On the Road with Francis of Assisi by Linda Bird Francke

Author:Linda Bird Francke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588364883
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2005-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

14

Shrieking Swallows in Alviano

ALVIANO, where Francis silences the swallows and considers a Third Franciscan Order · SAN ROCCO, the Third Order’s Porziuncola near Montefalco · the tiny shrine of SANT’ILLUMINATA near ALVIANO, where Francis might have formulated the whole idea

The drive to the picture-book castle town of Alviano is spectacular. The road hugs the banks of the Tiber River, then rises to run along a dramatic gully past a huge, artificial lake, the Lago di Carbara, and continues on to the Lago di Alviano and the Alviano Oasis. The “oasis,” a huge marsh area created by the damming of the Tiber River, attracts some 150 species of migratory birds and is managed by the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF oversees the nature walks through the oasis and its “hides,” from which bird-watchers can see migrating cranes and fish hawks and geese. There must be close to three thousand geese and ducks on the lake the October afternoon we are there.

Birds of a different sort are central to an important chapter of Francis and his legend at Alviano. It was here, inside the charming walled and turreted fortress town overlooking the lake, that Francis is thought to have created the Third Franciscan Order, this one composed of urban laypeople. And all because of a flock of swallows.

According to his medieval biographers, Francis came to Alviano around 1212 to preach but ran into a natural obstacle. There were so many nesting swallows making so much noise—“shrieking” is the word used by Celano—that the people gathered in Alviano’s central piazza could not hear him. Francis solved the problem by simply addressing the birds. “My sister swallows, now it is time for me also to speak since you have already said enough,” he advised the swallows, which according to Celano immediately fell silent.

According to the Little Flowers of St. Francis, the people were so astonished when Francis quieted the “shrieking” swallows that “they wanted to follow him and abandon the village.” Francis dissuaded them—with a promise: “Don’t be in a hurry and don’t leave, for I will arrange what you should do for the salvation of your souls.” It was from that moment, the Little Flowers claims, that Francis started formulating the idea of a Third Order, “for the salvation of all people everywhere.”

It was a brilliant concept. People had been flocking to Francis wherever he preached. Married couples, widows, mothers, fathers embraced his teachings and wanted to live a Franciscan life. “Many of the people, both noble and ignoble, cleric and lay, impelled by divine inspiration, began to come to St. Francis, wanting to carry on the battle constantly under his discipline and under his leadership,” writes Celano.

The challenge was that many of these new converts had family obligations and could not become itinerant preachers or enter convents or monasteries. They wanted to follow Francis in their everyday lives. The result is the subject of an ongoing debate among Franciscan historians. Some claim that Francis merely urged his secular followers to live godly

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