The Writings of Francis of Assisi: Letters and Prayers

Letter to the Custodians

lETTEr TO ThE CuSTOdIaNS mIChaEl W. blaSTIC I. ESTablIShINg ThE TExT There are two existing versions of the Letter to the Custodians. (1) The first edition of the letter is transmitted in only one manuscript : the mid-thirteenth-century codex 225 of the Guarnacci Library in Volterra, discovered and published by Paul Sabatier in 1902.1 In this manuscript Francis identifies himself as the author in verse one. The presence of pre-scholastic terminology to refer to the action of the Eucharistic transformation (sanctificare or sacrificare instead of consecrare ), as well as the stylistic characteristic of nine sentences beginning with “and” (et), convinced Esser of the authenticity and attribution of the letter to Francis. In addition, the content reflects that of the Admonition to the Clergy. (2) The second edition of the letter was published in 1623, by Luke Wadding in his Francisci Assisiensis Opuscula.2 Wadding claimed to have discovered a Spanish translation of the text which originated 1 PaulSabatier,Collectiond’étudesdedocumentssurl’histoirereligieuseetlittérairedu Moyen Age, vol. 2 (Paris: Fischbacher, 1898), 135-36. See the essay by Pellegrini in this volume for a description of the Volterra codex.The Chronicle of theTwenty-Four Generals indicates that Giovanni Parenti made a statute at the 1230 chapter mandating that the Body of the Lord must be preserved“summa cum reverentia in argentea vel eburnea pixide infra bene serratum capsellam,”Analecta Franciscana III, 211, 694. Since Francis’s recommendations in the letter were implemented by that time, it might explain the lack of more extant manuscripts of the text. 2 L. Wadding, B.P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula. Nunc primum collecta tribus tomis distinct, notis et commentariis asceticis illustrata. Antwerp, 1623, 54. The Writings of Francis of Assisi 108 in Saragoza, Spain, which he then translated back into Latin to produce his edition. Given that this edition was supposed to have been preserved since the time of John Parenti, the first minister in Spain, it would have had to have been a translation from a Latin original. Given the two translations from which his Latin text results, the linguistic form of the letter as presented by Wadding is not original, and should not be included among the authentic writings of Francis. This version of the letter, found in Wadding’s collection, refers to three texts of Francis: the Admonition to the Clergy, the First Letter to the Custodians, and the Letter to the Rulers of People. It also appears to be a postscript intended to remind the custodians both to publish these texts and put them into practice. Neither the French edition of the Écrits nor the Italian edition of the Scritti included the Letter to the Custodians. Esser, however, was convinced of the authenticity of the text. He considered it impossible for a forger to come to a knowledge of the Letter to the Custodians, which apart from the Volterra codex, had disappeared from the tradition. More recently, Carlo Paolazzi accepted the arguments of Esser for authenticity, and includes it among the authentic writings of Francis, although he does not accept the changes Esser made to the edition of Wadding’s text.3 The genre of the text is clearly that of a letter, because of its inclusion of the addressee, the writer and the greeting in the first verse of the text. II. aPPrOaChINg ThE TExT This letter draws from the same sources of the Admonition to the Clergy, and places on the custodians of the brothers the onus of disseminating the same message to the preaching brothers. Thus, the teaching of the Fourth Lateran Council and Pope Honorius III regarding the Eucharist form the basis for Francis’s teaching, and thus we can see Francis responding here to the reform initiated by the council. 3 Carlo Paolazzi, “Le Epistole maggiori di frate Francesco, edizione critica ed emendamenti ai testi minori,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 101 (2008): 19-20. Paolazzi would accept Wadding’s reading of verse seven: “facite statim multa exemplaria et copias” (make many examples and copies); and he would include the ending salutation which Esser omitted:“Valete in Domino”(Farewell in the Lord). The Writings of Francis of Assisi 109 In addition, the context reflects a time after Francis’s return from the Middle East in 1220. The reference in verse eight that God be praised “at every hour and whenever the bells are rung” seems to reflect the practice of the Muslim salat.4 Given that...