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and in the world to come eternal life Mt 19:29
not only for himself,
but also for many others.
Chapter VIII
HOW HE OVERCAME FEELINGS OF SHAME,
AND HIS PROPHECY ABOUT THE POOR VIRGINS
13 He struggled to turn his earlier, luxurious way of life in a different direction, and to lead his unruly body back to its natural goodness.a One day the man of God was going through Assisi begging oil to fill the lamps in the church of San Damiano, which he was then rebuilding. He saw a crowd carousing by the house he intended to enter. Turning bright red, he backed away. But then, turning his noble spirit toward heaven, he rebuked his cowardice and called himself to account. He went back immediately to the house, and frankly explained to all of them what had made him ashamed. Then, as if drunk in the Spirit,b he spoke in French, and asked for oil, and he got it.c He fervently encouraged everyone to help repair that church, and in front of everyone Gn 23:10 he cried out in French that some day that place would be a monastery of Christ’s holy virgins.d
Whenever he was
filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit Is 4:4
he would speak in French,
bursting out in fiery words,
for he could foresee
that he would be honored
with special reverence by that people.
- In this passage Thomas accents a theme found in Athanasius’s Life of Anthony 20, that the return to natural goodness highlighted that the Lord "may recognize his work as being just the same as he made it." Athanasius, Life of Anthony and The Letter to Marcellinus, translation and introduction by Robert C. Gregg, preface by William A. Clebsch (New York, Ramsey, Toronto: Paulist Press, 1980), 47.
- See the Ambrosian hymn Splendor Paternae Gloriae, for Monday Lauds in the Roman Office: laeti bibamus sobriam ebrietatem Spiritus [as joyful people, let us drink the sober drunkenness of the Spirit].
- For the use of French see FA:ED I 194 b. Although this incident is found in L3C 24, Thomas emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in prompting Francis to burst into French.
- Curiously, Clare’s Testament refers to this same prophecy of Francis, but suggests that it was already a monastery. Cf. Clare, Testament 13 in Clare of Assisi: Early Documents.
Vita Secunda Sancti Francisci, Fontes Franciscani, p. 455
et in futuro non sibi tantum
sed et multis
vitam acquisivit aeternam.
Caput VIII
De verecundia quam vicit,
et prophetia pauperum virginum.
13 1Studet proinde pristinam consuetudinem delicatam ordine converso mutare, et ad naturae bonum iam lascivitum reducere corpus suum. 2Ibat una die per Assisium homo Dei ut mendicaret oleum ad luminaria concinnanda in ecclesia Sancti Damiani, quam tunc temporis reparabat . 3Et videns hominum multitudinem ludentium ante domum consistere quam intrare volebat, rubore perfusus retraxit pedem . 4Sed illo suo nobili spiritu in caelum directo, propriam desidiam arguit et de semetipso sumit iudicium. Revertitur statim ad domum, et libera voce coram omnibus verecundiae causam exponens, quasi spiritu ebrius lingua gallica petit oleum et acquirit. 6Ferventissime ad opus illius ecclesiae animat omnes, et monasterium futurum esse ibidem sanctarum virginum Christi, audientibus cunctis, gallice loquens clara voce prophetat.
7Semper enim cum ipse
ardore Sancti Spiritus repleretur,
ardentia verba foris eructans
gallice loquebatur,
se apud illam gentem praecipue
honorandum praenoscens,
et reverentia speciali colendum.