Complete Francis of Assisi

The Complete Francis of Assisi, translated and edited by Jon M Sweeney, 397 pages

The wealthy cloth merchant Bernardone was on a business trip in France when his son was born, so he named the boy "Francis".  As an adult, Francis stripped naked in the town square and handed his clothes to his father as the sacrament of his renunciation of any earthly inheritance, then went inside the cathedral wrapped in the cope of the bishop to seek imperishable treasure.  When he returned to Assisi to die he owned nothing except a worn brown robe he had patched himself, a robe in which he had begged for bread and stones, fasted and sang, and preached to the birds of the air as well as sultans, emperors, and popes.  Armed soldiers were sent to accompany him on his final journey to guard against kidnappers attempting to claim for their cities the honor of his burial.  Eight centuries later, this most Christ-like of men is still loved and revered the world over, not only by the tens of thousands of men and women who have solemnly vowed to follow his Rule, but by millions of others, including non-Catholics and even non-Christians.

The Complete Francis of Assisi, part of the "Paraclete Giants" series, collects many of the writings of the saint.  As St Francis actually wrote very little, these are sandwiched between two biographies - the modern Protestant The Life of St Francis of Assisi written by Paul Sabatier and the medieval Catholic The Little Flowers of St Francis written by his friends and followers.  There is a certain fitness to the resulting dominance of biography, for although Francis most likely never literally said, "Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary", the famous aphorism is nonetheless an excellent refinement of his actual words and example.