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from the dust of a worldly life;
but also gave him as a light for believers,
a practitioner, a leader, and a herald of Gospel perfection,
that by bearing witness to the light
he might prepare for the Lord a way of light and peace
to the hearts of his faithful.
Shining with the splendor of his life and teaching,
like the morning star in the midst of clouds, Sir 50:6
by his resplendent rays he guided into the light
those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, Lk 1:79
and like the rainbow shining among clouds of glory
he made manifest in himself
the sign of the Lord's covenant. Rom 10:15
He preached to people
the Gospel of peace and salvation,
being himself an angel of true peace.
Like John the Baptist,
he was destined by God
to prepare in the desert a way of the highest poverty
and to preach repentance by word and example.
First endowed with the gifts of divine grace,
he was then enriched
by the merit of unshakable virtue;
and filled with the spirit of prophecy,
he was also assigned an angelic ministry
and was totally aflame with a Seraphic fire.
Like a hierarchic man,a
lifted up on a fiery chariot, 2 Kgs 2:11
it may be reasonably accepted as true
that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, Lk 1:17
- The Latin text reads: vir hierarchicus [hierarchic man] a technical term through which Bonaventure refers to the process that restructures the soul according to its place in God’s design and to its true image, that is, among other creatures above and below it, and within itself. This approach has its roots in the writings of the Psuedo-Dionysius which had an enormous influence on the writers of the Middle Ages due to the translations of John Scotus Erigena (c. 810-c. 877) and, closer to the time of Bonaventure, Thomas Gallus (+1246). See Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, Volume III of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1998) 93-100. Bonaventure sees this hierarchical dimension of Francis’s life, as that of any Christian, as flowing from the presence of grace, that gift "that purges the soul, enlightens and perfects it; gives it life, reforms and stabilizes it; elevates, assimilates, and joins it to God." Cf. Breviloquium VI 1 (V 252).
Legenda Maior, Fontes Franciscani, p. 777-778
quod non solum de mundialis conversationis pulvere
suscitavit egenum,
verum etiam evangelicae perfectionis professorem, ducem atque praeconem effectum
in lucem dedit credentium,
ut testimonium perhibendo de lumine,
viam lucis et pacis
ad corda fidelium Domino praepararet.
3Hic etenim quasi stella matutina in medio nebulae,
claris vitae micans et doctrinae fulgoribus,
sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis
irradiatione praefulgida direxit in lucem,
4et tamquam arcus refulgens inter nebulas gloriae,
signum in se dominici foederis repraesentans,
pacem et salutem
evangelizavit hominibus,
5exsistens et ipse Angelus verae pacis,
secundum imitatoriam quoque similitudinem Praecursoris
destinatus a Deo,
ut viam, parans in deserto altissimae paupertatis,
tam exemplo quam verbo poenitentiam praedicaret.
6Primum supernae gratiae praeventus donis,
dehinc virtutis invictae adauctus meritis,
prophetali quoque repletus spiritu
nec non et angelico deputatus officio
incendioque seraphico totus ignitus
et ut vir hierarchicus
curru igneo sursum vectus,
sicut ex ipsius vitae decursu luculenter apparet,
rationabiliter comprobatur
venisse in spiritu et virtute Eliae.