800 YEARS SINCE THE DEATH OF  SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

It is hard to believe, but the year 2026 marks 800 years since the death of Saint Francis of Assisi in the year 1226.  He was a Catholic mystic, poet, and founder of the monastic Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as “the Franciscans”.

            His birth name was Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone; born in the village of Assisi (now in Italy) in August of 1181 and he only lived to around 44 years old.

Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron Saint of animals, birds, poor people, merchants, and needlemakers. Not only is he venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in the Lutheran Church, Anglicanism, the Old Catholic Church, and elsewhere.

            In the year 1219, he traveled to Egypt in an attempt to end the Firth Crusade.

On 19 September 2026, I participated in a S.R.I.A. Metropolitan College Study Group ‘zoom’ originating from the Atlantis Bookstore in London, England.  There were about 15 people in the bookstore, and appropriately 38 people online, including myself.  The topic: “Alchemy and its introduction in Europe” (centering on a hypothesis of Mario U. Morini, that the travels of Christian Rosenkreutz were somewhat copied — although incompletely and differently– by Franciscan Brother Elias of Cortona).

The Presentation began by mentioning that “Art” means a “skill”. The word “Ars” is closer to the Latin.  Brother Elias was a successor of Saint Francis of Assisi who founded the Order of Friars Minor ( or Franciscan Brotherhood ) within the Roman Catholic Church.

Mr. Morini then told about Salim de Parma ( or Salim de Adam, O.F.M., another Franciscan contemporary ) and how he was sort of the chronicler of his time. Morini credited Brother Elias of Cortona for introducing Alchemy to Europe.

At the start, Brother Elias was a faithful successor to Saint Francis of Assisi in advocating poverty, chastity, obedience, and modesty.  However, Brother Elias of Cortona began to live in luxury; he would promote Brothers for select positions (bypassing clerics); and to pay for these expenses and expenses, heavy levies were imposed for visiting the Holy Land Sites. This drifting-away from the tenets of Saint Francis of Assisi led to Brother Elias  being deposed.  Before his death, the Franciscans somewhat made peace with him. However, relations were just never the same again. His Excommunication was lifted,he received the Eucharist from a priest, but he died a few days later.

Centuries passed. The Custos of the Holy Land was in charge of appointing Knights of the Holy Sepulchre from the wide span of years from 1486 to 1847. The Investiture took place during the night on Calvary, in secret. Then, in the year 1847, Pope Pius IX restored the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and later establishing a new Constitution for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Still later, the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre was mandated to be a  Cardinal.

While I knew that many of the ancient pilgrims to the Holy Sites went out in pairs: usually two-by-two; there weren’t just a few pilgrims making the journey: There were many. Jews, Christians, and Muslims each made pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Muslims also made added pilgrimages to Mecca. A pilgrimage was considered a lifetime goal.

The Latin word “contemplabundus” is a rare Latin adjective meaning “considering attentively”. In some ways, I am reminded of the MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) roaring Leo-the-Lion and the logo: “Ars-Gratia-Artis” which translates as “Art for Art’s Sake”. Let us be grateful for the Christian mystics, such as Saint Francis of Assisi.