repairs. And every year for the longest time, this statute was observed.

8
HOW HE REPROVED HIS VICAR FOR HAVING A SMALL HOUSE BUILT
AT THE PORTIUNCULA FOR THE RECITATION OF THE OFFICE

Another time blessed Francis's vicar began to build a small house where the brothers would be able to rest and say their hours. Because a large number of brothers would gather in that place, the brothers had no place where they could say the Office. For all the brothers of the Order flocked there, and no one was received into the Order except there.

When this house was almost completed, behold blessed Francis returned to that place, and staying in a cell, heard the noise of the laborers. He called his companion and asked what those brothers were doing? His companion told him the whole story.

Immediately he had his vicar called, and said to him: "Brother, this place is a model and example for the entire religion. And therefore, I want the brothers of this place first of all to bear trials and inconveniences for the love of the Lord God, so that the other brothers who come here will bring back to their places a good example of poverty, rather than their experiences of consolation, and the other brothers will take this as an example of building to their places. They will say: 'If at Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, which is the first place of the Order, such and such buildings are built, we too can build well in our own places.' "

9
HOW HE DID NOT WISH TO STAY IN A COMFORTABLE CELL
OR IN ONE WHICH WAS CALLED HIS OWN

One of the brothers, a deeply spiritual man, to whom blessed Francis was very close, was staying in a hermitage. He had a cell built, a little distance away in which blessed Francis would be able to stay for prayer whenever he came there.

When blessed Francis arrived at that place, that brother took him to the cell. Blessed Francis told him: "This cell is too beautiful!" For it was constructed of wood, rough hewn with axe and hatchet. "If you want me to stay there, have a cell made of ferns and tree branches inside and out." For the more the houses and cells were

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teneretur ipsam facere reparari. Et quolibet anno, usque ad magnum tempus, servatum fuit hoc statutum.

Qualiter increpavit vicariuni suum quia faciebat
ibi aedificari unam domunculam pro dicendo officio.
Caput 8.

¹Alio quoque tempore, vicarius beati Francisci coepit facere aedificari ibidem unam parvam domum, ubi fratres, possent quiescere et dicere horas suas; ²quia propter multitudinem fratrum venientium ad locum, illum, non habebant fratres, ubi possent dicere officium. ³Nam omnes fratres de ordine concurrebant illuc, et nullus recipiebatur ad ordinem nisi ibi.

⁴Cumque jam domus esset quasi completa, rediit ad locum illum beatus Franciscus, et manens in cella audivit rumorem laborantium ibi; et advocans socium suum interrogavit quid operabantur illi fratres. Cui socius narravit omnia sicut erant.

⁵Statim autem fecit vocari vicarium suum, et ait illi: « Frater, locus iste est forma et exemplum totius religionis, et ideo prius volo quod fratres hujus loci tolerent tribulationes et incommoda amore Domini Dei, ⁶et alii fratres qui huc veniunt, reportent bonum exemplum paupertatis ad loca sua, quam si isti haberent consolationes suas plenarie, et alii sumerent exemplum aedificandi in locis suis, ⁷dicentes: In loco Sanctae Mariae de Portiuncula, qui est primus locus ordinis, fiunt talia et tanta aedificia, bene possumus nos etiam aedificare in locis nostris ».

Quod nolebat stare in cella curiosa
vel quae diceretur esse sua.
Caput 9.

¹Quidam frater valde spiritualis, et familiaris multum beato Francisco, in eremitorio ubi manebat, fecit fieri quamdam cellam, aliquantulum remotam, in qua posset stare ad orationem beatus Franciscus, quando iret illuc.

²Cum autem venisset ad locum illum beatus Franciscus, ille frater duxit eum ad cellam. Cui dixit beatus Franciscus: « Nimis est pulchra cella ista! ». ³Erat enim solum de lignis dolatis cum securi et dolabro. « Si ergo vis quod maneam ibi, facias sibi fieri unum vestimentum interius et exterius de filicibus et ramis arborum ». ⁴Nam quanto domus et cellae erant magis pauperculae tanto libentius morabatur ibidem.