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Introduction
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Francis of Assisi: Introduction / 3 Introduction Names and their Background Names are like sacraments: they point to something else, a story, a reality, a character. At the same time, they let this something be present. That is the case with Assisi. When you hear the name, an image appears: a town on a mountain, fixed—according to one background of its name, assiso, "situated"—in the light of the rising sun. A haze shrouds the roofs, the towers, the whole of Mount Subasio, as if a mystery were kept there. Heaven and earth, dream and reality, peace and war, light and darkness touch each other. The town is to serve as an altar—in accord with another possible origin of its name. The rising sun and the altar are both religious symbols. The town has felt a call for ages to a religious destiny.1 This call culminates in the name of one of its citizens: Francis. In the absence of his father, his mother names him John (the Baptist). As his father, Pietro Bernadone, returns and learns of this name, he becomes angry. This name suggests ascesis, poverty, fasting, desert, isolation—values diametrically opposed to his own philosophy of life. Therefore, the child has to be renamed. According to the country of the father's dreams, the name has to betoken gracefulness, wealth, poetry, troubadours, courtly manners. So he calls him Francesco, "little Frenchman." The child will be both John and Francis, a unique and fascinating combination that has not lost its impact to the present day. His contemporaries associate an enormous and unique freedom with his name. In Francis they face a man who is "frank and free," from whom emanates a liberated and liberative atmosphere (L3S 2; 2Cel 3; 1Cel 120).2 1 Arnaldo Fortini, Francis of Assisi, tr. Helen Moak (New York: Seabury Press, 1980) 91. Editors Note: When an English translation of a source is available, it is given as the only source. 2 Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, Part 1, tr. Granger Ryan and Helmut Rippergen (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1941) 597; Anton Rotzetter, "Der franziskanische Mensch zwischen Autorität und 4 / Anton Rotzetter, OFM Cap. Significance When someone emerges as son of God, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Like hardly anyone else, Francis of Assisi is the kind of person for whom creation is longing (Rom 8:18-22). As legend tells and history proves, the wolf has thoughts of peace, the rabbit loses its fears, birds listen, and the people gain self-knowledge. Encountering the saint of Assisi, creation comes to its own, discovers what it really is, and is drawn into the wake of a redeemed existence (1Cel 37, 58, 59; 3Cel 20-26; Fior 16, 21, 22, 24, 26).3 Encountering Francis, men and women of all ages discover new possibilities of life. After a time of denial and probing, countless men and women, married and single, follow him. He becomes model, rule, and way of life for all of them. Three different communities arise: a first order (today Conventuals, Franciscans, and Capuchins), a second order (today Poor Clares), and a third order, originally for those who were bound by either marriage or office (today an immense number of groupings, which live either as a religious community under Franciscan rule or as members of a secular Franciscan order). "He gives a guiding principle for their life to all, and even today truly shows to persons of every position the way to salvation" (1Cel 37). Today the importance of Francis may still be increasing. There have never been so many admirers of Francis outside the official Franciscan world. Maybe he is even better understood there. Within the Catholic world, hope is connected to his name, especially when talk is of the future of the world, of Christianity, of the church, and of the religious orders. He is a witness of undivided Christianity, and finds followers also among non-Catholics, even in the form of expressly Franciscan communities. Outside Christianity he finds admirers and followers as well. In Japan almost all leading philosophers find a connection to Francis. They recognize in him an affinity to older Japanese tradition. This kind of connection could be cited in Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and African culture. The whole world honors Francis of Assisi as a brother, as one who draws people Freiheit. Eine Re-Lectio der Regula non bullata des hl. Franziskus," Franziskanische Studien 59 (1977) 97-124...