Francis and the Sultan

Men of Peace

Jan Hoeberichts

• Publisher: Franciscan Institute Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781576594421
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Full of new impressions, Francis returned to Italy from his visit to the Sultan. For the first time in his life, he had come into contact with a very different religion and culture. It had touched him profoundly. That would never have been possible if he had gone to the Middle East with the mentality of a crusader and had allowed his judgement to be clouded by all the prejudices that the Christian world harbored regarding Muslims. However, he had gone with a very different mind-set. His intention was to go and live among the Muslims in service, solidarity and peace - in the spirit of Jesus. This enabled him to look at Muslims from a different point of view, entirely new to him - with new eyes and from a fresh, more open perspective. Christian-Muslim Prayer-Ecumenism for Peace A reading of the texts Francis wrote after his sojourn in the Middle East makes it clear that this sojourn had made a profound impression on him. Especially characteristic of this is how greatly Francis, as he approached the Muslims with his positive and peaceful attitude, had come to admire their religious practice. This stands out particularly in the first letters he sent out shortly after his return to Italy. He had noticed the respect that Muslims have for their holy book, the Koran, amid their devotion to the 99 Beautiful Names for God. This gave him the idea to call on the clergy to respect not only the Eucharist - in keeping with the decisions of the Fourth Lateran Council and papal directives - but also to have an equal reverence and devotion for 'the written most holy names and words of the Lord'. He (Francis) wanted in his life and work to continue the mission of Jesus, who was sent by the Father to redeem humankind and restore them to paradise - the place God had originally intended for them, but which was lost through sin (RegNB 23, 1-3). In that paradise, no weapons were carried and no one appropriated anything for themselves; there was no struggle for power and property, but people were at the service of and in solidarity with each other; they shared everything together, and no one was poor or hungry; all had their rightful seat at the table of the Lord, they shared their houses and lived together in peace. Living and acting in accordance with this spirituality, Francis became the person-in-paradise he was and still is for us: a man of peace.

IX
THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM
ON FRANCIS’ WRITINGS

Francis comes back to Italy a new man. The many new and surprising experiences have generated new insights. He has developed a different, richer vision of the mystery of God that in later years will mature and affect his entire life and profoundly influence his spirituality. His positive appreciation of Islam and of the way Muslims practise their faith also moved him to try and foster in the brothers, and in society, some of the more practical values he had discovered among the Muslims. And he moves fast. For soon after his arrival he begins to write letters in which he sets out his intentions. He cannot wait to begin – somewhat surprising and even paradoxical in someone who exhorts his brothers not to preach until God gives a sign that it pleases Him. Apparently, he was firmly convinced that this new form of communication was in accordance with God’s good pleasure. The God who had taken him among the Muslims and there had surprised him in many ways, now wanted him to share all these enriching experiences with others, be they highly or lowly placed. And this poor, uneducated Francis, who wished to do nothing more than to obey and submit himself to God’s will, now embarks on an activity not really very common for a poor man – without brooking even the slightest delay by invoking his ignorance or some other excuse. He became a letter-writer because God so willed it.

1. LETTER TO THE CLERGY (1220)

A UNIQUE APPROACH

During Francis’ absence from Italy, Honorius III had published the bull Sane cum olim (November 1219) in order to promote among the priests a greater reverence for the Eucharist as decreed by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).¹ On his return from Egypt in the spring of 1220, Francis wholeheartedly gives his support to this papal initiative. However, he does this in his very own way. Not only does he prefer to use his own, more traditional terminology that is very dear to him,² but he also broadens the scope of the papal bull which was prompted by the sinful way an ‘ignorant’ clergy dealt with the Eucharist. Francis urgently requests the clergy not only to demonstrate greater respect for ‘the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ but also for ‘his most holy names and written words’ (1). This combination of respect for the Eucharist and reverence for the Lord’s written names and words is unique to Francis. The same holds for the twin-formula ‘written names and words’³ which Francis, and he alone, uses as a kind of standard formula in other writings as well, even in his final Testament – a formula with which his contemporaries were not familiar.⁴

A UNIQUE APPROACH PRESUPPOSES A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

Several authors try to identify the sources of Francis’ reference to the divine names. They think of various possibilities: the treatise on the divine names by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Cornet); Jesus’ high-priestly prayer in John 17, quoted at length by Francis also in his other writings (RegNB 22,41-55; 2LetFaith 56-60); or, the fact that Francis frequently recites the Psalms and the Lord’s prayer (Lehmann). No one, however, thought of looking for the origin of the twin-formula – ‘names and words of the Lord’ – even though it had indeed been coined by Francis himself. This unique formula appears in Francis’ writings within a year after his return from Egypt. Therefore, it is more than likely that its origin is to be found in the unique experiences he had had during his stay among the Muslims. He had seen there the great respect with which Muslims deal with the Koran – God’s holy word for them, and how they recite the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah with great piety, while prayerfully fingering their string of beads. It was this exceptional respect for God’s holy word and his holy names which he found lacking among the Christians. So impressed was he by this precious, God-given experience of Muslim piety, that he felt called upon to remedy this shortcoming within the Christian community and to alert particularly the clergy to the task they had to fulfil in this respect.

