BROTHER FIRE SYNOPSIS

It was in the year 1181, in the summer or perhaps the autumn, that Francis was born, and the world was by no means a peaceful place. And it didn’t look like the world we now know - or at least not at first glance. However, reflecting upon it, in some respects it might not have appeared so very different in that even then it was dominated by the rich, and the poor had but a lowly position.

Marginalized in a Christian society, the poor lived in a state of neglect. They died in their thousands, struck down by hunger and terrible illnesses, without anyone paying them any heed.

At that time there were many wars which, to the advantage of a few, spread death and created even more poverty. Often, these were merely skirmishes between cities, or between noble families. Sometimes they were wars on a vast scale, such as the Crusades. But all of them nearly always took place in the name of Christ, even though He said “love each other as I have loved you”... “what you do to the least of these you have done to me.” What was the reason for this inconsistency? How to explain to those who lived satisfied with their own well-being yet considered it legitimate to take away from others, that things had to change?

Perhaps these were the questions which Francis asked himself, while still more or less a youth when, after he had taken part in a senseless little war, Christ spoke to him from a crucifix in an abandoned church, telling him what he had to do: “repair my house” He said “can you not see that it is in ruins?…” The House that Christ spoke of to Francis was the Church ergo the world! So Francis began to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, according to a radical, burning logic! But no-one seemed to want to listen to him.

Not his merry-making friends, nor the people of his city, nor the clergy to whom he turned. And even less his father Bernardone, who immediately turned against him and continued to do so to the bitter end to the point of wishing that such a son had never been born. In obedience to what Jesus had asked of him, Francis, in a society where clothes were the clearest sign of social status, stripped naked, so that the severity of the scandal would make the irrevocable nature of his decision clear, and illustrate the irrevocable nature of his decision.

Observing that he would sometimes find himself speaking to the deaf, he then begins to speak to with the animals… One of them, usually fierce, but gentle with him, he even calls by name: “brother wolf”! As with brother wolf, so with all creatures, from those which thronged the skies to those which lived on earth. To Francis they were evidence of God’s love for man, and they sang of the wonders of their Creator… From where he was, he saw columns of Crusaders passing on their way to liberate Christ’s sepulchre, marching to the embarkation ports of Marche and Puglia… and when they returned, few in number and in a sorry state, he overhears their stories.

So, with great determination, and to general amazement, he travels to Palestine, and on the banks of the Nile, speaks with the infidel, the “Sultan” Al Malik al Kamil, believing that he had converted him in secret. To those who met Francis, he appeared small, ugly, and in a sorry state… Altogether a poor man, but one whose eyes shone with the fire of God, which penetrated the heart and bent the knee of those who looked inside. He was Brother Fire! He lived for forty-five years and preached the conversion of Christians everywhere- given that those he knew were Christian only in name, and it seemed to him that they loved sinning over the Saviour.

He had the consolation of noting that many of those he met were converted and embraced the Cross of Christ. The first of these were his Friars with Clare and her Sisters who quickly increased in number, devoting themselves to his Rule, consecrated to the Madonna of Poverty. Francis didn't live to be so old, but his love was great. And even now, he still teaches young people that Christ is love, joy, and freedom; that Christ is the one with whom to entrust our lives.

The main source for our story was “I fioretti di S.Francesco” (The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi), a vast work of disarming simplicity. Other sources were the many documents to be found in the “Legends” and “Lives”, written by contemporary people and witnesses, as well as the works of later researchers and biographers.