Regent College

ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SAINT AND SULTAN

Presented to

Professor Don Lewis

History of Christianity I

By

Matthew Daniel Martin

Vancouver, British Columbia

7 December 2006

Encounter Between Saint and Sultan

During the Middle Ages when Crusader battles raged and the heathen were vilified, St. Francis of Assisi transcended the violent antagonism of his day, seeking opportunities to preach to Muslims the Trinitarian Gospel of peace. The most prominent example of his missionary zeal was an incident in which he traveled to Northern Africa, crossed the battle lines, gained an audience with the Sultan, and preached the Gospel to him. Because of this, many Christians in our century - particularly in the 60’s - have looked to him as the ideal model for missions and inter-faith relations, at times a sort of patron saint of passivism.

However, some historians have questioned St. Francis’ motives and his rejection of violence. What did motivate him to act in a way so different from his own culture and tradition? Was he really reacting against the Crusades, critical of the Church’s endorsement of violence? How can we best interpret his seemingly missional attitude toward the Muslims world? In this essay I will attempt to accurately interpret Francis’ encounter with the Sultan al-Kamir by first examining his spirituality, secondly his lifestyle, and finally his view of mission.

To describe the person of St. Francis I would like to employ a model of three concentric circles - first an all encompassing circle, then a smaller inner circle, and finally an even smaller one at the very center. The first all-encompassing circle will represents Francis’ spirituality - his driving search to experience union with Christ. This represents the unifying desire behind all Francis’ life and works. The second inner circle represents the most evident expression of Francis’ spirituality, which sets him apart from his contemporaries, that of a lifestyle of literal imitation of Christ’s earthly life. Finally, within that second circle a third and final circle will be drawn representing Francis’ calling to incarnational mission which, as we will understand later, encompasses both the bold confession of the Gospel and the acceptance of suffering to the point of martyrdom. This calling to mission is not the only circle within the larger two circles, being that it is not the only expression of Francis’ imitation of Christ, but it is central in his thought and lifestyle. However, before proceeding to examine Francis’ life we must briefly visit the historical context in which he was raised.

When Francis was born the Crusades had already been raging for over 80 years. Beginning in 1095 with Urban II, the Crusades were preached and endorsed by the religious leaders of the Roman Catholic church. Three goals were stated: rescue the holy lands from the Muslims, protect the Christian Byzantine Empire from the Turks, and heal the divide between the Eastern and the Western churches. Even St. Bernard of Clairvoux took part by preaching the second Crusade. The overriding conviction of most of Western Christendom at the time was represented by the battle cry of “Deus vult” (God wills it).

It is against this backdrop that Francis stands out as so unique. Growing into adolescence Francis appeared to be a typical product of his culture. Born the son of a cloth merchant, Francis was eight years old when the Third Crusade was launched (1189) and as an ambitious young italian dreamed of becoming a knight, taking part in two local ‘crusades’ in the attempt. However, soon after he ended up back in Assisi, sick in bed with a serious fever and in a state of spiritual re-evaluation.

It is in Francis’ conversion that we begin exploring the largest, all-encompassing circle representing his spirituality: his driving search to experience union with Christ. At this point in Francis’ life that a number of key shifts take place: he began seeking the Lord through prayer in places of solitude - particularly in a local cave, he begins distancing himself from his former friends, spending more time with the poor of Assisi, giving away his possessions, and eventually dispossess himself from his own family calling God his heavenly Father. Even more clearly, though, can Francis’ developing spirituality be seen in his prayer life. Describing Francis’ early years after conversion Johannes Jorgensen tells us that in prayer before the Byzantine crucifix hanging in the San Damiano field-chapel, “he knelt one day in prayer before the image... [and] after he had placed himself in thought upon the Cross for the first time, this spiritual crucifixion became a favorite exercise for his meditations.” Also Francis’ prayers, letters, and other writings, as well as his biographies, speak of an all-consuming passion to find union with Christ.

This theme of union with Christ runs throughout all of St. Francis’ life but particularly in his public lifestyle. This brings us to the smaller, second circle, the most evident expression of Francis’ spirituality, that of a literally imitation of Christ’s earthly life. This unique aspect of Francis for which he is so famous flows from two sources: his experience of Christ’s speaking voice in contemplative prayer and his knowledge of the Gospels. These sources of guidance lead to the key elements in Franciscan the lifestyle: ministry to the poor and lepers, poverty and asceticism, suffering and death to self (including the idea of co-crucifixion), and an itinerant preaching ministry.

Soon after Francis’ conversion he was deeply convicted about his aversion towards the leprous community that lived on outskirts of his village and so he begins to minister to them. He attributes this to the direct leading of the Lord: “’When I was in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself let me among them and I had mercy upon them. And when I left them that which seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body...(italics mine).” Francis states that “the Lord Himself led me among them,” implying that he was following and, in a sense, imitating Christ - certainly he was imitating Christ’s example in the Gospels of caring for those most disadvantaged and helpless.

