Subject: (urth) Silk and St. Francis

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 01:54:24 +0000

Waay back on Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> > Here's a connection I've never teased out before: Silk is (in
> > part) St. Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1181 to 1226, in
> > Umbria;
>
> Yes ... his preaching to animals (and birds in particular)
> should make that clear.

There's a *much* stronger connection.

According to G.K. Chesterton's biography of St. Francis, Francis began his
career when he heard a voice saying to him, "Francis, seest thou not that
my house is in ruins?  Go and restore it for me."

Chesterton:  "Francis sprang up and went...In the coarse conventional
language of the uncomprehending world, he stole.  From his own
enthusiastic point of view, he extended to his venerable father, Peter
Bernardone, the exquisite excitement and inestimable privilege of
assisting, more or less unconsciously, in the rebuilding of St. Damian's
Church."

So Francis takes the vision too literally, thinks he's supposed to rebuild
a particular run-down church building, tries to steal money to do it but
gets caught and gets in trouble.  Then he goes around begging for stones
to rebuild various churches.  Only later does he seem to realize that he
was being called to love, inspire, and thus help restore the people who
are the Church, rather than saving the buildings they meet in.

-Rostrum

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