St. Francis of AssisiChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Religion
St. Francis of Assisi
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Francis, of Assisi, Saint, 1182-1226
But if the Second Order was the memorial of such an unearthly love, the
Third Order was as solid a memorial of a very solid sympathy with
earthly loves and earthly lives. The whole of this feature in Catholic
life, the lay orders in touch with clerical orders, is very little
understood in Protestant countries and very little allowed for in
Protestant history. The vision which has been so faintly suggested in
these pages has never been confined to monks or even to friars. It has
been an inspiration to innumerable crowds of ordinary married men and
women; living lives like our own, only entirely different. That morning
glory which St. Francis spread over earth and sky has lingered as a
secret sunshine under a multitude of roofs and in a multitude of rooms.
In societies like ours nothing is known of such a Franciscan following.
Nothing is known of such obscure followers; and if possible less is
known of the well-known followers. If we imagine passing us in the
street a pageant of the Third Order of St. Francis, the famous figures
would surprise us more than the strange ones. For us it would be like
the unmasking of some mighty secret society. There rides St. Louis, the
great king, lord of the higher justice whose scales hang crooked in
favour of the poor. There is Dante crowned with laurel, the poet who in
his life of passions sang the praises of the Lady Poverty, whose grey
garment is lined with purple and all glorious within. All sorts of great
names from the most recent and rationalistic centuries would stand
revealed; the great Galvani, for instance, the father of all
electricity, the magician who has made so many modern systems of stars
and sounds. So various a following would alone be enough to prove that
St. Francis had no lack of sympathy with normal men, if the whole of his
own life did not prove it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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