Saint Francis of Assisi - Cultural Models

The French historian Jacques Le Goff is recognized for his work on the history of mentalities. In his book "Saint Francis of Assisi”, Le Goff unveils the cultural models of the 13th century and from these models seeks to define the attitude of the Franciscans and the perspective of evangelization of the religious inserted within the cultural standards of the era.

The development of the Franciscan Order takes place in the Italian Peninsula and its emergence is seen as revolutionary because it is a Monastic Order that will lead the urban masses to evangelization through example and preaching, something new for the period historic.

In the 4th century, the Order of Saint Benedict was active in the countryside, while the Franciscan apostolate gave preference to small and large cities in the 13th century. The space of Franciscanism will delimit a network of cities and roads due to the routine of travel and begging.

The Franciscans did not bother to build churches as they needed to preach in public places such as squares, houses and where the general public could be gathered.

In this way, they announce a new spirituality with the renunciation of the past, affirming that the present and the past are antagonistic and the future and the present are solidary. This belief in the future by the Franciscans leads us to reflect on the concepts of salvation and, why the French historian Jacques Le Goff would consider them as disseminators of collective salvation through humanity.

The charity preached by the Franciscans and other mendicants is emphasized in the Second Epistle to all the faithful where Francis states that “because we have love, we must give alms”. At the beginning of the 13th century, it is possible to see rich Italian merchants making large donations.

As for economic issues, Chapter VIII of Regula non Bullata recommends that pieces of money must be considered as stones. Despite their aversion to money, the Franciscans were responsible for reconciling the merchant-bankers with the Church and Christianity.

From then on, Franciscans and mendicants started a new system of beneficence, challenging established values ​​and taking care mainly of lepers in their works of mercy.

As far as religious structures are concerned, Francisco detests everything that is “superior”, intellectual work will be seen with suspicion by Francisco, the conception of science as a treasure goes against their desire for poverty and non-property, since there is a need to own books, expensive objects and luxuries in that era.

The place that Saint Francis reserved for women in the thirteenth century has a new perspective that did not exist in other religious circles at the time. Francis, in his preachings, refers to men and women. In Chapter XI of the Regula bullata, he forbids the brothers from suspicious relations or councils of women, such as entry into monasteries of nuns.

One of the distinctive traits of the clerics in relation to the laity was sexual abstinence and it was imposed on the friars by the Regula bullata. In this way, the boundary between marriage that separates clerics and laity is placed between the friars and the laity. The woman remains an ambiguous and dangerous being.

The Franciscans in the thirteenth century changed the Church's attitude towards the laity. Salvation will be linked to community penance and not to the high models of the hierarchy. It is found among the humble, the poorest, laity and clerics.

Aspects of medieval life in the 13th and 14th centuries surprise us for the magnificent civilization it produced, for the rare human quality of great men like Saint Francis of Assisi.

The inner peace, inner balance and happiness that come from a realistic acceptance of the human condition and from Christian optimism, were placed by the Franciscans at the heart of from Florence, and which generated in populations plagued by poverty the certainty of God's help, of his triumph, of peace and love announced at the doors of cathedrals.

Reference book: D'Haucourt, Geneviéve. Life in the Middle Ages.

Carlos Beto Abdalla
Historian and Master in Literary Studies