ST. FRANCIS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 190, 17 November 1876, Page 15

ST. FRANCIS.

The Francisans were the sacred militia of the Middle Ages in the free Italian communes. Friends to the weak, foe 3to the oppressors, they lived on the charity of the people ; they despised the rich; courageous, because they sided with right; fearless, because they numbered legion ; free, because they did not possess anything, and so had nothing to lose. There is a whole series of poets belonging to this Order, the first of whom is St. Francis himself. Fond as he was of the poor, he does not care to sing in any other language than that of the people. His first song is a hymn to the sun; but the characteristic feature of this sacred troubadour, is that his marriage with poverty is but an imitation of the chivalrous usages of the time. He was handsome and young ; he had distributed his money in alms, he had learned the habits of the troubadours, the art of the courtier, the traditions of the Knights of the Round Table. He was a gay companion, the lord of banquets, the minstrel of society; he dreamed of wrongs to redress, of the innocent to save, of the weak to raise by his courage — he loved, in short, all the enterprises and adventures of knights-errant. He accompanies one of the Crusades; he bravely fights before Damietta; he conceives the formation of a new chivalry, the chivalry of Christ, and he returns to Italy to found his Order. But could there be a good chevalier without his dame? Certainly not. He had but just returned ; his friends visit him, and find him, thoughtful. " What is it ? " they ask; "do you think of choosing a wife?" " You have guessed," he says ; "I am thinking of marrying one that is to me the noblest, the richest, and most beautiful dame. My lady is Poverty." He then sings a hymn to Poverty, which he personifies, according to the symbolism of the time, seeing in her eyes the power of detaching souls touched with her love from all terrestrial thoughts and inclinations, and raising them to the contemplation of angels. On May 26, 1219, in the smiling valley below the city of Assisi, the i saint's native place, the first general review of his militia took place. They mustered five thousand men, encamped under the shade of the beautiful foliage. Their clothes were sackcloth, the earth their bed, a stone their pillow, and their recreation was | prayer, and the singing of hymns and psalms. People assembled i from all parts; poor and rich asked each other what it meant. "It is the camp of God — it is the holy chivalry." They were the followers of St. Francis, who had taken the oath of poverty, and were going to receive the watchword from their chief, which was — 1 " Love of God, nature and mankind ; poverty and humility." They i separate. They scatter themselves to all parts of the world, they ! consider themselves the chevaliers of faith. In the East they take j the place of the Knights Templar ; in the West they preach to the j Moors ; in Italy they assist the lepers and teach the people poetry — popular poetry — so that they may understand and sing the praises of God. In the sublime songs of St. Francis there breathes a spirit of faith and enthusiasm which, in spite of a language still rude and imperfect, gives them a harmony quite in accordance with the subject. His poems have a graceful and touching simplicity for one who reads them with a view to the life of their author. In reading them, one must remember that he wrote them when, absorbed in contemplation after a life of labor, he gave a positive farewell to the world, to look upon it from a lofty sphere, where he felt but love to God. This love he continually sang and taught in his works, which form one of the most interesting monuments of I primitive Italian life, faith, poetry, and literature. — ' Macmillan's | Magazine.'

As an indication of the progress ritualism ia making in England, it is stated tha 1 } vestments are worn in two hundred and fiftyone churches ; in seven hundred and fifteen candles are placed on the altar, and in three hundred and seventy instances the candles are lighted at the celebration of the communion.