§ 70. ST. FRANCIS U'ASSISI. 403
Later tradition narrated very wonderful things about his power over nature,1 as for example the taming of the fierce wolf of Gubbio. He was the terror of the neighborhood. He ran at Francis with open mouth, but laid himself down at Francis' feet like a lamb at his words, " Brother Wolf, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to do no evil to me or to any man." Francis promised him forgiveness for all past offences on condition of his never doing harm again to human being. The beast assented to the compact by low ering his head and kneeling before him. He became the pet of Gubbio.
The last week of his life, the saint had repeated to him again and again the 142d Psalm, beginning with the words, " I cry with my voice unto Jehovah," and also his Canticle to the Sun. He called in brothers Angelo and Leo to sing to him about sister Death.2 Elias of Cortona, who had aided the Roman curia in setting aside Francis' original Rule, remon strated on the plea that the people would regard such hilarity in the hour of death as inconsistent with saintship. But Fran cis replied that he had been thinking of death for two years, and now he was so united with the Lord, that he might well be joyful in Him.3 And so, as Thomas a Celano says, " he met death singing." * At his request they carried him to the Portiuncula chapel. On his way he asked that his bed be turned so that once more his face might be towards Assisi. He could no longer see, but he could pray, and so he made a supplica tion to heaven for the city.5 At the church he broke bread
1 Little Flowers of Francis, 93-99. Anthony of Padua, also a Francis can, according to the same authority, pp. 165 sqq., preached to the fishes at Rimini and called upon them to praise God, seeing they had been preserved in the flood and saved Jonah. The fishes ascended above the water and opened their mouths and bowed their heads. The people of the city were attracted and Anthony used the occasion to preach a powerful sermon. In the legend of St. Brandon, it is narrated that when St. Brandon sang, the fishes lay as though they slept. Aurea Legenda, Temple Classics, vol. V.
2 Speculum, p. 241.
3 Qvontam, gratia Spiritus sancti cooperante, ita sum unitus et conjunctus cum Domino meo quod per misericordiam suam bene possum in ipso altissimo jocundari. Speculum, p. 237.
4 Mortem cantando suscepit. 2 CeL, 3, 139. 5 Speculum, 244 sq.
404 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1019-1201.
with the brethren, performing the priestly service with his own lips. On Oct. 3, 1226, to use Brother Leo's words, he " migrated to the Lord Jesus Christ whom he had loved with his whole heart, and followed most perfectly."
Before the coffin was closed, great honors began to be heaped upon the saintly man. The citizens of Assisi took possession of the body, and Francis' name has become the chief attraction of the picturesque and somnolent old town. He was canonized two years later.1 The services were held in Assisi, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. being present. The following day, the pontiff laid the corner stone of the new cathedral to Francis' memory. It' was dedicated by Inno cent IV. in 1243, and Francis' body was laid under the main altar.2 The art of Cimabue and Giotto has adorned the sanctuary within. The statuary of the modern sculptor, Dupre, in front, represents the great mendicant in the garb of his order with arms crossed over his chest, and his head bowed. Francis was scarcely dead when Elias of Cortona made the astounding announcement of the stigmata. These were the marks which Francis is reported to have borne on his body, corresponding to the five wounds on Christ's cruci fied body. In Francis' case they were fleshy, but not bloody excrescences. The account is as follows. During a period of fasting and the most absorbed devotion, Christ appeared to Francis on the morning of the festival of the Holy Cross, in the rising sun in the form of a seraph with outstretched wings, nailed to the cross. The vision gone, Francis felt pains in his hands and side. He had received the stigmata. This occurred in 1224 on the Verna,3 a mountain on the Up per Arno three thousand feet above the sea.
The historical evidence for the reality of these marks is as follows. It was the day after Francis' death that Elias of Cortona, as vicar of the order, sent letters in all directions
iPotthast, 8236, 8240, vol. T. 709-710.
2 There, after much searching, it is said to have been found, 1818. Pius VII., in 1822, declared it to be the genuine body of Francis.
3Sabatier gives a charming description of the region, showing his own in tense sympathy with nature.