The Admonitions of St. Francis: Sources and Meanings

The Admonitions of St. Francis: Sources and Meanings

ix THE ADMONITIONS OF ST. FRANCIS: SOURCES AND MEANINGS FOREWORD In this study of the twenty-eight Admonitions of St. Francis of Assisi, I situate them in the spiritual context of their age. Previous commentators, writing mainly in languages other than English, have been my guides to this spiritual context. And I have eagerly pursued their references to how this or that admonition of Francis bore similarities to the thoughts and writings of John Cassian, Bernard of Clairvaux, and other spiritual giants. As I tracked down these parallels, two things became obvious to me. First, the parallels that are only available in Latin will be of no help to the general reader unless they are translated. So I provide my own translations of these sources in the body of my text and put the Latin original in the notes. Second, as has been my experience in my previous historical scholarship in the area of New Testament studies, tracking down one reference led me to others not mentioned by the commentators I was studying. Where necessary or appropriate, I have added these parallels in English translation in my text and have thereby greatly expanded the list of parallels given by Kajetan Esser (1978, 349-50). Part of the spiritual context of Francis’s age was the widespread use of Holy Scripture. Again I have stood on the shoulders of giants in this area of investigation as I have attempted to gauge Francis’s use of Scripture in the relatively small writing called the Admonitions. I have been amazed to discover that one third of Francis’s seventy-two biblical allusions in his Admonitions did not originate in his hearing of the Scriptures read in Church or in private or in the liturgy. Rather he acquired his interpretation of Scripture from a spiritual tradition he was quoting. For example, when Francis in Admonition 3.10 refers to the backslider returning “to the vomit” of his own will, he is not directly referring to Proverbs 26:11 or 2 Peter 2:22. There is widespread monastic evidence that the phrase “return to their vomit” was a traditional way of referring to persons who abandoned their previous religious commitments. Thus, when Francis took over that spiritual tradition, he willy-nilly took over its use of Proverbs 26:11 and 2 Peter 2:22, biblical texts that he may never have read or heard. x The Admonitions of St. Francis In studying Francis’s spiritual context, I often note how he seems to have adapted his spiritual legacy in creative ways. In a real and true sense he was an innovative traditionalist. Take the case of the very short Admonition 24 “On True Love.” In my commentary on this admonition I note how various religious institutes such as the Benedictines dealt with the care of their infirm brothers. It seems that Francis adapted these spiritual traditions to the unique situation of his brothers on the road of missionary preaching. What are the brothers to do when one of their own becomes seriously ill and they have a major preaching engagement the next day in a town thirty miles away? They are to practice true love and not abandon the sick friar. In exploring the ways in which Francis adapted the spiritual traditions of his day, we will be entering his theological workshop and seeing how, for example, Abba Francis imprinted his logo of “The Good God is the source of the good we do and say” on these spiritual traditions. During the course of our study the question will surface repeatedly: Did Francis write his Admonitions all by himself? Scholars talk about Francis’s secretaries and collaborators, and I generally agree. Thus, the phrase, “Francis wrote,” in this study is often a shorthand for “Francis and his collaborators and secretaries.” Moreover, our study will put into sharp focus what Francis meant when he called himself “ignorant and uneducated” (ignorans et idiota) in his Letter to the Entire Order 39. As I have worked on this monograph, people have asked me why I, a New Testament scholar, am writing on Francis and especially from this perspective of situating Francis in his spiritual milieu. There are two main reasons. First, this Franciscan was trained for this type of work in his doctoral education at Harvard University. There I studied Jesus and Paul and John in the context of the thought of their times: Qumran, Nag Hammadi, Cynic philosophers, Philo of Alexandria, and Lucian of Samosata. And I...