VII. Of Living Religiously in a Hermitage

The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, tr. by Paschal Robinson, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

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VII.

OF LIVING RELIGIOUSLY IN A HERMITAGE.

We learn from St. Bonaventure ¹ and the Fioretti ² that as companions began to flock to St. Francis, the man of God hesitated for a while between adopting a life of prayer or of preaching. Although, as we know, he finally decided in favor of the apostolate, yet withal he never altogether separated the contemplative from the active life. A precious witness to this fact is found in the Regulation for the brothers during their sojourn in hermitages with which we are now concerned. To understand the scope of this peculiar piece of legislation, it must be borne in mind that at the beginning of the Franciscan movement the friars had no settled domicile. ³ The wide world was their cloister. ⁴ Possessing nothing they wandered about like children careless of the day, teaching or preaching, passing the night in hay-lofts or under church

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porches, in lazarettos, or deserted huts and grottoes. ¹ The need of having some kind of permanent retreat where they might retire at times to pray or rest, resulted in the institution of hermitages. These little solitudes, to which Francis loved to withdraw, may be found wherever the Saint went. The Celle near Cortina, the Careen on Mount Subasio, Greccio in the valley of Rieti, and the more solitary hermitages, like Lo Speco, form, as some one has said, a series of documents, about St. Francis’ life, quite as important as the written ones. And not a little of his spirit still lingers in such of these hermitages as yet remain. It was for the government of small loci ² like these that the present special little Rule was written. Its attribution to St. Francis has not been questioned. The quaint simplicity of its conception proclaims its authenticity, and in none of the codices does it bear the name of any other author than St. Francis. It may have been written about 1217; its composition certainly belongs to the first decade of. the Order.

In the ancient collections of St. Francis’ writings found in the codices at Florence (Ognissanti), Foligno, Rome (St. Isidore's MS. 1/25 and the Vatican MS. 7650), as well as in copies of the compilation which begins Fac secundum exemplar, this Instruction is found at the end of the Admonitions. But in the greater number of the early Codices the Admonitions close as in the present translation, and the

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opuscule on hermitages is preferably separated from them, as it is in the Assisian codex and that of St. Isidore's, Rome (MS. 1/73). The text which follows is based on the Assisi MS., which has been collated with that of Ognissanti and those at St. Isidore's and with the version of this Regulation given by Bartholomew of Pisa in his Conformities. ¹ Here is the text:

OF LIVING RELIGIOUSLY IN A HERMITAGE.

Let those who wish to live religiously in hermitages, be three brothers or four at most. Let two of them be mothers and have two sons, or at least one. Let the two former lead the life of Martha and the other two the life of Mary Magdalene. ²

Let those who lead the life of Mary have one cloister ³ and each his own place, so that they may not live or sleep together. And let them always say Compline of the day toward sunset, ⁴ and let them be careful to keep silence and to say their Hours and to rise for Matins, and let them

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seek first "the kingdom of God and His justice." ¹ And let them say Prime and Tierce at the proper time, and, after the hour of Tierce, they may break silence and may speak and, when it is pleasing to them, they may go to their mothers and may ask an alms from them for the love of the Lord God, like little poor ones. ² And after that, let them say Sext and Nones and Vespers at the appointed time.

And they must not allow any ³ person to enter into the cloister where they live, or let them eat there. Let those brothers who are mothers endeavor to keep apart from every person and, by the obedience of their custos, let them guard their sons from every person, so that no one may speak with them. And let these sons not speak with any person except with their mothers and with their custos, when it shall please him to visit them with the blessing of God. ⁴ But the sons must sometimes in turn assume the office of mothers, for a time, according as it may seem to them to dispose. Let them strive to observe all the above diligently and earnestly. ⁵

Footnotes

87:1 See Bonav. Leg. Maj., XII, 1, where the Saint is represented as discoursing on the relative merits and advantages of the active and contemplative life. Wadding gives this discourse among the Monastic Conferences he attributes to St. Francis. See Opuscula, Coll. XIV, p. 318.

87:2 See Floretum S. Francisci, ed. Sabatier, cap. 16, p. 60. This chapter, which is one of the most interesting from a critical point of view, represents St. Francis as consulting St. Clare and Brother Sylvester on the subject of his doubt.

87:3 See First Rule, chap. vii (above, p. 40); also Speculum Perf., ed. Sabatier, pp. 25-26.

87:4 As is most poetically described by the author of the Sacrum Commercium. Show me your cloister, asks the Lady Poverty of the friars. And they, leading her to the summit of a hill, showed her the wide world, saying: This is our cloister, O Lady Poverty. (See The Lady Poverty, by M. Carmichael, p. 128.)

88:1 See 1 Cel. 1, 17; and Leg. III Soc. 55. Such grottoes may still be seen in St. Francis’ country; they serve as a shelter for beggars and gypsies.

88:2 St. Francis habitually uses the word locus or place to designate the habitations of the friars (see above, Rule II, chap. vi, p. 68).

89:1 See "Franciscus in admonitionibus suis" (fruct. xii, P. 11, cap. 30). It was from this text that Wadding took the Regulation for his edition of the Opuscula in which it figures under the heading Collationes Monasticae III.

89:2 The figure which presents Mary and Martha as types of the contemplative and active life was already a familiar one. See Gregor., VI Moral., c. 37, n. 61: "Quid per Mariam, quae verba Domini residens audiebat, nisi contemplativa vita exprimitur? Quid per Martham exterioribus obsequiis occu patam nisi activa vita signatur?"

89:3 Cod. As. after cloister reads: "in which each one shall have his own cell."

89:4 Cod. As. reads: "immediately after sunset."

90:1 Luke 12: 31.

90:2 This is the reading of the Cod. As. and Is.; other texts read the "poorest beggars."

90:3 Cod. O. adds: "any woman or person whatsoever."

90:4 The text in Cod. As. ends here.

90:5 See 2 Cel. 3, 113.