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vivid and dramatic narration of the canonization event in Book Three of The Life of Saint Francis suggests an eyewitness account.8
Shortly before the July 1228, canonization and shortly after Pope Gregory
IX’s decree, Recolentes qualiter, of April 29, 1228, calling for a burial church to be built for Francis in Assisi, Gregory IX conferred upon Thomas the distinguished task of writing a life of the new saint.9 Thomas, it would seem, was to complement the architectural celebration of Francis with the composition of a new literary monument. Both contributions, requested by Gregory IX within months of each other, were to help preserve the memory of the life and example of the Poverello.
Unlike the new burial church, The Life of Saint Francis was quickly completed, within six to eight months. On February 25, 1229, Gregory IX had already approved, confirmed and declared it official. By the next year, 1230, Thomas finished his second work on the life of Saint Francis, The Legend for Use in the Choir.10 This second work was for use within the celebration of the Divine Office. It was written at the request of Brother Benedict of Arezzo, Minister of Romania and Greece.11 In composing The Legend for Use in the Choir Thomas selected material from The Life of Saint Francis and divided it into nine lessons or selections so that it could be included among the readings of the breviary.12 It is a shortened and concise version of The Life of Saint Francis, condensing certain sections for the readings on the feast of Saint Francis and during the octave, the eight days following the feast.
Fourteen years later, at the Chapter of Genoa in 1244, Thomas was again called. This time, it was not the pope but the brothers who sought his assistance. The General Minister, Crescentius of Jesi (1244-1247), acting on the direction of the General Chapter, called for a collection of the stories circulating about Francis and commissioned Thomas to capture those memories in his classical style of writing. Thomas dedicated his collection, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul, to Crescentius.13
Crescentius’s successor, Brother John of Parma, further commissioned Thomas to write his fourth and final work on Francis, The Treatise on the Miracles. Although Thomas had reported on miracles in his earlier writings on Francis, he was asked to produce a systematic collection of all accounts of these extraordinary events during and after Francis’s life that were circulating. Evidently, Thomas did not respond quickly to the request. According to the Chronicle of the Twenty-Four Generals, John had to make several requests.14 The Treatise on the Miracles was finally confirmed by John of Parma at the General Chapter of Metz on May 31, 1254, twenty-five years after Gregory IX had confirmed and approved The Life of Saint Francis.15
It is not certain where Thomas was residing during these years. His literary activity provides clues. During the writing of The Life of Saint Francis and The
- 1C 124-126.
- It is interesting to note that Gregory’s commission for the writing of a life of Francis followed the commission for the new basilica in Francis’s honor. Both were commissioned shortly before Francis’s canonization. Cf. W.R. Thomson, Checklist of Papal Letters Relating to the Three Orders of Saint Francis: Innocent III-Alexander IV, AFH 64 (1971) 367-580, specifically pages 383-384.
- Chiara Frugoni has suggested that The Legend for Use in the Choir (hereafter LCh) was written later, after the Treatise on the Miracles, that is, after 1253. She argues that the description of the stigmata indicates a later development. Cf. Chiara Frugoni, Francesco e l’invenzione delle stimmate. Una storia per parole e immagini fino a Bonaventura e Giotto (Torino 1993)171-173, 198-199.
- Cf. LCh 1; Michael Bihl, "De S. Francisci Legenda ad usum chori auctore Fr. Thoma celanensi, iuxta novum codicem senensem" in Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 26 (1933) 343-389.
- Lch has a few differences from 1C: in n. 11 the Seraph takes a more active role in the stigmata event, in n. 13 there is mention of placing Francis’s body in the tomb; in nos. 14-16 new miracles are mentioned; in n. 17 there is allusion to Francis’s death on a Sunday and there is allusion to the new church as Francis’s burial place.
- Since Crescentius was replaced on July 13, 1247, the work was completed earlier in that year of 1247.
- 1Cf. Chronica XXIV Generalium Ordinis Minorum, Analecta Francescana III, 276.
- For the sake of completeness, it can here be mentioned that Thomas is also considered the poet of liturgical sequences, Sanctitatis nova signa and Fregit victor. Cf. Analecta Francescana X, 402-04 and pages 355-360 below. Also, since the 14th century, Thomas has been considered the poet of the sequence, Dies Irae. This, however, is doubtful. Cf. M. Inguanez and A. Amelli, "Il Dies irae in un codice del secolo XII," Miscellanea Cassinese 9 (1931) 5-11; K. Vellekoop, Dies irae. Studien zur Frugeschichte einer Sequenz(Bilthoven, 1978).