The Life of St. Francis of Assisi (Tan Classics) Paperback – April 1, 2010

What can I say, this is the biography of an amazing saint written by another fantastic saint. The book consists of 15 short and readable chapters about the life and religion of St Francis of Assisi. This includes the famous "Francis, build my house" command from God, as well as what I would guess is the origins of the "Preach the gospel and when you can use words" apocryphal quote (my guess is it comes from something St Bonaventure says on p. 26).In this book, we learn many important things that are worthy of our consideration, not just facts like how St Francis started the O.F.M, but many spiritual truths and things to imitate. Many people do not realize how important it is to read the lives of the saints and, to the extent possible in accord with your state in life and under obedience to your director, imitate their lives (St Bonaventure himself on page 51 tells us to imitate St Francis' humility). So for example, we see in Chapter 5 that St Francis engaged in many mortifications that people today would call "extreme." He hardly took in any food or water. He did indeed jump in the ice and snow when physically tempted. Any physical pain for him was better and more desirable than the slightest offense against God. He took great care to show custody of the eyes. He almost never looked at women, and could not recognize one woman from another by sight. He showed great obedience to his doctors and physicians in what they told him to do. Yet while he held himself to a very high standard, he did not hold others to the same standard, avoiding the "hypocrite" and "pharisee" objection.Chapter 8 discusses the piety of St Francis, and what is very interesting to note is that on page 72, after this chapter is being completed, we see that the fact that animals loved St Francis is because of his great and deep piety. This puts the "animal loving" modern side of St Francis in proper perspective, Throughout the chapter, we see that his relationship with the animals was not a hippie modern dirt worshiping relationship, but again, rather, flowed from his piety.There are of course, many other stories and gems in this book. Again, it is a classic, a life of a saint written by a saint. As Catholics, we should always be reading a life of a saint in order to imitate those who have gone before us who have accomplished what we wish to. This book is essential.

Exactly how it was described.

Great.

A better translation of this classic work than some others.

Great book, received quickly in great shape.

Superb book. Should be required reading for all Christians.

I absolutely love this book. I keep starting over and re reading it.

St. Francis nowadays represents minimalism, environmentalism, mysticism, and joy. But this book describes the man behind the archetypes, and he is not someone most modern audiences can relate to or respect. Francis did not simply commit himself to charity and minimalism; he did, in fact, deny both his wants AND needs, and as a consequence was constantly ill and infirm. He stole from and denied his family. He was consistently seeking ways to become physically weaker and poorer, as he was of the belief that total worldly destitution was pleasing to God. Jesus' teachings on charity and poverty were radical, but wearing the cloaks of lepers and starving oneself, among other things, crosses the boundary from minimalism, even asceticism, to self-torture.