In 1221, so some writers tell us,
Francis drew up a new rule for the Friars Minor. Others regard this
so-called Rule of 1221 not as a new rule, but as the first one
which Innocent had orally approved; not, indeed, its original form,
which we do not possess, but with such additions and modifications
as it has suffered during the course of twelve years. However this
may be, the composition called by some the Rule of 1221 is very
unlike any conventional rule ever made. It was too lengthy and
unprecise to become a formal rule, and two years later Francis
retired to Fonte Colombo, a hermitage near Rieti, and rewrote the
rule in more compendious form. This revised draft he entrusted to
Brother Elias, who not long after declared he had lost it through
negligence. Francis thereupon returned to the solitude of Fonte
Colombo, and recast the rule on the same lines as before, its
twenty-three chapters being reduced to twelve and some of its
precepts being modified in certain details at the instance of
Cardinal Ugolino. In this form the rule was solemnly approved by
Honorius III, 29 November, 1223 (Litt. "Solet annuere" ). This
Second Rule, as it is usually called or Regula Bullata of the
Friars Minor, is the one ever since professed throughout the First
Order of St. Francis (see RULE OF SAINT FRANCIS). It is based on
the three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, special stress
however being laid on poverty, which Francis sought to make the
special characteristic of his order, and which became the sign to
be contradicted. This vow of absolute poverty in the first and
second orders and the reconciliation of the religious with the
secular state in the Third Order of Penance are the chief novelties
introduced by Francis in monastic regulation.
It was during Christmastide of this year (1223) that the saint
conceived the idea of celebrating the Nativity "in a new manner",
by reproducing in a church at Greccio the praesepio of Bethlehem,
and he has thus come to be regarded as having inaugurated the
population devotion of the Crib. Christmas appears indeed to have
been the favourite feast of Francis, and he wished to persuade the
emperor to make a special law that men should then provide well for
the birds and the beasts, as well as for the poor, so that all
might have occasion to rejoice in the Lord.
Early in August, 1224, Francis retired with three companions to
"that rugged rock 'twixt Tiber and Arno", as Dante called La Verna,
there to keep a forty days fast in preparation for Michaelmas.
During this retreat the sufferings of Christ became more than ever
the burden of his meditations; into few souls, perhaps, had the
full meaning of the Passion so deeply entered. It was on or about
the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September) while
praying on the mountainside, that he beheld the marvellous vision
of the seraph, as a sequel of which there appeared on his body the
visible marks of the five wounds of the Crucified which, says an
early writer, had long since been impressed upon his heart. Brother
Leo, who was with St. Francis when he received the stigmata, has
left us in his note to the saint's autograph blessing, preserved at
Assisi, a clear and simple account of the miracle, which for the
rest is better attested than many another historical fact. The
saint's right side is described as bearing on open wound which
looked as if made by a lance, while through his hands and feet were
black nails of flesh, the points of which were bent backward. After
the reception of the stigmata, Francis suffered increasing pains
throughout his frail body, already broken by continual
mortification. For, condescending as the saint always was to the
weaknesses of others, he was ever so unsparing towards himself that
at the last he felt constrained to ask pardon of "Brother Ass", as
he called his body, for having treated it so harshly. Worn out,
moreover, as Francis now was by eighteen years of unremitting toil,
his strength gave way completely, and at times his eyesight so far
failed him that he was almost wholly blind. During an access of
anguish, Francis paid a last visit to St. Clare at St. Damian's,
and it was in a little hut of reeds, made for him in the garden
there, that the saint composed that "Canticle of the Sun", in which
his poetic genius expands itself so gloriously. This was in
September, 1225. Not long afterwards Francis, at the urgent
instance of Brother Elias, underwent an unsuccessful operation for
the eyes, at Rieti. He seems to have passed the winter 1225-26 at
Siena, whither he had been taken for further medical treatment. In
April, 1226, during an interval of improvement, Francis was moved
to Cortona, and it is believed to have been while resting at the
hermitage of the Celle there, that the saint dictated his
testament, which he describes as a "reminder, a warning, and an
exhortation". In this touching document Francis, writing from the
fullness of his heart, urges anew with the simple eloquence, the
few, but clearly defined, principles that were to guide his
followers, implicit obedience to superiors as holding the place of
God, literal observance of the rule "without gloss", especially as
regards poverty, and the duty of manual labor, being solemnly
enjoined on all the friars. Meanwhile alarming dropsical symptoms
had developed, and it was in a dying condition that Francis set out
for Assisi. A roundabout route was taken by the little caravan that
escorted him, for it was feared to follow the direct road lest the
saucy Perugians should attempt to carry Francis off by force so
that he might die in their city, which would thus enter into
possession of his coveted relics. It was therefore under a strong
guard that Francis, in July, 1226, was finally borne in safety to
the bishop's palace in his native city amid the enthusiastic
rejoicings of the entire populace. In the early autumn Francis,
feeling the hand of death upon him, was carried to his beloved
Porziuncola, that he might breathe his last sigh where his vocation
had been revealed to him and whence his order had struggled into
sight. On the way thither he asked to be set down, and with painful
effort he invoked a beautiful blessing on Assisi, which, however,
his eyes could no longer discern. The saint's last days were passed
at the Porziuncola in a tiny hut, near the chapel, that served as
an infirmary. The arrival there about this time of the Lady Jacoba
of Settesoli, who had come with her two sons and a great retinue to
bid Francis farewell, caused some consternation, since women were
forbidden to enter the friary. But Francis in his tender gratitude
to this Roman noblewoman, made an exception in her favour, and
"Brother Jacoba", as Francis had named her on account of her
fortitude, remained to the last. On the eve of his death, the
saint, in imitation of his Divine Master, had bread brought to him
and broken. This he distributed among those present, blessing
Bernard of Quintaville, his first companion, Elias, his vicar, and
all the others in order. "I have done my part," he said next, "may
Christ teach you to do yours." Then wishing to give a last token of
detachment and to show he no longer had anything in common with the
world, Francis removed his poor habit and lay down on the bare
ground, covered with a borrowed cloth, rejoicing that he was able
to keep faith with his Lady Poverty to the end. After a while he
asked to have read to him the Passion according to St. John, and
then in faltering tones he himself intoned Psalm cxli. At the
concluding verse, "Bring my soul out of prison", Francis was led
away from earth by "Sister Death", in whose praise he had shortly
before added a new strophe to his "Canticle of the Sun". It was
Saturday evening, 3 October, 1226, Francis being then in the
forty-fifth year of his age, and the twentieth from his perfect
conversion to Christ.
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