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83 Franciscan Studies 64 (2006) GILES OF ASSISI: MYSTIC AND REBEL “O lady quail,” exclaimed Brother Giles filled with spiritual fervor, “I wish to come to you in order to listen closely and hear tell of the praises of the Lord. I want to remember that you do not say la la [there, there], but qua qua [here, here], as if to say, not there in some other life, but it is here, here that you must strive to do meritorious deeds.”1 This homely aphorism (and many others like it) notwithstanding, reading the three hundred Dicta or Sayings of Brother Giles in the Quarachi critical edition or translations thereof is for the most part tedious and uninspiring.2 Thematically organized in twenty-six chapters, the Dicta come across as more concerned with the practice of ascetical and moral virtues, often with a dualistic bent, than as having much of any bearing on the evolution of the early Franciscan movement or, for that matter, shedding much clarity on the nature of contemplation as other sources could lead us to expect. The other main sources for information about Giles are the three Vitae or lives, each with its distinctive characteristics: the so-called Short Life, fairly recently edited by 1 Chronica XXIV Generalium, in Analecta Franciscana, vol. 3 (Quaracchi: Coll. S Bonaventurae, 1897), 86. Hereafter abbreviated as 24Gen. 2 The initial draft of this paper, written in collaboration with Pierre Brunette, OFM, was presented at the 34th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University, 1998. The edition of the Dicta being used is Dicta Beati Aegidii Assisiensis in Bibliotheca Franciscana Ascetica Medii Aevi, vol. 3, ed. Gisbert Menge, OFM (Quaracchi: Coll. S. Bonaventurae, 1905). Hereafter as Dicta. A new and much needed critical edition is being prepared by Stefano Brufani, but its publication is not foreseen for the near future. For an English translation of the Dicta of Bro. Giles, see Golden Words: The Sayings of Brother Giles of Assisi with a biography by Nello Vian, trans. from the Italian by Leo O’Sullivan, OFM (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1966). For more current Italian introductions and translations of the Dicta see Eliodoro Mariani, La Sapienza di Frate Egidio Compagno di San Francesco con I Detti (Vincenza: LIEF, 1981); also, Egidio di Assisi, ed. by Taddeo Bargiel, trans. by Nello Vian in I Mistici: Scritti dei Mistici Francescani, Secolo XIII, vol. 1 (Bologna: Movimento Francescano, 1995), 66-169. The footnote references , originally in French, are largely the work of Pierre Brunette. I am also indebted to Kathryn Krug for the English translation of the Dicta that I am using. Both she and Colette Wisnewski read the entire text of this essay and made helpful suggestions. Unless otherwise indicated other translations from foreign languages are my own. 84 PIERRE BRUNETTE AND PAUL LACHANCE Rosalind Brooke;3 the Long Life which is a more comprehensive compilation of texts of varying value and located in the early fourteenthcentury Franciscan source entitled Chronicle of the Twenty-four Generals,4 and a third one close to the latter and unfairly considered of lesser importance .5 All three Lives are ascribed to Brother Leo, a close friend of Giles who outlived him by nine years and who, like him, was an early and very close companion of Francis. Because of these sources, the Dicta (in four surviving collections) and the Vitae, along with the many references to Giles in other early Franciscan hagiography, we are in a position to know more about him than any of Francis’s other early companions .6 We are faced with a conundrum, however, when we try to come up with a picture of who Giles really was. On the one hand, in the official sources for the life of Francis where Giles is mentioned, he is held up as a model of early Franciscan life. Hardly anything is said about his fraternal and social involvements and his daily activities. Moreover, these sources tend to increasingly idealize and encapsulate Giles into the role of a mystical persona, living in seclusion, and not having any impact, or so it seems, on the early Franciscan movement. On the other hand, the authors or...

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