Alexandre Gonçalves

Prof. Kendall Rogers

The Testament of St. Francis of Assisi

In the preceding days of his death, Francis of Assisi dictated to his brothers a testament. In this
document, he recorded the beginning of his life of penance and service to the poor, his commitment with the
faith of the church and obedience to its hierarchy, and above all, his engagement with the radical poverty as
a model of Gospel like discipleship.1

The Testament of Francis contains a brief inventory of his life and experience in the Order of Friars
Minor, as well as a reaffirmation of the general principles and fundamental values of that fraternity. 2
Through the Testament, he intended to exhort and encourage the current and future friars, though with an
authoritative tone,3 to assure their commitment in the following of the Early Rule4 of the Friars in a vigilant
way, without additions.5 Francis, as the initiator of a movement that was introduced into the church
structure, felt directly responsible before it to live the Gospel according to the form and spirituality
expressed in the Rule.6

Son of a successful Italian merchant of fabrics and a noble French woman, Francis of Assisi was born in
11827 in Assisi, Italy. Baptized by his mother as Giovanni Bernardone, he had his name changed by his
father, Peter Bernardone, as Francesco, or Francis as he is known.8 Instructed in Latin, French and

1
. William C. Placher. "Francis of Assisi: The Testament." In Readings in the History of Christian Theology,
Vol. 1, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988), 153.
2
. Idib.
3
. Wendy Murray. A Mended and Broken Heart: The Life and Love of Francis of Assisi (New York: Basic
Books, 2008), 38.
4
. Written in 1209, the called Early Rule was a document intended to regulate the community life of the Friars
Minor and their methods of mission. There were yet two recasts of the Rule, written in 1221 and 1223, in order to
reinforce the ideal of poverty. Arnaldo Fortini. Francis of Assisi (New York: Seabury Press, 1981), 270, 470-74, 523.
5
Murray says that both before and after the death of Francis, there were some brothers of the Friars Minor
“who wanted to make adaptations to the way of life within the order,” and especially after his death, the factionalism
became greater among them. Murray, op. cit., 164.
6
. Fortini. Francis of Assisi (New York: Seabury Press, 1981), 270. 607
7
. Fortini, 84.
8
. Fortini, asserts that Peter Bernardone was “exceedingly angry” with the name chosen by Pica, Francis’
mother. Ironically, for him, Giovanni (John) remitted to the poor hermit from the desert, not an appropriate image for a
son of a rich merchant. Fortini, Francis of Assisi, 88.
Provençal language, he grew up as a proud, self-conceited, and miser young man. 9 At age 20, Francis took
part in in the war between Assisi and Perugia, where he was imprisoned and later, became seriously ill. 10
Nearly a year later he was freed, mainly due the intervention of his father, who negotiated the releasing of
his son.11 When returning to Assisi, Francis experienced a slow process of spiritual conversion, which led
him to gradually abandon his mundane and self-centered lifestyle. 12

At age 25, Francis renounced the wealth of his family and, divested of his goods, became a hermit,
devoting himself to serve the lepers.13 Later, in 1209, inspired by a passage of the Gospel (Matthew 10:7-10)
he decided to start a life of preaching, and soon attracted followers with whom he founded the Order of
Friars Minor, or “the order of the lesser brothers”. 14 Their fraternity, which required absolute simplicity of
life, humility, and contemplation,15 was recognize by Pope Innocent III in 1209.16 However, ten years after
its foundation, the Order was already facing internal conflicts, what led Francis to renounce the
administration of the Order and concentrate efforts to the establishment of the Third Order. 17

In 1224, after 40 days of a spiritual retreat in La Verna, he returned to Assisi, from where, years ago,
he had moved away.18 Before Francis died in 1226, he dictated his Testament as his last effort against the
disfigurement of his ideal of simplicity, humility, and service to the poor Soon later, in 1228, he was
canonized by Pope Gregory IX.19

