{"id":94119,"date":"2017-06-19T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=94119"},"modified":"2017-06-19T16:51:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T15:51:44","slug":"we-need-their-voices-today-1-saint-francis-of-assisi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/06\/we-need-their-voices-today-1-saint-francis-of-assisi\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need Their Voices Today! (1) Saint Francis of Assisi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a collection of biographical sketches showing people whose wise voices from the past can help to guide us today. All of the women and men, brief glimpses of whose lives and ideas are portrayed here, gave a high place to compassion. None of them was a slave to greed. We need their voices today!<\/p>\n

[Note from TMS editor: It will be posted one biographical sketch per week]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

****************************************************<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Life of Saint Francis<\/em><\/h3>\n

Saint Francis of Assisi was born in 1181 in the Italian hilltop town of Assisi. His father, Pietro di Bernardone, was a prosperous silk merchant, and his mother Pica de Bourlemont, was a noblewoman from Provence. Saint Francis was originally called Giovanni, but his father later renamed him Francesco because of his successful business dealings in France and his admiration for all things French.<\/p>\n

After leading the ordinary (somewhat dissolute) life of a wealthy young man of that period, Saint Francis underwent a religious conversion, following which he renounced his inheritance and embraced a life of poverty and service. Although not ordained as a priest, he began teaching what he believed to be the true Christian message. He soon acquired a small group of followers, and he traveled with them to Rome to ask Pope Innocent III for permission to found a new religious order. During his life, Saint Francis founded three religious orders.<\/p>\n

Saint Francis continued to preach, and is even said to have preached to birds and animals, whom he regarded as his sisters and brothers. His attitude towards nature can be seen in his \u201cCanticle of the Sun\u201d:<\/p>\n

Canticle of the Sun<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMost High, all powerful, good Lord,<\/em>
\nYours are the praises, the glory, the honor,<\/em>
\n\u00a0and all blessing.<\/em>
\nTo You alone, Most High, do they belong,<\/em>
\nand no man is worthy to mention Your name.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBe praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,<\/em>
\nespecially through my lord Brother Sun,<\/em>
\nwho brings the day; and you give light through him.<\/em>
\nAnd he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf you, Most High, he bears the likeness.<\/em>
\nPraise be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon<\/em>
\nand the stars, in heaven you formed them<\/em>
\nclear and precious and beautiful.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,<\/em>
\nand through the air, cloudy and serene,<\/em>
\nand every kind of weather through which<\/em>
\nYou give sustenance to Your creatures.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,<\/em>
\nwhich is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.<\/em>
\nPraised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,<\/em>
\nthrough whom you light the night and he is beautiful<\/em>
\nand playful and robust and strong.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,<\/em>
\nwho sustains us and governs us and who produces<\/em>
\nvaried fruits with colored flowers and herbs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraised be You, my Lord,<\/em>
\nthrough those who give pardon for Your love,<\/em>
\nand bear infirmity and tribulation.<\/em>
\nBlessed are those who endure in peace<\/em>
\nfor by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraised be You, my Lord,<\/em>
\nthrough our Sister Bodily Death,<\/em>
\nfrom whom no living man can escape.<\/em>
\nWoe to those who die in mortal sin.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are those whom death will<\/em>
\nfind in Your most holy will,<\/em>
\nfor the second death shall do them no harm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPraise and bless my Lord,<\/em>
\nand give Him thanks<\/em>
\nand serve Him with great humility\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Canonization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis on 16 July 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Sienna, he was designated Patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.<\/p>\n

A prayer of Saint Francis<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed is he who loves and does not therefore desire to be loved;<\/em>
\nBlessed is he who fears and does not therefore desire to be feared;<\/em>
\nBlessed is he who serves and does not therefore desire to be served;<\/em>
\nBlessed is he who behaves well toward others and does not desire that others<\/em>
\nbehave well toward him\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Saint Francis, friend of all life on earth, friend of the earth itself, true interpreter of Christian ethics, we need your voice today!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Together<\/p><\/div>\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1 Saint Francis of Assisi<\/p>\n

2 William Blake<\/p>\n

3 Thomas Paine<\/p>\n

4 Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n

5 Mary Wollstonecraft<\/p>\n

6 William Godwin<\/p>\n

7 The Marquis de Condorcet<\/p>\n

8 Thomas Robert Malthus<\/p>\n

9 Percy Bysshe Shelley<\/p>\n

10 Robert Owen<\/p>\n

11 John Stuart Mill<\/p>\n

12 Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n

13 Count Leo Tolstoy<\/p>\n

14 Mahatma Gandhi<\/p>\n

15 Martin Luther King<\/p>\n

16 Wilfred Owen<\/p>\n

17 Albert Einstein<\/p>\n

18 Edna St. Vincent Millay<\/p>\n

19 Bertha von Suttner<\/p>\n

20 George Orwell<\/p>\n

21 Helen Keller<\/p>\n

22 We need their voices, and yours!<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Scales Avery, Ph.D., who was part of a group that shared the 1995<\/strong><\/em> Nobel Peace Prize<\/em><\/strong> for their work in organizing the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. \u00d8rsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is chairman of both the Danish National Pugwash Group and the Danish Peace Academy and<\/em> received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. His most recent books are Information Theory and Evolution and <\/em>Civilization\u2019s Crisis in the 21st Century<\/a> (pdf).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saint Francis, friend of all life on earth, friend of the earth itself, true interpreter of Christian ethics, we need your voice today! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}