DEEPER THEOLOGICAL REASON

Francis’ call for greater respect for the Eucharist and for ‘the names and words of the Lord,’ is not prompted only by the pastoral motives of improving and enriching the Christian faith- and prayer-practice. Francis also explicitly points out the deeper theological reason underlying his combined call, for he does not want to limit himself to the Eucharist alone. To quote from Francis directly: ‘For we have and see nothing bodily (corporaliter) of the most high in this world except his body and blood, his names and words through which we have been made and redeemed from death to life’ (3). Francis emphasizes here the sacramental character of both the Eucharist and ‘the names and words of the Lord.’⁵ Not only the Lord’s words, but also – and this is characteristic of Francis – the Lord’s names possess a sacramental effectiveness. In this way, Francis applies the fundamental unity existing in God between word and deed⁶ also to the names of God. Just as God’s word, wherever and whenever it is spoken, is a creative act, so also is God’s name ‘act,’ wherever and whenever we call upon it or it is called down upon us.

WHAT HAPPENED TO FRANCIS’ NEWLY-FOUND INSIGHT?

There is the following story in The Assisi Compilation: ‘Blessed Francis had such reverence and devotion to the Body of Christ, that he wanted it written in the Rule that the brothers in the regions where they stay should take care and be concerned about this, and should admonish and preach about this to clerics and priests, so that they place the Body of Christ in a good and fitting place.’ He also wanted to add the clause that ‘wherever the brothers find the written words and name of the Lord by which the most holy sacrament is confected, not well kept, or carelessly thrown around in some place, let them gather them up, honouring in the words the Lord Who spoke them.’ However, Francis’ wish was not fulfilled, ‘particularly because it did not seem good to the brother ministers that the brothers should take this as a command’ (AssComp 108).⁷ One may wonder whether this was indeed the true reason. Such an obligation would surely do no harm at all to the brotherhood and would in fact only bring its legislation more in line with the Fourth Lateran Council and papal declarations. It would appear the real reason is rather to be found in the fact that the phrase ‘words and name of the Lord by which the most holy sacrament is confected’ did not fit very well within the framework of the accepted sacramental theology.⁸

That Francis is well acquainted with this theology is clear from the remark he makes at the beginning of his Letter to the Clergy: ‘We know it cannot be his Body without first being consecrated by word’ (2). Moreover, he very specifically introduces this common vision with his own favourite twin-formula ‘His most holy names and written words that consecrate His Body.’ In this way, he gives a very clear personal turn of phrase to the common vision, in keeping with his experiences among the Muslims and the great importance they attach to the names of God in their faith- and prayer-practice. Acceptable or not, Francis explicitly refers twice to the meaning of the ‘names of God,’ both in the sacramental theology and in the theology of creation and salvation: ‘his most holy names and written words that consecrate his body’ (1), and, ‘his names and words through which we have been made and redeemed from death to life’ (3). Sadly enough, the insight expressed in the twin phrase ‘names and words’ did not survive for very long: it would seem that his brothers did not all agree with it, and it disappeared from the Letter to the Entire Order. But Francis did use it again explicitly in his Testament (12), thus once more unambiguously reaffirming to his brothers how close this phrase was to him.⁹

2. FIRST LETTER TO THE CUSTODIANS AND LETTER TO THE RULERS OF THE PEOPLES

These two short letters were written by Francis in 1220, shortly after his return to Italy; and they, too, clearly show the influence of his recent stay among the Muslims in Egypt. In the First letter to the Custodians, Francis asks the custodians¹⁰ first of all to ‘humbly beg the clergy’ in the various regions where the brothers are sent ‘to revere above all else the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy names and the written words that sanctify his body’ (2). The letter once again confirms the contents of the Letter to the Clergy. Francis further calls upon the custodians to make copies of the letter for the brother-preachers and for the leadership within the brotherhood, in order to give his campaign a wider circulation among the clergy and among the brothers (9). The Letter to the Rulers of the Peoples is addressed ‘to all mayors and consuls, magistrates and governors throughout the world and to all others to whom these words may come’ (1). That the letter is addressed to such a broad group of recipients clearly shows the universality of Francis’ commitment to the salvation of the people. He warns them to prepare themselves for the death which will inevitably come, and to ‘receive the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with fervour in holy remembrance of him’ (6). At the end of both these letters Francis makes a fervent plea to both the custodians and the rulers to take the necessary measures to introduce into the Christian world a prayer-practice inspired by the azan, the call to prayer of the Muslims. In this way he sought to make both, the custodians and the rulers, his allies in the completion of his unprecedented plan.¹¹

