The Man Everyone Knows
Kirsch, Felix M.
202 THE COMMONWEAL June 30, 1926 THE MAN EVERYONE KNOWS back the days of its...
...The footsteps of the Saint may has issued a series of Franciscan postal stamps...
...day with becoming solemnity...
...The statue of Conventual, and Capuchin...
...The Salvation Army has spread tutes of Poor Clares...
...Of the the Divine on the ground that the Poverello repre- Second Order, which grew under the direction of sented the spirit of the thirteenth century at its best...
...Yet during the last land as well as in France...
...Father Juan Perez, with other Franciscan this life represents so close an approximation to the friars, moreover accompanied his illustrious friend on life of Christ as to tempt men to return to Christ the second voyage in 1493...
...The Saint has, indeed, also the first religious on the mainland of America, brought within the reach of frail humanity the...
...202 THE COMMONWEAL June 30, 1926 THE MAN EVERYONE KNOWS back the days of its greatest vitality in the eighteenth century, when postulants flocked to it in such numbers By FELIX M. KIRSCH that the then reigning Popes, Innocent XIII and BeneU NMISTAKABLY, Saint Francis has caught the dict XIII, had to make rules restraining the freedom fancy of the world...
...They have good grounds for this hope...
...life as they landed on the Isthmus about the year I512...
...Nor is it true 'that Verily the friars played a noble part in the early Protestants are more deeply interested in the Little history of America, and the Franciscans are hopeful Poor Man than are our Catholics...
...May Juan Perez, the counsellor of both, was the superior we not hope that the world, while growing familiar of the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida in Andawith the life of the Saint, will realize by and by that lusia...
...In 1768 the General of the Friars won for its author the first prize in a national poetry Minor commanded the obedience of about 77,000 contest and was presented on Broadway...
...If to in Boston is dedicated to the Saint...
...Today have been brought out by non-Catholic publishers...
...About 4,000 friars the Saint was selected for the Cathedral of Saint John are laboring in the foreign missions...
...Francis, and whose number easily passes the mark Premier Mussolini has declared October 4, 1926, the of two millions and a half, we may form some estiseventh centenary of Francis's death, a national holi- mate of the influence of Saint Francis in our own day in Italy, and has called upon all official represen- day...
...Isabella, who furnished the means for the first voyThis hunger of modern Christians for the joy of age, were members of the Third Order, and Father Saint Francis is a hopeful sign of the times...
...But we have even better evi- and teaching, their countless ministrations embracing dence for Catholic interest in him whom Pope Pius every form of priestly activity and Franciscan charity XI calls "the sweetest of the saints...
...tatives of Italy in foreign countries to celebrate that Saint Francis has been for centuries a deep in...
...and in the subsequent revolutions on the world the spirit of the Saint of Assisi...
...The be traced throughout our country and throughout our Poverello was the favorite saint of Ruskin, of Long history...
...The Franciscans were through Saint Francis...
...The same government fluence in America...
...and virtues of the God-Man...
...When elo- members, distributed over 167 provinces...
...the 10o most popular books while no other saint's Their prayers and good works, their preaching "Life" was mentioned...
...An Episcopalian Church thirty years a notable revival has taken place...
...at one time their number will not hesitate to preach whole series of sermons on counted more than 70,000, including diocesan instithe Seraphic Saint...
...In a survey con- that in these latter days, too, they may be permitted ducted by one of our national Catholic magazines the to promote in this country the cause of God and His readers voted three "Lives" of Saint Francis among Church...
...Saint Francis, with Saint Clare as the first superior, It is well known that pastors of Protestant churches there are some 12,000...
...A play dealing with his life of admission...
...It is significant with 966 convents, while the Capuchins in 1754 had that the three best biographies we have of the Saint some 32,000 friars with sixty-three provinces...
...the friars and sisters belonging to the First and Protestant missionaries in Japan have translated Second Orders we add the innumerable communities the writings of the Saint as well as other Franciscan of Tertiaries who live according to the Rule of Saint literature, and disseminated them among the natives...
...In 1770 quent lecturers desire a fashionable subject they select the Conventuals possessed some thirty-one provinces the theme of the Little Poor Man...
...It there are more than 32,000 friars belonging to is significant, too, that Everyman's Library has three the three branches of the First Order-Franciscan, numbers dealing with Saint Francis...
...should be a power in bringing home to our countryAt the present time the Order of Saint Francis men the Gospel of Christ and the example of one showss signs of a new growth which promises to bring of His devoted followers-the Poor Man of Assisi...
...The very discovery of America is due, under fellow, of Lowell-all men who knew relatively little God, to the children of Saint Francis, inasmuch as about the Church, but who could not escape the charm Christopher Columbus, the discoverer, and Queen of the Umbrian Saint...
...But the Second Order as well abroad thousands of copies of its Life of Saint Francis, as the First suffered severely during the French Revoand the author of the book contends that it is the lution when nearly all provinces were disorganized object of the Salvation Army to spread throughout or suppressed...
...There is the European continent the Franciscans suffered the a Protestant Third Order of Saint Francis in Eng- fate of all the religious orders...
Vol. 4 • June 1926 • No. 8
