Life of st Francis of Assisi

Rating:
Summary: A Saint's Biography of A Saint
Review: St. Bonaventure, cured of a childhood illness by St. Francis, writes a vivid biography of St. Francis.

I think because it is written by a great Saint, this biography perceptively considers St. Francis through his spirituality above all. It is not the most complete memoir of anecdotes about St. Francis' life, but a compendium of anecdotes about St. Francis is not St. Bonaventure's purpose.

St. Francis is perceived through his faith in God; in going from Gospel to life and life to Gospel. He is portrayed as the man who gave all to attain the pearl of great price. He was all of these things.

As far as biographies go, this one can be classified as not only a chronicle of St. Francis' life, but also spiritual reading which will edify the reader and draw him or her closer to Christ.

As St. Francis said, "What a man is in the eyes of God, that he is and no more." St. Bonaventure portrays this truth of St. Francis exeedingly well. Buy this book and, perhaps, it will assist you in going from the Gospel to life and life to the Gospel.

Rating:
Summary: Review from the Publisher
Review: Taken from the Legenda Sancti Francisci and edited, with a preface, by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning. The life of a Saint, written by a Saint, speaks to the heart with a vital power which no work of merely natural genius can command. It has a twofold operation of the Spirit of God with it, both in the subject and in the writer. Among uninspired books there are few that breathe more sensibly the love of God than this famous work. "There is a light and a sweetness about it which is not of this world," says Cardinal Manning. St. Thomas writes about finding St. Bonaventure in his cell writing this work in ecstasy, and drawing back from the door exclaiming, "Let us leave a Saint to work for a Saint." St. Bonaventure conveys a picture of St. Francis through his miracles (including turning water into wine, raising people from the dead, commanding water to flow from bare rock and even curing the author of a childhood illness), his sayings (even the animals were exulted at the sound of his voice) and his holy life that renders an indelible impression of a man totally transformed in God and by God. In short, St. Bonaventure presents the life of a man who was like a seraph - an angel in human form - for no other word but "angel" can truly describe the beloved St. Francis of Assisi.