Augustine and His World - Francis of Assisi and His World by Knowles Andrew;Penkett Rev. Dr Luke;Galli Mark;

Author:Knowles, Andrew;Penkett, Rev. Dr Luke;Galli, Mark;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Hudson

He feverishly began making preparations. Though not yet a knight, Francis insisted on looking like one – which cost his father a small fortune – sporting a coat of mail, a helmet, a sword, a lance with its pennant and a flowing robe.

(His father, it turned out, ended up paying for more than his son’s outfit. As Francis was making ready for the expedition, he ran across a bedraggled knight with a threadbare outfit. Francis, in a characteristic gesture of generosity, invited the man to dinner and, before the evening was out, had given him a whole new knightly outfit.)

In the midst of his preparations, Francis had a dream. He found himself in his father’s house, which had been transformed into a palace filled with arms. Instead of bales of cloths, he saw saddles, shields and lances. In one room, a beautiful bride waited for her bridegroom. Francis heard a voice saying that all this was for Francis and his knights.

When Francis awoke, he was ecstatic. He saw the dream as a portent of the expedition’s success and the glory that was eventually to be his. As he bounced around his father’s shop the next day, a customer asked him what he was so happy about. ‘I know that I will become a great prince!’ he replied.

The day to depart arrived, and the 25-year-old Francis, joined by a companion and squire, set off to join Count Gentile. The threesome got as far as Spoleto on the first day.

It turned out to be the last day of their adventure. That night, Francis had another dream, this one deeply troubling. In it, an unknown voice asked him where he wanted to go. When Francis explained his plans, the voice asked, ‘Who can do more good for you? The lord or the servant?’

‘The lord,’ Francis replied.

‘Then why,’ said the voice, ‘are you abandoning the lord for the servant, the patron for the client?’

A puzzled Francis asked, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’

‘Go back to your land, and what you are to do will be told to you.’

The next morning, Francis told his companions that he was abandoning the expedition. The dazed trio returned to Assisi immediately.

This mysterious dream, coming on the heels of a humiliating defeat and a year’s imprisonment, got Francis’s attention. To be sure, the youthful passions were almost impossible to shake off and, for the rest of his life, Francis would be haunted by knightly ambitions. But never again would he don military dress or take up the sword.

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