Francis of Assisi, Medieval Saint

The idea and example of Saint Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181-1226) makes many a person happy, and few angry. Why? Furthermore, he was fast-tracked to sainthood less than two years after his death by Pope Gregory IX. 

Biographer André Vauchez contextualizes for us -- as translated by Michael F. Cusato -- in Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint,* Yale, 2012, pages 324-325:

"[T]he clerics of the thirteenth century, with only a few exceptions, mistrusted innovations, seeing in them only dangerous attempts to question, if not subvert, the established order. In their eyes, novitas was invested with a positive content only to the extent that it was based on the past and gave contemporary relevance to it. One could make the new out of the old only by breathing life into what already existed and by making reappear what had become dead or enfeebled." (Sort of like the idea behind perestroika, come to think of it).

Francis was more acceptable to the status quo than various "heresies," rivals such as the Cathari/Albigensians and subsequent "Protestant" sects -- that is, groups that wished to overthrow the Catholic hierarchy entirely.

Being kindly to animals and fringe elements is a "nice" alternative to heresy.

In the words of Saint Francis: 

Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry. Where there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity nor avarice. Where there is quiet and meditation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation . . . Where there is mercy and discretion there is neither superfluity nor hard-heartedness. "Admonitions, Rules, etc." as translated by Paschal Robinson in 1905.  

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

*Originally published in 2009 as François d'Assise: Entre histoire et mémoire.