Читать книгу The Way of St Francis. Via di Francesco: From Florence to Assisi and Rome онлайн

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In a rough tunic, given him out of pity by the bishop of Assisi, Francis set out for the house of a friend in Gubbio. Over the next two years the small band of friends he had gathered would travel together like roving troubadours – a band of ‘brothers’ on a quest of prayer, poverty and preaching. They investigated the scriptures at Santa Maria Minerva church in Assisi and there discovered Jesus’ call to poverty and simplicity.

With his brothers Francis traveled to Poggio Bustone, where he had a spiritual experience of transformation, and to nearby Lake Piediluco as the band continued to gain attention. The religious authorities in Rome took notice of the growing movement, and in its biggest test, Francis was summoned in 1210 to St John Lateran by Pope Innocent III to explain his unauthorized gospel ministry.

Francis Memorial at St John Lateran Cathedral in Rome (photo by Jacqueline Zeindlinger)

Aptly remembered as one of the wisest of all popes, Innocent carefully pondered the ragged man in the tattered brown robe before him. Afterwards, in a dream, the pope saw Francis holding up the pillars of his church, which was tottering in an earthquake; shortly after that he gave his blessing and Francis began a preaching mission that would send him across the Western world.