Paul Sabatier’s Life of St. Francis of Assisi is a historical biography of the founder of the Franciscan movement. It follows Francis’s spiritual path, his embrace of poverty, and his charitable ideal in medieval Italy. It is worth listening to for its vivid portrait of religious renewal and humanitarian devotion.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI BY PAUL SABATIER Quivere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi citharam Gioacchino di Fiore in Apoc. 182 a 2 TRANSLATED BY LOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON LONDON HODDER & STOUGHTON 1919 Copyright, 1894, by Charles Scribner's Sons, for the United States of America. Printed by the Scribner Press New York, U.S.A. TO THE STRASBURGHERS Friends! At last here is this book which I told you about so long ago. The result is small indeed in relation to the endeavor, as I, alas! see better than anyone. The widow of
the Gospel put only one mite into the alms-box of the temple, but this mite, they tell us, won her Paradise. Accept the mite that I offer you to-day as God accepted that of the poor woman, looking not at her offering, but at her love, Feci quod potui, omnia dedi. Do not chide me too severely for this long delay, for you are somewhat its cause. Many times a day at Florence, at Assisi, at Rome, I have forgotten the document I had to study. Something in me seemed to have gone to flutter at your windows, and sometimes they opened.... One evening at St. Damian I forgot myself and remained long after sunset. An old monk came to warn me that the sanctuary was closed. "Per Bacco!" he gently murmured as he led me away, all ready to receive my confidence, "sognava d'amore o di tristitia?" Well, yes. I was dreaming of love and of sadness, for I was dreaming of Strasbourg. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introduction, xi CHAPTER I. Youth, 1 CHAPTER II. Stages of Conversion, 15 CHAPTER III. The Church about 1209, 28 CHAPTER IV. Struggles and Triumphs, 53 CHAPTER V.
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