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How Friar Giles and three companions were received into the Order of the Minors
FORASMUCH as the ensamples of holy men fill the hearts of devout hearers with contempt for transitory delights, and are effectual to awake desire of eternal salvation; to the honour of God and of His most venerable Mother, Our Lady, St. Mary, and for the profit of all hearers, I will speak certain words touching the work which the Holy Ghost hath wrought in our saintly Friar Giles; who, while yet he wore the garb of a layman, was touched by the Holy Ghost and began to ponder within himself how in all his works he might please God alone. At this time, St. Francis, as a new herald prepared of God as an ensample of life, of humility and of holy penance, two years after his conversion, drew and induced to evangelical observance and poverty a man adorned with wonderful prudence and very rich in temporal [ p. 222 ] goods, to wit Messer Bernard, and also Peter Cattani; so that by the counsel of St. Francis they distributed unto the poor, for love of God, all their temporal treasures, and took unto themselves the glory of patience and evangelic perfection and the habit of the Minor Friars; and with very great fervour have they promised to observe the Religion all the days of their lives; and even so did they with all perfectness. Eight days after the aforesaid conversion and distribution of goods to the poor, Friar Giles, who was then a layman, beholding the contempt in which such noble knights of Assisi held the good things of this world, so that all the city marvelled thereat, was all enkindled with Divine love, and, on the following day, which was the Feast of St. George, in the year of our Lord M.CC.IX., (1209) very early in the morning, and as one in earnest about his salvation, went to the Church of San Gregorio, where was the Convent of St. Clare; and, when he had prayed, having a great desire to see St. Francis, he went toward the hospital of the lepers where he dwelt apart with Friar Bernard and Friar Peter Canard in a very lowly hut. And being come to a crossing of ways, and knowing not whither to go, Friar Giles offered up a prayer to Christ, the precious Guide, who led him to the said hut by a straight way. And while he pondered on that for which he .was come, St. Francis chanced to meet him, as he was coming from the wood whither he had gone to pray; whereupon he forthwith cast himself upon the ground and kneeled before St. Francis, and humbly asked him to receive him to his company, for the love of God. St. Francis, beholding the devout bearing of Friar Giles, made answer and said: “Dearest brother, God hath done thee singular grace. If the Emperor should come to Assisi, and should desire to make a [ p. 223 ] certain citizen his knight or his lord of the bedchamber, should not such an one rejoice exceedingly? How much more then oughtest thou to be glad that God hath chosen thee for His knight and well-beloved servitor, to observe the perfection of the Holy Gospel. And therefore be thou firm and constant in the vocation whereunto God hath called thee.” And he took him by the hand and lifted him up and brought him into the little house aforesaid; and he called Friar Bernard and said: “Messer the Lord God hath sent us a good friar, wherefore rejoice we all in the Lord; let us eat in charity”. And, when they had eaten, St. Francis and this Giles went to Assisi to beg cloth wherewith to make a habit for Friar Giles. They found by the way a beggar woman who asked alms of them, for the love of God; and not knowing wherewithal to succour the poor woman, St. Francis turned him to Friar Giles, with a face like that of an angel, and said: For the love of God, dearest brother, let us give this mantle to the poor woman“; and Friar Giles [who was hoping that St. Francis would bid him do so] obeyed the holy father with so ready a heart that it seemed to him that he saw that alms fly straightway up to heaven, and Friar Giles flew with it into heaven by the nearest way; whereby he felt within himself unspeakable joy, with new stirrings of spirit. And St. Francis, when the cloth had been procured and the habit made, received Friar Giles into the Order; the which was one of the most glorious Religious that the world at that time had in the contemplative life. After the reception of Friar Giles, St. Francis forthwith went with him into the March of Ancona, singing with him and magnificently praising the Lord of heaven and earth; and he said to Friar Giles: ”Son, our Religion will be like unto the fisher [ p. 224 ] which setteth his nets in the water and taketh a multitude of fishes, and the large ones he keepeth and the little ones he leaveth in the water“. Friar Giles marvelled at this prophecy because as yet there were in the Order only three friars and St. Francis; and albeit, as yet, St. Francis preached not publicly to the people, he admonished and corrected men and women, as he went by the way, saying simply and lovingly: ”Love and fear God and do fitting penance for your sins“. And Friar Giles used to say: ”Do that which my spiritual father here tells you, for he says exceeding well".
How Friar Giles went to St. James the Greater
ONCE, in process of time, by leave of St. Francis, Friar Giles went to St. James the Greater in Galicia, and in all that journey, once only did he fully satisfy his hunger by reason of the great want which there was in all that region. For going to beg alms and finding none who would do him any charity, he came by chance in the evening to a threshing-floor where a few beans had been left, the which he gathered up, and on them he supped; and there he slept the night; for he willingly dwelt in solitary places and remote from men to the end that he might the better devote himself to prayers and vigils. And by this meal he was so much comforted of God that he deemed that, had he eaten of divers dishes, he had not had so great refreshment. As he went on his journey, he met a mendicant who begged alms of him in God’s name. And Friar Giles, full of charity, and having [ p. 225 ] nothing wherewith to cover his nakedness save only his habit, cut the cowl from that old threadbare habit, and gave it to the poor man, for the love of God; and so, for twenty days in succession, he journeyed without his cowl. And, when he was returning through Lombardy, he was called by a man, to whom he went willingly, thinking to receive from him an alms; and, when he held out his hand, the man put therein a pair of dice, inviting him to play. Friar Giles made answer very humbly: “God pardon thee, my son”. And so as he went through the world, he was much derided and ever he bore it with all tranquillity.