THE CALL TO PRAYER

Apparently, the azan, chanted by the muezzin five times a day, had made a deep impression on Francis with its multiple acclamation of Allahu-Akbar – God is the greatest, the Almighty. Francis had also observed how effective the azan was, not only in the life of the Muslim community which gathered in the mosque after the call to public prayer – especially on Friday afternoons – but also in the lives of the individual Muslim believers. Wherever they happened to be, on hearing the azan they performed all the ritual preparations – rolled out their prayer mats in the direction of Mecca, created for themselves a pure, unsoiled place, and in an unperturbed manner began their prayer (salat) with its many deep bows and prostrations. It is therefore not very surprising that Francis wanted to introduce an adapted form of the azan among Christians, so as to revive and strengthen in this way both the public and the individual prayer life. This desire was so strong that he, ‘brother Francis, your little and looked-down-upon servant in the Lord God’ (LtR 1), dared approach even his ‘lords’ (6) with his most exceptional request: ‘that every evening an announcement may be made by a messenger or some other sign that praise and thanksgiving may be given by all people to the all-powerful Lord God’ (7).

In the First letter to the Custodians, the reference to the azan is more concealed. There Francis speaks of ‘at every hour’ (8). The word ‘hour’ can refer here to the seven canonical hours of the prayer of the Church. But since the experiences from the Middle East are still very fresh in Francis’ memory, I do not think it impossible that even here Francis has in mind the five official prayer times of the Muslims.¹² Furthermore, it is interesting to see how Francis describes the task of the custodians as: ‘announcing and preaching’ (8). It is the only place where Francis uses this description in his writings. It would therefore not surprise me if the ‘announcing’ was a reference to the prayer call of the Muslims, as is clearly the case with the ‘announcement [to] be made by a messenger or some other sign’ in the Letter to the Rulers of the Peoples (7) written at about the same time. If this be so, Francis then sees the custodians here adopting the role of the muezzin.

FRANCIS’ DREAM

After referring to the azan, Francis describes the effect he hopes to achieve if this azan will sound all over the world in one form or another, and all people throughout the world will hear this call to prayer and act accordingly. This is the dream, the vision he would love to see realized: that ‘that praise and thanks may always be given to the all-powerful God by all people throughout the world at every hour and whenever bells are rung’ (8; cf. LtR 7). Besides using the phrase ‘the all-powerful God’ – clearly recalling the azan and salat – it is striking how Francis here combines several words with a universal meaning.¹³ In this stringing-together of words, we can hear an echo of the great passion that possessed Francis while writing this letter. It gives the text an almost ecstatic sound, in which the visionary character of Francis’ plan is once again emphasized and confirmed. At the same time, as Lehmann rightly points out, it also strongly suggests that Francis ‘wanted to impress something very unusual in the hearts of the custodians – something they did not usually hear.’¹⁴ And they were not the only ones either!

CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM ECUMENISM IN PRAYER

Francis’ stay in the Middle East had considerably expanded the world of his experience. Consequently, his understanding of expressions like ‘all the people’ and ‘throughout the world’ had undergone a significant change as well. From then onwards, these expressions also included the Muslim people as a deeply religious people, and their Muslim world as a hospitable world, explicitly marked by an avowed faith- and prayer-practice. ‘All the people’ and ‘throughout the world’ were no longer vague, abstract and hollow terms; they now referred also to a hitherto unknown people who for Francis had acquired a face, and to a strange world which he had begun to admire. He then makes a passionate plea to the custodians, and – at a time when the crusade is still in progress – invites them to help him in creating a climate in which ‘all the people throughout the who...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
• Publisher’s Note
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• The Cover Illustration
• Prologue
• I. A young man in Assisi
• II. Francis’ Conversion
• III. The first brothers
• IV. How the brothers are to go through the world
• V. Two turbulent years: 1212-1213
• VI. Visit to the sultan: 1219
• VII. The sources
• VIII. Back in Italy
• IX. The influence of Islam on Francis’ writings
• X. Epilogue
• Literature