San Francesco

St. Francis

A masterful historical investigation.
St. Francis, as you’ve never seen him before.

Saint Francis is the most popular among the saints of the Catholic Church. We all know something about him. But nothing is ever as it seems. The earliest biographies of Francis were written by those who had known him personally. For this reason, we might assume the information about him is both abundant and reliable, but it’s not. The witnesses often contradicted each other: many preferred to forget that Francis was a man full of harshness and contradictions, who faced disappointment and defeat. Most wanted to remember a perfect saint, without doubts or bitterness. In short, a man like Christ. The contrast between the versions offered by his early biographers was so stark that in 1266, forty years after his death, the Order made an unprecedented decision: to destroy all existing biographies and replace them with a new, definitive one – the Legenda Maior, written by the Order’s general, Bonaventure. Earlier manuscripts were sought out in libraries and destroyed. Only centuries later did these texts resurface, revealing a very different Francis. Not the ever-cheerful saint talking to birds; not the saint who tamed wolves, the forerunner of modern environmentalism; nor the amiable man who engaged in interfaith dialogue with Muslims. The Francis emerging from those memories is a tormented man, harsh but capable of the sweetest gestures and unexpected severity. Above all, these accounts do not describe a single Francis: each re­membered him in their own way. Yet, despite these varied and sometimes conflicting portrayals, every testimony agrees on one point: Francis was an extraordinary man, unlike any other. Barbero brings these voices together, creating a dialogue and offering a new and unprecedented critical perspective on the man.