Of the manner of life which Friar Giles led when he went to the Holy Sepulchre
BY leave of St. Francis, Friar Giles went to visit the Holy Sepulchre of Christ, and came to the port of Brindisi, and there he abode many days, because no ship was ready. And Friar Giles, wishing to live by the labour of his hands, begged a water-pot and filled it with water, and went crying through the city: “Who wants water?” And by his labour he gat him bread and the things necessary for the bodily life, both for himself and for his companion; and thereafter, he crossed the sea and visited the Holy Sepulchre of Christ and the other holy places with great devotion. And, as he returned, he abode in the city of Ancona for many days, and, because he was wont to live by the labour of his hands, he made baskets of rushes and sold them, not for money but for bread for himself and his companion, and he carried the dead to their burying for [ p. 226 ] the same wage. And, when this failed him, he returned to the table of Jesus Christ, asking alms from door to door. And on this wise, with much labour and poverty he returned to Santa Maria degli Angeli.
How Friar Giles praised obedience more than prayer
ONCE a friar was in his cell at prayer, and his Guardian sent unto him bidding him by virtue of obedience to go and beg for alms. Wherefore he straightway went to Friar Giles and said: “My father, I was at prayer, and the Guardian hath commanded me to go for bread; and to me it seemeth that it were better to continue in prayer”. Friar Giles made answer: “My son, hast thou as yet neither learned nor understood what manner of thing is prayer True prayer is that a man should do the will of his Superior; and it is a sign of great pride in him who hath put his neck beneath the yoke of holy obedience, when, for any cause, he shunneth it, to do his own will, albeit to him it seemeth that thereby he doth a more perfect work. The perfectly obedient Religious is like unto the knight who is mounted upon a goodly horse, by the excellence whereof he goeth without fear along the midst of the road; and, on the contrary, the disobedient Religious, grumbling and unwilling, is like unto one who is mounted upon a thin, weak and vicious horse, because, when he hath endured but a little fatigue, he either falleth down dead or is taken by the enemy. I tell thee that if a man were so devout and of such elevation of mind that he spake with Angels, and, while he thus spake, were called by his [ p. 227 ] Superior, he ought forthwith to leave the converse of the Angels and to obey him who is set over him.”
How Friar Giles lived by the labour of his hands
FRIAR GILES being once at a convent in Rome, wished to live by bodily labour, even as it had been his wont to do from the time he entered the Order; and he did after this manner. In the morning betimes he heard Mass with great devotion; then he gat himself to the wood, which was eight miles distant from Rome, and brought back a bundle of wood on his shoulders, and sold it for bread and other things to eat. One time among others, as he was returning with a load of wood, a woman wished to buy it of him; and, when the bargain for the price had been made, he carried it to her house. Notwithstanding the bargain which had been made, the woman, because she saw that he was a Religious, gave him far more than she had promised him. Said Friar Giles: “Good woman, I would not that the vice of avarice should overcome nee; wherefore I desire not a higher price than that which I bargained for with thee”; so that not only did he not take more, but only took half the price which had been agreed upon, and so departed; whereat that woman conceived toward him a great devotion. In all the work which he did for hire Friar Giles was ever mindful of holy honesty; he helped the husbandmen to pick the olives and to tread out the wine. One day, when he was in the piazza, a certain man wanted to have his walnut trees beaten, and asked another to beat them at a price; he [ p. 228 ] excused himself because it was a very long way off and the climbing was very difficult. Said Friar Giles: “My friend, if thou art willing to give me part of the walnuts, I will go with thee and beat thy trees”; and, when he had covenanted with him, he went; and, having first made the sign of the most holy Cross, he climbed up, with great fear, into a high tree to beat it; and, when he had beaten it, so many nuts fell to his share that he could not carry them in his lap; so he took off his habit, and, having tied the sleeves and the cowl, made a sack of his habit, remaining naked save only for his breeches; and so he put this habit full of walnuts upon his back, and carried them to Rome, and, with great joy, gave them all to the poor for the love of God. When the wheat was reaped, Friar Giles went with other poor folk to glean the ears, and if any one offered him a handful of grain, he made answer: “My brother, I have no granary wherein to store it”; and those ears he generally gave away for the love of God. Rarely did Friar Giles help another all the day; for he was wont to bargain for sufficient time in which to say the canonical hours, and not to miss his private prayers. Once Friar Giles went to the Fountain of St. Sixtus to draw water for those monks, and a man asked drink of him. Friar Giles replied: “And how can I carry the vessel half empty to the monks?” The man, being angered, spake many abusive words and insults to Friar Giles; wherefore Friar Giles returned to the monks very sorrowful. He borrowed a large vessel and forthwith returned to the said fountain for water, and found that man again and said: “My friend, take and drink as much as thy heart desireth and be not wrath; for to me it seemed a discourtesy to carry to those holy monks water wherefrom another had [ p. 229 ] drunk”. The man, moved to contrition and constrained by the charity and humility of Friar Giles, confessed his fault, and from that day forward held him in great devotion.