Franciscan scholar William Short, OFM, of the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkley, CA, also describes Francis’ approach to the Christian life as one that was intentionally followed the ministry model of Jesus and his apostles in the Gospels instead of the institutional model of the church as found in the book of Acts. That is not to say that Francis rejected the institutional church; to the contrary, he greatly loved, honored, and submitted to ‘Holy Mother Church.’ However, he sought to put forth an alternative model of living that was patterned more closely to Jesus’ earthly life.

In his Testament, Francis wrote, “And after the Lord gave me brothers, no one showed me what I should do, but the Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the form of the Holy Gospel. And I had this written down simply and in a few words...” The written document he refers to was a small rule temporarily approved by the Pope in 1209, the original form being lost to us, which formed the basis for the development of the Regula Non-Bullata, the unofficial Rule of 1221. This Regula Non-Bullata is replete with references to the Synoptic Gospel, apparently due to the help of a friend of Francis named Caesar of Speyer. Clearly Francis is pointing his brothers towards Jesus in the Gospels so that they would imitate his lifestyle.

In regards to Francis’ commitment to living in poverty, he understood that the pattern of life he was passing down to his brothers was one given to him directly from the Lord as patterned in the Gospels. Anton Rotzetter connects the Franciscan ideal of poverty to the Gospel texts: “The literal observance of the gospel brought fundamentally new experiences for Francis and his brothers. These they equated with those [that]...befell Jesus and his disciples: lack of possessions and having nowhere to live...the evangelical observance of these points soon led to a parallel situation in which Francis participated in the experiences of Jesus...”

In The Admonitions, a collection of directions dictated by Francis for the brothers, in Chapter VI entitled, “The Imitation of the Lord,” Francis teaches his followers the centrality of following and imitating Christ in his life of suffering. He writes,

Let all of us, brothers, look to the Good Shepherd Who suffered the passion of the cross to save his sheep. The sheep of the Lord followed Him in tribulation and persecution, in insult and hunger, in infirmity and temptation, and in everything else...it is a great shame for us [that] we wish to receive glory and honor by merely recounting their deeds (italics mine).

Dr. Ewert Cousins, specialist in Bonaventure and Fransiscanism of Fordham University, writes that “Francis attempted to imitate Christ literally, especially in poverty and in his suffering. His devotion to Christ [led] to his identification with the suffering Savior, expressed in his austere asceticism, and finally in his receiving the stigmata.”

Later on in his life Francis experienced again the voice of Christ calling him, but this time it was not away from the city into solitude but back to the cities to preach the Gospel of repentance and true peace in Jesus Christ. It is here where we draw the third inner circle that represents one of the most dominant expressions of Francis’ lifestyle and spirituality - that of his calling to incarnational mission. This calling was understood by Francis not simply as a directive from Christ but as another form of imitating him. This becomes clear not only as we read how he describes his calling and guides others to follow him but also in the incarnational characteristic of his witness, by which I refer to the intricate role that suffering and martyrdom play in his incarnating the message of Christ to others.

Francis’ calling came to him while listening to a reading of the Gospel in the country church of Portiuncula in 1209, in which Christ sends out his apostles to go preaching from city to city taking with them only the garments they were wearing (Matt 10.7-10). Furthermore, his calling was confirmed to him independently from his friends Silvester and Clair, saying that “He want you to go about the world preaching, because God did not call you for yourself alone but also for the salvation of others.”

Francis first began preaching in Assisi, gathering a following of young men, and then later in many preaching journeys throughout the Christian land of Italy. However, what stands from his contemporaries were his efforts to preach the Gospel in Muslim lands. In 1212 Francis sought to travel to Syria and again in 1213 to Morocco. In both instances he was deterred by sickness but his desire was finally fulfilled when in 1219 he crossed the battle line during the seize of Damietta and obtained an audience with Sultan Malik al-Kamir. There he is harassed by the soldiers of the Sultan but when ushered in is treated very respectfully and is offered the opportunity speak to the Sultan. After clarifying that he was not an emissary from the Crusading Christians but came on behalf of God himself he preached and explained the Gospel to the Sultan. After a long conversation the Sultan would not convert but was greatly impressed with Francis and gave him free leave to travel through Egypt to visit the holy lands and arrive back to Italy through Syria.

Further clear evidence of Francis’ commitment to incarnational mission work was his commissioning of other brothers to serve in other lands, such as his encouragement to his brothers to carry the Gospel into lands such as Northern Germany, Southern Spain and North Africa. In 1217 Francis sent out his first Franciscan missionary to Syria. Two years later he sent out six more brother to Northern Morocco. Later, when circumstances forced him to draft a Rule of Life for the brothers he included an entire chapter on how the brothers were to serve incarnationally among the Saracens, pointing them repeatedly to the Gospels as their model for ministry. Chapter XVI of the Regula Non-Bullata, referring to missionary endeavors among the Saracens, mentions no less than twenty-two direct allusions to the Gospels.

Anton Rotzetter writes that this mention of mission among the Saracens is quite significant because “for the first time in history the notion of mission emerges in the rule of an order.” