes. He was delivering homilies in the court chapel at the presence of the regal couple.
His study companions were becoming parish Priests, but the monastery didn’t want to renounce to him.
He celebrated the mass every day in the church of the canonical, the most beautiful in Coimbra, sumptuous and filled of rich donations by the king Sancho and the queen Uraca. Every Sunday he delivered homilies to crowds of people gathering in the Church.
One day, arriving at the Church to prepare for the Mass, he saw a small group of ragged men walking barefoot, standing under the pulpit. Each of them wore a greyish habit, made from rough material that reminded him of a sack, with a small hood on the shoulders. As a belt they wore a common rope. Their habits were frayed to the edges, full of patches sewn roughly. Their beards were unkempt. Their bristly hair gave them the appearance not so much of mendicant, as of minstrels who were about to give a show in the plaza. Their facial expression with their illuminated eyes showed an indescribable joy.
From a hidden spot in the Church Fernando observed them for a long time. He knew who they were. They were the penitents from Assisi. They were Francis` disciples. That Francis whose name ran more and more thick on everyone`s mouth. There were several Christian movements in that era. The movements were called sects. Between the names of the rulers of these movements, the name of Francis applied more and more above the others. As to who he was, the opinion were divided. He was a propagator of heretical teachings, he was the head of rebellious poor people, a madman and a buffoon. Or he was an ardent disciple of Christ, according to others.
The rich Clergy looked at these ragged men with contempt. However these people had their protectors. When, not long ago, these people arrived in Coimbra, the Bishop, by intercession of the Queen, gave them a half destroyed Chapel, a mile distant from the capital.
The Chapel was consecrated to Saint Anthony, the hermit. The penitents accepted the Chapel. They built around it some huts to live in, while in the Chapel they prayed and sang. There was no priest amongst them. The Chapel raised in the middle of an olive grove.
Each morning the penitents would go, two by two, by the surrounding farms. They would ask for work. They would accept any work that was given to them and would work very hard. In change of their work they would not ask for money, they would ask uniquely for food and only that much that they were able to eat. With the occasion, the imparted to the people brief teachings. They didn’t have any doctrine, so that what they were saying was simple. They continued to say that God is good, that he loves men and that, because of this, men should be happy and feel happy. They, themselves, during the work, even the heaviest one, laughed and joked.
The farmers had become very affectionate to them. They were greeted with joy. They had earned friendship between the children, to whom they imparted teachings and taught religious songs. They gave their help to anyone who needed it. They watched over sick people, they went to look for lost livestock, they saved with abnegation the properties, if in some place burst a fire o menaced an inundation. For the Sunday Mass they went in one of the Church close to where they lived. And so they started to make their appearances in the Church of Saint Cross.
Fernando saw them often in Church, but he never went close to them. Their torn habits, their rough manners, and the noisy laughter disturbed him. He had maintained the good manners of a son of the Buglione’s family, the preference of clean and beautiful habits, and the gravity of managing and of speaking. But more than the exterior aspect of the penitents, Fernando was upset of the thought that in the midst of these ragged men would have gone his unforgettable friend, Berardo.
"Would he have the same appearance?" he thought. How happy would he be if Berardo was close to him, if they could exchange their impressions on questions raised from their studies, especially the question for him so riveting if Mary could have been touched by the original sin, yet having to become the Mother of the Saviour!
The clear and receptive intellect of Fernando every time was making extraordinary discovery. The science of God, the more he was penetrating the more seemed bigger. He felt as someone who was introduced in an enormous edifice wonderfully built. The more he tried to acquire mastery of that immensity, the more he felt wonder, discovering always more marvels of such construction.
People as Abelardo had tried to build something by themselves, persuaded that in such a way they were giving glory to God. He thought that he could never do anything to better the work that he was discovering, and that he could only imitate, with his person, with his life and his behaviour, the amazing beauty of the lines of the construction that surrounded him.
There was one thing that continued to remain a mystery for him: which one was the relationship between the beauty acknowledged by the intellect in comparison to the beauty that his human eyes were seeing. The first fascinated him, the second, although attracted him, aroused in him distrust. He preferred not to see it. He preferred to feel like the ancient wise person who from the depth of his cavern observes on the illuminated wall the play of the trembling shades…
Instead Francis wanted something totally opposed. This little man, son of a merchant, after varied storms and juvenile follies had renounced to all he had, house, parents, wealth, position, friends, and had gone around the world. He had become the messenger of the goodness of God and of the joy of living. But it was a particular joy.
"Cheer up" was saying Francis "because you have nothing, yet the world is beautiful. Renounce everything and you will find all. Do not aspire for anything, and then the wealth will suffice. God has lavished sufficient gifts, and only if the most avid people would stretch their hand it won’t be enough for all. In order to give to those who do not have, we must take to those who have, but we need to take away starting from ourselves..."
With words all this could be explained. In practice however it looked pure madness. Fernando, himself, had abandoned without regret the wealth of his house. He didn’t ask for much. It was enough, a cell, the possibility of reading books, the silence. Would Francis say that this was too much? Is that what he said to Berardo?
What every way it was, it didn`t matter, for Berardo decided to follow him. He had renounced to what he had including the possibility to acquire science. Berardo`s retreat from him, didn`t cease to sadden Fernando.
Because of him he felt aversion towards these ragged men diffusers of naïve doctrines and of a joy likewise ingenue.
Many years had gone by since the time the penitents lived in the olive grove around the Chapel and participated at the Saint Cross Mass on Sundays. One certain Sunday arrived at the Church a more numerous group than the usual. The new comers were no different than the previous groups. Again with ragged habits tied by a rope, small hoods on the nape and shortened hair. From their sleeves came out the red chapped hands. They prayed with fervour, coughing and pulling up with their noses.
This time Fernando was able to see and recognise the figure of his friend. One of the ragged man was Berardo.
After the Mass the penitents prayed for a long time. Sitting apart, Fernando attended patiently till they finished. Then he drew near them and called:
" Berardo!"
The other lifted the head. Fernando saw the eyes and the smile of his dearest friend.
"Is that you Fernando? How happy am I to see you! I didn’t expect to find you here. I thought you were still in the monastery in Lisbon."
They hugged. But in that hug Fernando realised that his friend’s habit emanated an unpleasant odour, which was an impregnation of sweat and raining water and that recalled the bad odour of moldy straw.
"So you have come back?" he said. Berardo shook his head.
"No. I am going. We stopped here only for a rest. We are five and we are going to announce the word of God to the Saracens..."
"To the Saracens? How did you get that idea?" Berardo continued to smile mildly. "Friar Francis decided during the last Chapter that there is a need to send Friars between the Mohammedan infidels to try to convert them. He was going to follow us, but his health didn’t allow him. He has lost his strength and so he was forced to remain. He assigned Friar Vitale the job to substitute him. But even Friar Vitale fell ill. The Friars chosen unworthy me as their superior..."
Fernando looked at his friend for a little while, and then at the small group. These people wanted to go amongst the enemies against which the Christians had been fighting for years in a difficult war, and instead of the sword they wished to bring the word of God. His family had fought in crusades for many generations, and that fully persuaded him that there couldn`t have been any success in his friend`s mission.
"Do you know how to speak Arabic?" he asked. They shook their head, and Berardo said:
"Remember that some time ago I was able to understand and make myself understood by the Saracen.
Because of this the Friars, despite my unworthiness have chosen me as their guide. I hope that Jesus will give me suitable words..." He shrugged his shoulders. He added:
"Where do you want to go?"
"To Seville."
"Seville is governed by the Sultan Emir. When our knights have defeated the black, the Sultan had taken refuge in Marocco."
"Now there is no war. There is peace."
"There is no peace between Christians and Muslims!"
"We are not going to fight."
"Nevertheless they would not hesitate of killing you, one by one."
"If God wants it, it will be our greatest joy. We do not desire nothing more than to give our blood in change of the blood that Jesus shed for us."
He quivered in hearing these words. Didn’t he think like this once? In his family the death in the field was the same. Entering in a monastery he didn`t renounce to this dream, he had only postponed it. On the other hand, the death in a battle appeared as something different in comparison to the spontaneous sacrifice of life.
Almost guessing his thoughts, Berardo said:
"Just in this way Jesus lost his life. Not in a battle. He offered it willingly even for those who tried to kill him. Friar Francis taught us that we must behave this way..."
"It would not have been difficult" he thought "to find words from the Gospel in order to disprove what had been said by Berardo. All the same who of them was in the right? Their death," he tried to persuade himself "will not be of any use. They won`t obtain anything. But, had Jesus taught that we have to fight in order to reach victory? Didn`t he say: ‘who will despise his life, will preserve it? So that the seed would give birth to the spike, it must die in the earth…’
"When will you leave?" he asked after a moment of silence.
"Tomorrow."
"I would like to speak to you again."
Berardo made a gesture of consent. He said something to the Friars, they bowed and went away.
"I am listening Fernando."
"We haven’t seen each other for a long time." he started.
"Remember that when we said good bye we went for a walk on bay? I do not know what happened to you in all these years. Tell me what you have done, and where have you been."
"I went to Italy to look for Francis. I went to Assisi, at the Porziuncola, because I had been told that was the favourite place of Friar Francis. As you probably know, it is an old Chapel outside the walls of the city, raised in honour of Our Lady of the Angels. Francis found it ruined and repaired it with his own hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ called him to do that job. When I arrived in Assisi, Francis was not there. The Friars who built their huts close to the Porziuncola greeted me with cordiality and advised me to wait for the arrival of Francis, because he was in Rome to see the Pope. He went to see the Pope and ask for his permission to follow his new Order. He begged the Pope to confirm it. That rule, however, was not well liked by the papal environment. Famous Cardinal said that Francis demanded impossible things for himself and for his followers: they would not imagine that men could actually renounce to every thing they possessed. Such poverty is outside the efforts of man, and God cannot accept that. The Pope, hearing the Cardinals` ideas, sent Francis home and asked him to pray until God revealed what his will was. In the meantime appeared in his dream a small man dressed in rags that resembled Francis, who supported with his arms the walls of Saint John in Laterano, which were at the point of collapsing. When the Pontiff saw Francis, the day after, he summoned him close, he hugged tightly and conferred him the right to indoctrinate the world…
"So the Pope in person has approved the work of Francis?"
"Yes. And he has even promised that in time he would designate new assignments.
Francis and those Friars returned at the Porziuncola. Then I introduced myself to him and he greeted me in the group of his Friars. Each day there were new candidates, and he accepted some, and he postponed some others, telling them to live their usual live. He gave me a new name. We are not called anylonger penitents of Assisi, but Friars minor... The lowest, since we must be subdued to all. Between the candidates there were also two sisters: Chiara and Agnes. And they too expressed the wish of sharing the life as the Friar minor. Francis accepted their vows, and when there was a small group of women, he gave them the Church and the Monastery of San Damiano. O, if you could only see what splendid life of poverty lead those sisters! Sister Chiara is the most ardent disciple of Friar Francis…"
"He certainly is very happy?"
"He is happy of everything that is good for the glory of the Lord. However while Chiara with her sisters live closed in a convent, Francis has invited the Friars to go amidst men, availing himself of the permission of the Pope. It has been almost a year that we wander from city to city, from village to village... We help the population and impart them our teaching."
"And all Friars are educated to deliver homilies?"
"O no, certainly not. In fact we are the least. But see, Fernando, Francis doesn`t expect from his Friars the knowledge, but an ardent heart. We do not go amidst doctors and professors, but between simple people, common."
"Your Francis has always had despise for science and doctrine."
"It is not so. He doesn’t despise science, but he is afraid of it, that it would make educated people too proud. He wants us to be simple, seeing that we have to serve simple people."
"Are you trying to imitate the disciples of the famous Peter Valdo?"
"No. Valdo announce the sacred laws. Francis, the blessing of God. Valdo presents himself as God defender, Francis speaks of the love of Jesus, Valdo indicates to the world the sins, stigmatises the customs of the Bishops and of the Priests, Francis announces the joy, turns his call to those that want salvation, and imposed to honour those that through the word show that Christ is present on the altar..."
Berardo stopped and looked at his friend whose face betrayed the thoughts that were whirling in his head.
After an instant of silence he restarted:
"As I have told you, during the last reunion of the Friars, Francis established that while some of the Friars will reach different European countries and will come back even again in Germanic land, from which recently they were sent away, others must go to convert the Saracen. He has heard that the Sultan Abu Yaqub, whose father was defeated in Toulouse, wished to be baptized. He has given us the task to reach him and to convert him..."
"Mad! A man that doesn’t want books and stays away from knowledge wants to convert?" Berardo didn`t protest in front of this effusion. He continued to speak with calm.
"He wanted to come with us. However when he said goodbye to us he said that when he will get well he will go in the Holy Land. In Perugia he has met the Bishop of Acri and learned from him that in the Reign of Jerusalem are happening horrible things. The Christians instead of preoccupying in the re-conquest of the Saint Sepulchre and other lost memories, are fighting with one another, they even have armed fights... The customs are completely pagans. Only the passions, the possession of gold and of power, govern men. The Bishop has implored Francis to send some Friars because he is afraid that the new crusade instead of re-enforcing the Christian spirit will be overcome by the breakup..."
"What could these Friars do with their lack of doctrine? In the crusade had gone many learned people… Francis is a crazy man, but you, Berardo, you have given yourself blindly to him!"
As Berardo told Fernando, the five Friars left the day after. After some time Fernando heard that the Friars minor reached Seville but the Emir who governed the city not knowing what to do with them, ordered to put them on a ship and to be sent to the Sultan, Christians Miramolino, in Marocco. For quite a long period nobody heard any thing about the Friars.
The contact with Marocco were quite tight.
The Commander of the armies of the Sultan was Don Pedro, junior brother of the king of Portugal. Because there was discords between brothers, he took service by AbuYaqub, carrying with himself a crowd retinue of knights and of Christian soldiers. Since the epoch of the last victory, between the kingdom of Castile, of Aragona and of Portugal and the kingdom of the Almohadi dominated peace. Commerce bloomed: ships loaded of merchandise crossed uninterruptedly the courses in the two directions.
That day he dreaded most however arrived. As he was exiting the Chapel he heard:
"Father Fernando! A serious, terrible news! The Saracen has, cruelly killed those Friars minor that have been here a month ago. The Sultan has beheaded them with his own hands, after having submitted them to cruel tortures. It is terrible, but it is even magnificent! It is in fact new martyrdom! News saints!"
Chapter 6
"Father Fernando! Father Fernando! Have you heard the great news?"
Fernando had, by this time, spent eight years in the Monastery of
Saint Cross in Coimbra studying incessantly and eventually becoming a Priest. The silence of the Monastery, the separation of all the worldly matters, the aswsiduous studies and the ardent prayers had silenced the impetus of his blood. By this time Fernando was convinced to have found the way to follow and thus he was tenaciously believing that he would proceed on this path till the end olf his earthly days.
When the family had discovered where the runaway was, his brothers had gone to the capital asking for the restitution of Fernando. The prior of the canonical had opposed. The brothers had put in motion all the possible influences. They had even gone to the almighty queen. It didn’t serve to anything: both the court and the bishop supported the monastery and the runaway. The storm lasted several months before it calmed down.
Fernando finally could dedicate his life calmly to his studies.
He studies a lot devouring a book after the other. He had excellent memory. In a brief period of time he became famous in his knowledge of the New Testament. In fact if someone opened the New Testament and read a verse, Fernando was able to quote by heart without hesitation the verses that followed. He investigated with enthusiasm the texts of the Fathers of the Church. He deepened with delight the writing of Saint Augustine and Saint Isidoro of Seville. He overcame all the other novices. He became the pride of the monastery. He was ordered Priest. The canonicals made him intervene in public disputes. He was delivering homilies in the court chapel at the presence of the regal couple.
His study companions were becoming parish Priests, but the monastery didn’t want to renounce to him.
He celebrated the mass every day in the church of the canonical, the most beautiful in Coimbra, sumptuous and filled of rich donations by the king Sancho and the queen Uraca. Every Sunday he delivered homilies to crowds of people gathering in the Church.
One day, arriving at the Church to prepare for the Mass, he saw a small group of ragged men walking barefoot, standing under the pulpit. Each of them wore a greyish habit, made from rough material that reminded him of a sack, with a small hood on the shoulders. As a belt they wore a common rope. Their habits were frayed to the edges, full of patches sewn roughly. Their beards were unkempt. Their bristly hair gave them the appearance not so much of mendicant, as of minstrels who were about to give a show in the plaza. Their facial expression with their illuminated eyes showed an indescribable joy.
From a hidden spot in the Church Fernando observed them for a long time. He knew who they were. They were the penitents from Assisi. They were Francis` disciples. That Francis whose name ran more and more thick on everyone`s mouth. There were several Christian movements in that era. The movements were called sects. Between the names of the rulers of these movements, the name of Francis applied more and more above the others. As to who he was, the opinion were divided. He was a propagator of heretical teachings, he was the head of rebellious poor people, a madman and a buffoon. Or he was an ardent disciple of Christ, according to others.
The rich Clergy looked at these ragged men with contempt. However these people had their protectors. When, not long ago, these people arrived in Coimbra, the Bishop, by intercession of the Queen, gave them a half destroyed Chapel, a mile distant from the capital.
The Chapel was consecrated to Saint Anthony, the hermit. The penitents accepted the Chapel. They built around it some huts to live in, while in the Chapel they prayed and sang. There was no priest amongst them. The Chapel raised in the middle of an olive grove.
Each morning the penitents would go, two by two, by the surrounding farms. They would ask for work. They would accept any work that was given to them and would work very hard. In change of their work they would not ask for money, they would ask uniquely for food and only that much that they were able to eat. With the occasion, the imparted to the people brief teachings. They didn’t have any doctrine, so that what they were saying was simple. They continued to say that God is good, that he loves men and that, because of this, men should be happy and feel happy. They, themselves, during the work, even the heaviest one, laughed and joked.
The farmers had become very affectionate to them. They were greeted with joy. They had earned friendship between the children, to whom they imparted teachings and taught religious songs. They gave their help to anyone who needed it. They watched over sick people, they went to look for lost livestock, they saved with abnegation the properties, if in some place burst a fire o menaced an inundation. For the Sunday Mass they went in one of the Church close to where they lived. And so they started to make their appearances in the Church of Saint Cross.
Fernando saw them often in Church, but he never went close to them. Their torn habits, their rough manners, and the noisy laughter disturbed him. He had maintained the good manners of a son of the Buglione’s family, the preference of clean and beautiful habits, and the gravity of managing and of speaking. But more than the exterior aspect of the penitents, Fernando was upset of the thought that in the midst of these ragged men would have gone his unforgettable friend, Berardo.
"Would he have the same appearance?" he thought. How happy would he be if Berardo was close to him, if they could exchange their impressions on questions raised from their studies, especially the question for him so riveting if Mary could have been touched by the original sin, yet having to become the Mother of the Saviour!
The clear and receptive intellect of Fernando every time was making extraordinary discovery. The science of God, the more he was penetrating the more seemed bigger. He felt as someone who was introduced in an enormous edifice wonderfully built. The more he tried to acquire mastery of that immensity, the more he felt wonder, discovering always more marvels of such construction.
People as Abelardo had tried to build something by themselves, persuaded that in such a way they were giving glory to God. He thought that he could never do anything to better the work that he was discovering, and that he could only imitate, with his person, with his life and his behaviour, the amazing beauty of the lines of the construction that surrounded him.
There was one thing that continued to remain a mystery for him: which one was the relationship between the beauty acknowledged by the intellect in comparison to the beauty that his human eyes were seeing. The first fascinated him, the second, although attracted him, aroused in him distrust. He preferred not to see it. He preferred to feel like the ancient wise person who from the depth of his cavern observes on the illuminated wall the play of the trembling shades…
Instead Francis wanted something totally opposed. This little man, son of a merchant, after varied storms and juvenile follies had renounced to all he had, house, parents, wealth, position, friends, and had gone around the world. He had become the messenger of the goodness of God and of the joy of living. But it was a particular joy.
"Cheer up" was saying Francis "because you have nothing, yet the world is beautiful. Renounce everything and you will find all. Do not aspire for anything, and then the wealth will suffice. God has lavished sufficient gifts, and only if the most avid people would stretch their hand it won’t be enough for all. In order to give to those who do not have, we must take to those who have, but we need to take away starting from ourselves..."
With words all this could be explained. In practice however it looked pure madness. Fernando, himself, had abandoned without regret the wealth of his house. He didn’t ask for much. It was enough, a cell, the possibility of reading books, the silence. Would Francis say that this was too much? Is that what he said to Berardo?
What every way it was, it didn`t matter, for Berardo decided to follow him. He had renounced to what he had including the possibility to acquire science. Berardo`s retreat from him, didn`t cease to sadden Fernando.
Because of him he felt aversion towards these ragged men diffusers of naïve doctrines and of a joy likewise ingenue.
Many years had gone by since the time the penitents lived in the olive grove around the Chapel and participated at the Saint Cross Mass on Sundays. One certain Sunday arrived at the Church a more numerous group than the usual. The new comers were no different than the previous groups. Again with ragged habits tied by a rope, small hoods on the nape and shortened hair. From their sleeves came out the red chapped hands. They prayed with fervour, coughing and pulling up with their noses.
This time Fernando was able to see and recognise the figure of his friend. One of the ragged man was Berardo.
After the Mass the penitents prayed for a long time. Sitting apart, Fernando attended patiently till they finished. Then he drew near them and called:
" Berardo!"
The other lifted the head. Fernando saw the eyes and the smile of his dearest friend.
"Is that you Fernando? How happy am I to see you! I didn’t expect to find you here. I thought you were still in the monastery in Lisbon."
They hugged. But in that hug Fernando realised that his friend’s habit emanated an unpleasant odour, which was an impregnation of sweat and raining water and that recalled the bad odour of moldy straw.
"So you have come back?" he said. Berardo shook his head.
"No. I am going. We stopped here only for a rest. We are five and we are going to announce the word of God to the Saracens..."
"To the Saracens? How did you get that idea?" Berardo continued to smile mildly. "Friar Francis decided during the last Chapter that there is a need to send Friars between the Mohammedan infidels to try to convert them. He was going to follow us, but his health didn’t allow him. He has lost his strength and so he was forced to remain. He assigned Friar Vitale the job to substitute him. But even Friar Vitale fell ill. The Friars chosen unworthy me as their superior..."
Fernando looked at his friend for a little while, and then at the small group. These people wanted to go amongst the enemies against which the Christians had been fighting for years in a difficult war, and instead of the sword they wished to bring the word of God. His family had fought in crusades for many generations, and that fully persuaded him that there couldn`t have been any success in his friend`s mission.
"Do you know how to speak Arabic?" he asked. They shook their head, and Berardo said:
"Remember that some time ago I was able to understand and make myself understood by the Saracen.
Because of this the Friars, despite my unworthiness have chosen me as their guide. I hope that Jesus will give me suitable words..." He shrugged his shoulders. He added:
"Where do you want to go?"
"To Seville."
"Seville is governed by the Sultan Emir. When our knights have defeated the black, the Sultan had taken refuge in Marocco."
"Now there is no war. There is peace."
"There is no peace between Christians and Muslims!"
"We are not going to fight."
"Nevertheless they would not hesitate of killing you, one by one."
"If God wants it, it will be our greatest joy. We do not desire nothing more than to give our blood in change of the blood that Jesus shed for us."
He quivered in hearing these words. Didn’t he think like this once? In his family the death in the field was the same. Entering in a monastery he didn`t renounce to this dream, he had only postponed it. On the other hand, the death in a battle appeared as something different in comparison to the spontaneous sacrifice of life.
Almost guessing his thoughts, Berardo said:
"Just in this way Jesus lost his life. Not in a battle. He offered it willingly even for those who tried to kill him. Friar Francis taught us that we must behave this way..."
"It would not have been difficult" he thought "to find words from the Gospel in order to disprove what had been said by Berardo. All the same who of them was in the right? Their death," he tried to persuade himself "will not be of any use. They won`t obtain anything. But, had Jesus taught that we have to fight in order to reach victory? Didn`t he say: ‘who will despise his life, will preserve it? So that the seed would give birth to the spike, it must die in the earth…’
"When will you leave?" he asked after a moment of silence.
"Tomorrow."
"I would like to speak to you again."
Berardo made a gesture of consent. He said something to the Friars, they bowed and went away.
"I am listening Fernando."
"We haven’t seen each other for a long time." he started.
"Remember that when we said good bye we went for a walk on bay? I do not know what happened to you in all these years. Tell me what you have done, and where have you been."
"I went to Italy to look for Francis. I went to Assisi, at the Porziuncola, because I had been told that was the favourite place of Friar Francis. As you probably know, it is an old Chapel outside the walls of the city, raised in honour of Our Lady of the Angels. Francis found it ruined and repaired it with his own hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ called him to do that job. When I arrived in Assisi, Francis was not there. The Friars who built their huts close to the Porziuncola greeted me with cordiality and advised me to wait for the arrival of Francis, because he was in Rome to see the Pope. He went to see the Pope and ask for his permission to follow his new Order. He begged the Pope to confirm it. That rule, however, was not well liked by the papal environment. Famous Cardinal said that Francis demanded impossible things for himself and for his followers: they would not imagine that men could actually renounce to every thing they possessed. Such poverty is outside the efforts of man, and God cannot accept that. The Pope, hearing the Cardinals` ideas, sent Francis home and asked him to pray until God revealed what his will was. In the meantime appeared in his dream a small man dressed in rags that resembled Francis, who supported with his arms the walls of Saint John in Laterano, which were at the point of collapsing. When the Pontiff saw Francis, the day after, he summoned him close, he hugged tightly and conferred him the right to indoctrinate the world…
"So the Pope in person has approved the work of Francis?"
"Yes. And he has even promised that in time he would designate new assignments.
Francis and those Friars returned at the Porziuncola. Then I introduced myself to him and he greeted me in the group of his Friars. Each day there were new candidates, and he accepted some, and he postponed some others, telling them to live their usual live. He gave me a new name. We are not called anylonger penitents of Assisi, but Friars minor... The lowest, since we must be subdued to all. Between the candidates there were also two sisters: Chiara and Agnes. And they too expressed the wish of sharing the life as the Friar minor. Francis accepted their vows, and when there was a small group of women, he gave them the Church and the Monastery of San Damiano. O, if you could only see what splendid life of poverty lead those sisters! Sister Chiara is the most ardent disciple of Friar Francis…"
"He certainly is very happy?"
"He is happy of everything that is good for the glory of the Lord. However while Chiara with her sisters live closed in a convent, Francis has invited the Friars to go amidst men, availing himself of the permission of the Pope. It has been almost a year that we wander from city to city, from village to village... We help the population and impart them our teaching."
"And all Friars are educated to deliver homilies?"
"O no, certainly not. In fact we are the least. But see, Fernando, Francis doesn`t expect from his Friars the knowledge, but an ardent heart. We do not go amidst doctors and professors, but between simple people, common."
"Your Francis has always had despise for science and doctrine."
"It is not so. He doesn’t despise science, but he is afraid of it, that it would make educated people too proud. He wants us to be simple, seeing that we have to serve simple people."
"Are you trying to imitate the disciples of the famous Peter Valdo?"
"No. Valdo announce the sacred laws. Francis, the blessing of God. Valdo presents himself as God defender, Francis speaks of the love of Jesus, Valdo indicates to the world the sins, stigmatises the customs of the Bishops and of the Priests, Francis announces the joy, turns his call to those that want salvation, and imposed to honour those that through the word show that Christ is present on the altar..."
Berardo stopped and looked at his friend whose face betrayed the thoughts that were whirling in his head.
After an instant of silence he restarted:
"As I have told you, during the last reunion of the Friars, Francis established that while some of the Friars will reach different European countries and will come back even again in Germanic land, from which recently they were sent away, others must go to convert the Saracen. He has heard that the Sultan Abu Yaqub, whose father was defeated in Toulouse, wished to be baptized. He has given us the task to reach him and to convert him..."
"Mad! A man that doesn’t want books and stays away from knowledge wants to convert?" Berardo didn`t protest in front of this effusion. He continued to speak with calm.
"He wanted to come with us. However when he said goodbye to us he said that when he will get well he will go in the Holy Land. In Perugia he has met the Bishop of Acri and learned from him that in the Reign of Jerusalem are happening horrible things. The Christians instead of preoccupying in the re-conquest of the Saint Sepulchre and other lost memories, are fighting with one another, they even have armed fights... The customs are completely pagans. Only the passions, the possession of gold and of power, govern men. The Bishop has implored Francis to send some Friars because he is afraid that the new crusade instead of re-enforcing the Christian spirit will be overcome by the breakup..."
"What could these Friars do with their lack of doctrine? In the crusade had gone many learned people… Francis is a crazy man, but you, Berardo, you have given yourself blindly to him!"
As Berardo told Fernando, the five Friars left the day after. After some time Fernando heard that the Friars minor reached Seville but the Emir who governed the city not knowing what to do with them, ordered to put them on a ship and to be sent to the Sultan, Christians Miramolino, in Marocco. For quite a long period nobody heard any thing about the Friars.
The contact with Marocco were quite tight.
The Commander of the armies of the Sultan was Don Pedro, junior brother of the king of Portugal. Because there was discords between brothers, he took service by AbuYaqub, carrying with himself a crowd retinue of knights and of Christian soldiers. Since the epoch of the last victory, between the kingdom of Castile, of Aragona and of Portugal and the kingdom of the Almohadi dominated peace. Commerce bloomed: ships loaded of merchandise crossed uninterruptedly the courses in the two directions.
That day he dreaded most however arrived. As he was exiting the Chapel he heard:
"Father Fernando! A serious, terrible news! The Saracen has, cruelly killed those Friars minor that have been here a month ago. The Sultan has beheaded them with his own hands, after having submitted them to cruel tortures. It is terrible, but it is even magnificent! It is in fact new martyrdom! News saints!"
