Testamentum Frate Francisci

The testament of Saint Francis, more than any other document about him, reveals to us who the Saint of Assisi truly was, showing us how the uniqueness of Francis is not confined to his love of poverty. Indeed, at the beginning of the twelfth century the pauperist movements were nothing new, though they were often heretical in character — one need only think of the Waldensians or the Cathars.

It is precisely the Testament that shows, in unmistakable fashion, what set Francis apart from these movements and that gives us the hermeneutic for understanding his whole story. This text reveals to us a Francis who, fully conscious of his powerful prophetic mandate — "no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself" — is equally conscious that this charism can be lived only in obedience to the Church.

The Francis of the Testament desires to be submitted to the priests, even sinners, even when they are a source of persecution; he entrusts his Order to the care of a bishop, and understands himself authentically as a servant of this People of God. At the same time, he is a Francis who recalls with tenderness his own story and that of the brothers whom the Lord entrusted to him, serene and at peace — let us remember that in these moments he was living the cross of grave illness — with nothing more to add but his final blessing.

This text alone is enough to dispel every illusion of a Francis repressed and rebellious, bitterly betrayed or abandoned by the Church.