As it is a dictation, Francis' Testament is relatively simple and objective, but also laden of grief and
20
melancholy. After nearly two decades since its foundation, the Order of the Friars Minor had multiplied,
9
. Paul Sabatier and Jon M. Sweeney (The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis. Brewster,
Mass: Paraclete Press), 5.
10
. Fortini, 159-60.
11
. Ibid., 165, 169.
12
It was told that Francis had mystical experience while praying in the church of San Damiano, whose
maintenance status was terrible. He would have heard his name being called by Jesus, who would have said Francis for
three times to repair the church that was in ruins. Fortini, 215-16.
13
Justo L. González. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (Vol. 1.
New York: HarperOne, 2010), 360.
14
. Idib.
15
. Justo L. González. A History of Christian Thought: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation, Vol.
II (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987), 270.
16
. Fortini, 300-302.
17
. The second order was that founded in 1212, also known as the Poor Clares, in reference to Clare of
Assisi. Fortini, 349-353, 520.
18
. Sabatier, 124.
19
. Murray, 160.
20
. Fortini, 607.
at times in a disorderly manner, resulting in either supplanting of certain measures that were vital to Francis,
or incorporating practices that he considered deviations from the original purposes of that fraternity.21 Due
the growth of the Order, a group of friars questioned the principle of voluntary poverty, requesting a
mitigation of the rule, particularly with regard to the ownership of assets and properties. Concerned about
the weakening of the Order and of its ideals, Francis commanded to the friars to keep their compromise
with the absolute poverty, what obviously meant the non-possession of goods. He was so committed with
such ideal that affirmed that the minister general of the fraternity should remand in custody all those who
were not intended to follow the Rule or were aiming to make adaptations in it. 22 For this reason, in his
Testament, Francis vigorously and passionately presented anew some elements from the origins of the order
he considered fundamental and indispensable at that moment of crisis.

Firstly, when describing his former life, which was "lived in sin", he said that God sent him to the
lepers, while he still disgusted them. Having disgust with the lepers, Francis was not able to offer mercy to
them. Nevertheless, because God converted him, having mercy on him, Francis was able to overcome his
repugnance to the lepers and open himself to those lives starved of care and affection.23 From this
experience of otherness, Francis found himself also able of opening up to the faith, the church, and to the
world in which he lived. When narrating this experience Francis wanted to convey the message that
conversion is not merely a matter of leaving the sins of the flesh, but also of living in humility and showing
mercy to people, particularly those in need.24

Secondly, Francis manifested his appreciation for the ministers who serve the church and his respect to
its hierarchy. He was profoundly reverent to those who administered the sacraments and mysteries of God. 25
For Francis, the church appeared in his life as the first concrete reality of his faith, and even after a
progressive marginalization he suffered, particularly in his last days, it could not be rejected or diminished. 26

21
. William Placher. A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction (Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1983), 149.
22
. Fortini, 608
23
. Murray, 50-51.
24
. Lisa M. Cataldo. “Religious Experience and the Transformation of Narcissism: Kohutian Theory and the
Life of St. Francis of Assisi.” Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Dec., 2007): 535. URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27513041. Accessed: 12/11/2014.
25
. Julio Micó. Reflexiones sobre el Testamento de San Francisco de Asís. Selecciones de Franciscanismo,
Vol. X, n. 28 (1981): 5.
26
. Ibid., 5, 8-9.
Francis was well aware on the church corruption and the aristocratic lifestyle of many bishops 27, however,
he deprived himself to judge them, though without being in line with such a practice. 28

Thirdly, Francis said that when God sent the first brothers to the Order of Friars Minor, no one other
than God Godself told him what to do, to “live according to the form of the Holy Gospel” 29. Some scholars
have interpreted this affirmation as Francis’ last protest against the church, which manipulated the charisma
of his fraternity until the point to convert it into an order alien to its origins. 30 Although he wanted to be
united with the church, he established a way to live and preach the Christian life that “implied a criticism of
the church’s wealth and power”.31 In the end of this session, when describing the following of Jesus through
radical poverty, Francis would have reinforced his criticism on the system of privileges present in the
church. He had gone on to say that he and his brothers “had no desire for anything more” other than a
modest life of simplicity and denial of possessions.32

Finally, Francis declared that he did not intended his Testament to be another rule, but he requested it to
be read after the Rule, in order to confirm the commitment of the Order with a ideal of Christian life based
on simplicity and poverty.33 His intention was to urge the friars against their internal division, because of
bitter quarrels mentioned above. On the one side were those who intended to preserve the rigor of primitive
Franciscan life, and on the other side, those who wanted to render the Rule more flexible, on the argument
that properties were, in fact, necessary to further the Order’s mission.34 In order to solve that issue, Pope
Gregory IX intervened, declaring that Francis’s Testament was nonbinding, that is, non-authoritative upon
the form of live of the Order. However, such decision did not solve the dispute between the rigorists and
moderates, which over time became greater and caused further conflicts to the Order. 35

