The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi | Page 2

to great advantage. With every reading new
items of interest will be discovered, new lessons will present
themselves to be learnt, new inspirations will be imparted to the soul
from above. The more this book is read, the more it will be loved; the

more it is studied, the more it will be admired. For Tertiaries a book of
this kind is a necessity; it is as necessary for them as a text-book is for a
scholar.
May this wonderful work spread in the future even more rapidly than
before, may it receive the hearty welcome it deserves among the
innumerable Tertiaries and clients of St. Francis of Assisi and be to
them a sure guide to God's abundant graces in this world and to life
everlasting in the next.

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR
WHEREIN THE PREJUDICES OF CERTAIN PERSONS AGAINST
MIRACLES WHICH ARE RECORDED IN THE LIVES OF THE
SAINTS ARE SHOWN TO BE BOTH UNREASONABLE AND
DANGEROUS, AND THAT THE MIRACLES ATTRIBUTED TO
SAINT FRANCIS ARE VERY WELL AUTHENTICATED.
A very common failing amongst men is to adopt one extreme in the
endeavor to avoid another, and sometimes not to perceive that the
extreme into which they fall is greater than that which they had sought
to flee from. To insure themselves against weak incredulity, some have
imbibed such prejudice against the miracles in the Lives of the Saints,
that they cannot endure to hear of them; the very ideas of miracles,
revelations, ecstasies, visions, apparitions, are hateful and disgusting to
them; all that is said on these subjects they look upon as fabulous and
incredible; they call in question the most undeniable evidence, or
attribute these wonders to natural and unknown causes. The wonders
which are recorded in the Life of St, Francis, afford an opportunity of
grappling with these prejudices.
In the first place, no man using his right reason will reject the wonders
recorded in the Lives of the Saints, because of their impossibility.
Miracles are extraordinary events, which break through the laws of
nature, and exceed the force of all natural causes; it is only necessary to
make use of our reason to be aware that God, whose power is infinite,
having freely established these laws, may, whenever He thinks fit,
break through them Himself by the ministry of His creatures, whom He
makes use of as He pleases; that these suspensions may enter into the
external designs of His wisdom and providence, and that they occur by
successive acts, without there having been any change in Him, because

it is an act of His will which causes them, as it does every other thing.
Now this proves that miracles are possible, and that there is no
impossibility in the wonders recorded in the Lives of the Saints.
In the second place, these wonders ought not to cause an incredulous
surprise in any sensible person who pays due attention to the wonders
of nature. "Man," says St. Augustine, "sees extraordinary things happen,
and he admires them, while he himself, the admirer, is a great wonder,
and a much greater miracle than any things which are done by the
intervention of man. There is nothing more marvellous done in the
world, which is not less wonderful than the world itself. All nature is
full of what is miraculous; we seem unconscious of it, because we see
those things daily, and because this daily repetition lowers them in our
eyes. And this is one reason why God has reserved to Himself other
things out of the common course of nature, on which He shows His
power from time to time, in order that their novelty may strike us; but
when we consider attentively, and with reflection, the miracles we
constantly see, we find that they are far greater than others, however
surprising and uncommon these may be."
The holy doctor admits that the prodigies which are out of the common
course of nature, and which are properly called miracles, are to be
viewed with astonishment, since they are works of God, worthy of
admiration; he only requires that the surprise they cause shall be
qualified by a consideration of the wonders of nature, to which he
likewise gives the name of miracles, in a more extended sense: on the
same principle, and a fortiori, what there is surprising in them should
not make them appear to us incredible. An enlightened mind does not
believe in miracles which are communicated to him, unless due proof
of them is adduced; but it is not because what is wonderful in them
renders him incredulous, because he sees more marvellous things in the
universe and in himself. If men who apply themselves to the study of
nature, are pertinacious in refusing to believe in the miracles of the
saints, it is