Francis of Assisi: History, Hagiography and Hermeneutics in the Early Documents (review)

This book follows on the three-volume publication (1999-2001, New City Press) of "Early Documents" on Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). The "Early Documents" begin with the writings of Francis and his brothers from 1209 to 1226; they continue with narratives about Francis of Assisi, from his death down to Arnald of Sarrant's collection of material in 1365. J. A. Wayne Hellmann opens the essays under review with a survey of the three volumes. Hellmann belonged to the group of three (with Regis J. Armstrong and William J. Short) that initiated the project and guided it to its happy conclusion. Hellmann knows the three volumes from the inside, sort of as a beloved cross he bore for ten years. His "Francis of Assisi: Saint, Founder, Prophet" (pp. 15-38) is a fine survey of the volumes to which then the following essays refer.

In his foreword to these essays, Joseph Chinnici refers to a reader's hesitation when looking at the three hefty volumes, wondering: "Where do I begin?" And he offers the essays as a "much-needed beginner's guide" (p. 10). On the other hand, the editor of the book, Jay Hammond, characterizes these essays as "forays into the Early Documents" ("Preface," p. 13), eager as he is to test the "new research possibilities" offered by the volumes. Certainly Hammond's own contribution to the collection, "Saint Francis's Doxological Mysticism in Light of His Prayers" (pp. 105-152), ventures more deeply into a limited selection of texts, in critical dialogue with a wide array of scholarship, than a beginner might want to go. The same can be said for a few other contributions, more involved with debating scholarship than with easing entry into the literature on Francis. Still, Chinnici's beginners will find much help in Hellmann's survey. And Ingrid Peterson's pages, "Clare of Assisi: Hidden Behind What Image of Francis?" (pp. 39-63), will certainly help a beginner interested in Clare of Assisi and, at the same time, get the reader used to the "Early Documents." William Short offers a reader good guidance for a critical perusal of Thomas of Celano's 1229 "Life of Saint Francis" (pp. 153-163).

Then there are two essays that neither introduce nor study the "Early Documents." Lawrence Cunningham offers his thoughts on Francis' clothes, both thosehe put on and those he took off. His sensitive essay ("Francis Naked and Clothed: A Theological Meditation," pp. 165-178) exemplifies the human feelings Francis awakened in artists then and awakens in many today. Marilyn Hammond's "Francis as Struggling Hermeneut" (pp. 210-228) gives philosophical support to the interpretations we ceaselessly conduct, although she does not show much acquaintance with the "Early Documents" themselves.

Chinnici refers to "the communities of memory" that used Francis to legitimate their ways as Franciscan (p. 10). The differences between the communities manifest themselves starkly in the debatable distinction between the official and unofficial accounts of Francis' life. (The distinction is debatable because of the role it has played in the politics of scholarship on Francis of Assisi.) I think it is important to point out that we have to do with distinct "communities of (scholarly) memory" today still. The publication of the "Early Documents" derives from the polemics around the narrative sources for Francis of Assisi's history, touched off around 1900. The close attention given the early Franciscan writings ("The Writings of Saint Francis") developed from work made public after World War II. The former will always be more literary, whereas the latter more historical.