27
. Placher, A History of Christian Theology, 149. See also Sabatier, 18.
28
. Sabatier, The Road to Assisi, 155.
29
. Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology, 153.
30
. Micó (6, 21) he affirms that the expression “no one showed me what I should do” refers to those who
were trying to convert the Friars Minor into one of many other orders with traditional structures.
31
. Placher, A History of Christian Theology, 149. That aspect is highlighted by Francis’ appeal to the friars
to not ask the church for privileges. Although their lifestyle implied a criticism against the church, the Friars Minor
enjoyed a benefit that other groups with similar ideals, as the Waldensians and the Catharists, did not: the Pope’s
authorization to organize themselves as an order. See also Gonzalez. A History of Christian Thought, 231, and
Fortini, 300-01.
32
. Ibid., 157.
33
. Gonzalez. A History of Christian Thought, 362.

34
. Ibid.
35
. Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought, 231-32. See also Sabatier, 155.
 Conclusion

When we think on the meaning of a testament, we should consider, at first, someone who is willing to
leave an inheritance to his or her children, friends, or anyone else. However, what we can realize when
reading the Testament of Francis of Assisi is something quite different from the popular idea of inheritance
as material goods, properties, or something else that one can possess. Since Francis and his brothers and
sisters sought to live in radical poverty, his testament was primarily an admonishment to the commitment
with such lifestyle. Therefore, in his last words he was fully coherent with the values and purposes of the
order he founded. The inheritance Francis left to those who decided to observe “these [things]” and “live
according to the form of the Holy Gospel” was a holy alliance with God and “all the powers of heaven and
all the saints,” which he and his first brothers experienced.36

Yet, Francis’ ideal of poverty proved to be challenging to the comfort that many Christians were
enjoying as never before. In fact, that ideal took a critical look at the structure of society itself, as well as
the church and its unequal organization. The church hierarchy decided to stand on the side of the comfort
and sought for theological interpretations that could justify its system of privileges. 37 Francis’ vocation, as
well the original purposes of the Friars Minor, was not only deprived of material greed, but also of
institutional greed. The church of that time actually assisted the poor, but insisted on maintaining its
existing privileges, as security, wealth, and power. Francis shared with the poor the material and
psychological insecurity of those who did not own anything.

In These postmodern times of global economy and fragmented cultures, the figure of Francis is quite
inspiring. In a world characterized by a frantic search for a personal God, whose main function is to satisfy
individual interests, often related to financial prosperity, Francis of Assisi points the way to an authentic
experience of spirituality.

In a world where exclusion and misery are evident realities, especially in the structural level of society,
he points the way of solidarity, in particular for the poorest, expressed through the unconditional love of
God for humankind and in the following of Jesus, who emptied himself, taking the form of a slave
(Philippians 2:7, NRSV).

In a world where nature is seriously threatened and modern science no longer offers all the answers it
thought to offer, Francis shows love for creation as a prerequisite for its enjoyment, as well as for its care
and protection (Genesis 3:15, NRSV).

36
. Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology, 153.
37
. Placher, A History of Christian Theology, 149.
 In a world where subjectivism and hedonism guide the conduct of most individuals, who are seduced by
the appeal of consumption and mass culture, Francis points to the value of the self-awareness and
responsibility, in view of a freedom that truly set free the people from all forms of slavery, including those
imposed by religious oppression.

Bibliography

Cataldo , Lisa M. Religious Experience and the Transformation of Narcissism: Kohutian Theory and the
Life of St. Francis of Assisi. Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Dec., 2007): 527-540.
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27513041. Accessed: 12/11/2014.

Fortini, Arnaldo. Francis of Assisi. New York: Seabury Press, 1981.

Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987.

______ . The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Vol. 1. New York:
HarperOne, 2010.

Micó, Julio, Reflexiones sobre el Testamento de San Francisco de Asís. Selecciones de Franciscanismo,
vol. X, n. 28 (1981): 3-52.

Murray, Wendy. A Mended and Broken Heart The Life and Love of Francis of Assisi. New York: Basic
Books, 2008.

Placher, William C. A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983.

______ . "Francis of Assisi: The Testament." In Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol. 1,
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1988.

Sabatier, Paul, and Jon M. Sweeney. The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis.
Brewster, Mass: Paraclete Press, 2003.