Leon Cristiani

Saint Francis of Assisi

Boston 1983

Stron 162, format: 13x20 cm

Francis of Assisi has inspired poems, dramas and novels by persons of various beliefs. He has been the subject of many legends and much interpretation.

Carefully researching his material, Leon Cristiani, a Franciscan tertiary, has given us a biography based on "facts, authentic traditions, revered texts, and nothing more." It is a story vibrant with the author's love and admiration for the man from Assisi: "Few men have had such a profound and beneficent influence on their own century and on all succeeding ages within the Church. Why? Because he loved so much! In his heart burned the fire that Jesus had come to cast upon the earth and without which the earth is only a valley of tears and darkness."

Contents

Introduction ................................................................... 13

Childhood, Youth, Sudden Conversion ......................... 16

Builder of Churches ...................................................... 30

The First Disciples —A New Mission ........................     46

Clare Offreduccio

and the Franciscan Second Order.........................     63

The Life and Growth of the Order .............................     75

Approbation of the Order—The Rules............................ 94

Missions to the Infidels ................................................ 113

The Franciscan Third Order ......................................... 127

Saint Francis and Nature .............................................. 134

The Creche at Greccio, the Stigmata,

the Death of Francis .............................................. 146