St. Francis of America: How a Thirteenth-Century Friar Became America’s Most Popular Saint by Patricia Appelbaum (review)

Patricia Appelbaum’s book traces the recent history of Franciscan historical scholarship in the United States, particularly as it developed in relationship to the growing popularity and broadening demographic appeal of Francis of Assisi. Her primary aim is to identify the origin and trace the development of American Protestantism’s increasing fascination with this Roman Catholic saint. Appelbaum organizes her historical survey chronologically and structures her work in nine chapters with an introduction and epilogue. In a way reminiscent of historical Jesus scholarship, Appelbaum argues that (a) the episodic renderings of Francis are always historically conditioned and (b) these various images often represent “alternatives to the cultural preoccupations of their times” (4).

Chapter one focuses on the nineteenth century during which time mainline Protestant authors began expressing interest in what had been the presumptive domain of Roman Catholicism; namely, the story and person of Francis. This interest was spurred on by a new perception of Francis’s historicity and growing interest in Italian art and travel. The reclamation of the person of Francis in this period resulted in the depiction of a man who exemplified “true Christianity,” an interpretation that unwittingly reflected the particular interests of the authors and their cultural and ecclesiastical agendas.

Appelbaum duly notes that it was Paul Sabatier’s 1893 biography Vie de Saint François d’Assise that marks the most significant turning point in the American Protestant embrace of Francis. This widely published and translated text presented Francis as “anti-institutional, independent, an imitator of Jesus, identified with the common man, a social and political activist, mystical and artistic” (31) and therefore particularly attractive to those seeking a countercultural Christian exemplar. Additionally, in chapter two, Appelbaum identifies several lesser-known European and American authors appearing after Sabatier. One of the more interesting of these is Vida Scudder (1861–1954), who wrote about the tension existing between the growing admiration for Francis’s radical evangelical example and the compromised or comfortable Christian life many Americans enjoyed or strove to achieve. Her work, among others, represents the shift toward a more socially aware attraction to Francis throughout the twentieth century.

Chapters three through five present a detailed overview of the changing interpretations of Francis from Sabatier through the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Chapter six shows how the hippie and peace movements appropriated Francis, which paved the way for artistic representations like Franco Zeffirelli’s film Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973). Meanwhile, Lynn White’s famous 1967 article implicating Christianity in environmental degradation concurrently elevated Francis as the “patron saint for ecologists.”

In chapter seven, Appelbaum situates Francis within the modern American Protestant milieu, highlighting popular practices like the blessing of the animals. Chapter eight offers a summary of contemporary anecdotal views of Francis gleaned from a small survey Appelbaum administered (the questionnaire for which appears as a brief appendix). Chapter nine and the epilogue present Appelbaum’s arguments for Francis’s continued relevance and a recapitulative conclusion.

The earlier chapters of this book are by far the most substantive in terms of novel contributions. Many of the examined authors and their respective works will be unknown to most readers, including those Franciscan scholars and medievalists unfamiliar with nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history of religion. This book is well researched and the sources cited offer scholars a valuable resource concerning a period (ca. 1850–1950) that is not as frequently considered in contemporary Franciscan scholarship as other periods.

And yet, this book could have been stronger in the chapters covering the 1960s through today. For example, while the anecdotal results of Appelbaum’s survey are interesting, it strikes this reviewer as an unnecessary departure from the otherwise straightforward historical work of earlier chapters. Additionally, though Appelbaum’s admitted primary focus is American Protestantism, she occasionally makes reference to the work of Roman Catholic scholars...