The Third Volume

WHEN SAINT Francis died on October 4, 1226, the various local Ministers were summoned back to Assisi to meet in General Chapter at Pentecost 1227. Anthony, as soon as he heard the news of the Founder’s death, prepared to make the journey from Limoges to Italy. He will have taken with him the Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels which he had begun to compose in answer to Francis’ commission to him to teach theology to the brethren. As I have suggested elsewhere, this probably included the material for the Sundays from Septuagesima to Pentecost, equivalent to volume I of the new English translation.



The General Chapter elected John Parenti as Minister General in succession to Francis. Anthony was given a new responsibility as Minister Provincial in northern Italy. The precise extent of his Province is not quite certain, but it certainly included Padua. John Parenti had been Minister in Spain (the Province included Portugal) when Anthony had entered the Order. Parenti had probably followed his career with interest, and regarded him as most suitable for greater responsibilities. There were already tensions among the Friars regarding the direction the Order ought to take after Francis. Parenti understood these, and will have wanted the support of able men whose loyalty to the spirit of Francis was beyond question.





Back to work





For the rest of 1227, Anthony would have had little time for literary activity. He will have wanted to visit his new Province and get to know it. But, as before, when winter came he will have found travel difficult, and he decided to settle at Padua and get back to the task Francis had set him. It was barely one third completed. Padua was well equipped with monastic and cathedral libraries, and it may be that it was now that Anthony met Brother Luke, who was to be his secretary. In the interval since leaving Limoges, Anthony’s ideas had clarified, and he had much to dictate to Brother Luke. The work probably proceeded rapidly during the winter of 1227/8.



In this way, what now appears as volume II of the English version was prepared, and maybe a little more. It is unlikely that Anthony was able to complete his work in a single winter. As spring approached, it was necessary to resume his ministry of visiting the brothers, and of public preaching. He may have had work in connection with the affairs of the Order in relation to the Holy See, too. Not until the onset of the following winter, that of 1228/9, would he have had time to complete his great project.





The last lap





The third volume of the English translation is coming out this month. It contains Anthony’s commentaries for the Sundays in October and November, the end of the Pentecost Season. These may well have been composed during his first winter at Padua, because in style they fit seamlessly with those that go before. However, the Sermones for Advent, Christmas-tide and Epiphany-tide (to my mind) show some differences. Anthony could not quite pick up the thread where he had left off. On one Sunday (Advent III) he does not comment on the Gospel at all, but on the Epistle for the day. The theme of poverty is quite prominent – an increasingly delicate question for the Friars in the years after 1227. It was probably much in Anthony’s thoughts.



At about the same time, the Saint’s health was causing concern. He had had bouts of illness in France, and although he was still scarcely forty years old, his constant journeying had weakened him. A biographer describes him as inclined to corpulence – not the result of hearty eating, but the effects of dropsy. At the beginning of 1229 (I guess), he rounded off the work with three quite short commentaries on the Sundays after Epiphany.





Publication





His great task was almost over, and Brother Luke had to arrange for copies to be made and sent out. This must have taken some time. Anthony read through all the material, and prepared a sort of ‘Index or ‘Table of Themes’ to help preachers find what they needed for various occasions. He also wrote the General Prologue and the Epilogue.



He seems to have felt that there was still a gap. He had fulfilled his plan of writing on the Sunday Gospels, and had not yet thought of a companion work for Festivals. But certain feasts he was unwilling to ignore – those of Our Lady. In fact, I believe he already had a short set of sermons for these, and it did not take much editing to include them in the wider scheme. Probably for practical reasons (we do not know), it was decided to insert the ‘Marian Sermons’ in the Pentecost Season, after the Sermones for August – in other words, around Assumption-tide. For equally practical reasons, the new translation has moved them to the end of volume III, in order to have volumes of roughly equal length, and so as not to interrupt the flow of the commentaries from June to November.





Contents





So what is in the third volume? Attentive readers of this column will already have some idea. During October the Books of Maccabees were read in the daily Office. Anthony takes illustrations from these books to shed light on the Gospels of Jesus healing a man with dropsy, Jesus debating with the Pharisees about David, the healing of a palsied man, and the parable of the marriage feast. The Saint has some difficulty, it seems, in finding suitable Old Testament parallels. The Maccabees were heroic defenders of Jewish religion and culture against the Greek rulers who were trying to eradicate it. At the time of Francis and Anthony, Christian leaders were trying to regain the Holy Places which had been over-run by the armies of Islam centuries before. It might seem that the Maccabees would be good role-models for the crusaders, but as we know Saint Francis was doubtful about the effectiveness of military action, and preferred dialogue with the Sultan. Anthony had been inspired to follow Francis by the example of the martyrs of Morocco. Did he find the stories of the Maccabees, full of conflict and fighting, hard to relate to the peaceful message of Jesus? I wonder.





Dear brothers





In November, the writings of Ezekiel, Daniel and the minor prophets – twelve short books – were read. Ezekiel was a favourite book of Anthony’s. The mysterious vision of God’s chariot-throne provides him with an image underlying his whole work. He finds many passages to relate to the Gospel of the healing of a ruler’s son, and the same is true of Daniel, which he relates to the parable of the unforgiving servant. The other prophets help him with the episodes of the tribute-money (‘Render to Caesar... ‘) and of Jairus’ daughter.



With Advent, it is not surprising that the dominant figures are Isaiah and John the Baptist, and Isaiah continues to be cited on the Sundays after Christmas, although the Gospel readings now concern the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. After Epiphany, the first phases of our Lord’s public ministry come into view – the wedding at Cana, for instance – and Old Testament parallels come from a variety of places. In a short Epilogue, Anthony gives thanks to the Lord for bringing him to the end of his work, which he offers to his “dear brothers” for their comfort and the edification of the faithful. He takes responsibility for any defects that may be found in his book, and asks that they may be corrected by “the wise of our Order.”





The Marian Sermons





I have given my opinion that the Sermons for the feasts of Our Lady originally existed as a separate set. The festivals are those of the Nativity of Our Lady (September 8), the Annunciation and Nativity of the Lord (March 25 and December 25), the Purification or Presentation (February 2) and the Assumption (August 15). These are all quite short compared with the Sunday Sermons, and some of the ideas in them are repeated in the main work – one reason for supposing that they were only included at a late stage. Anthony’s characteristic terminology of ‘concordance’ is quite sparse, and may have been added when he decided to add the set to the ‘Sunday Work’. They are, however, particularly beautiful sermons, and may come closer to the Saint’s own preaching style.



I hope readers will enjoy a further opportunity to learn from Anthony’s own writings. One more volume remains, which will include his uncompleted work on various Festivals.