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show us His will, so that once we know it with more certainty, we may confidently approve your holy desire."a
10 The servant of Almighty God,
giving himself totally to prayer,
obtained through his devout prayers
both what he should say outwardly
and what the pope should hear inwardly.
For when he told a parable, as he had accepted it from God, about a rich king who gladly betrothed a poor but lovely woman who bore him children with the king's likeness, and, for this reason were fed at his table, he added his own interpretation. "The sons and heirs of the eternal King should not fear that they will die of hunger. They have been born of a poor mother by the power of the Holy Spirit in the image of Christ the King, and they will be begotten by the spirit of poverty in our poor little religion. For if the King of heaven promises his followers an eternal kingdom, he will certainly supply them with those things that he gives to the good and the bad Mt 5:45 alike."
While the Vicar of Christ listened attentively to this parable and its interpretation, he was quite amazed and recognized without a doubt that Christ had spoken in this man. But he also confirmed a vision he had recently received from heaven, that, as the Divine Spirit indicated, would be fulfilled in this man. He saw in a dream, as he recounted, the Lateran basilica almost ready to fall down. A little poor man, small and scorned, was propping it up with his own back bent so that it would not fall. "I'm sure," he said "he is the one who will hold up Christ's Church by what he does and what he teaches." Because of this, filled with exceptional devotion, he bowed to the request in everything and always loved Christ's servant with special love. Then he granted what was asked and promised even more. He approved the rule, gave them a mandate to
- The following paragraph, except for the first sentence, was added to Bonaventure’s text by Jerome of Ascoli, Minister General of the Order, 1274-1279, and later Pope Nicholas IV. He learned of it from Cardinal Riccardo degli Annibaldi, a relative of Innocent III; cf. Arnold of Saurrant, "Chronicle of the Twenty-Four Generals," in AF III, 365: "When ‘he arrived’ [‘’LJS 21] at the Roman Curia and was led into the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, ‘he explained his proposal,’ asking with humility and persistence that that rule of life be approved. The Vicar of Christ was in the Lateran Palace, walking in a place called the Hall of the Mirror, occupied in deep meditation. Knowing nothing of Christ’s servant, he sent him away indignantly. Francis left humbly, and the next night God showed the Supreme Pontiff the following vision. He saw a palm tree sprout between his feet and grow gradually until it became a beautiful tree. As he wondered what this vision might mean, the divine light impressed upon the mind of the Vicar of Christ that this palm tree symbolized the poor man whom he had sent away the previous day. The next morning he commanded his servants to search the city for the poor man. When they found him near the Lateran at Saint Anthony’s hospice, he ordered him brought to his presence without delay."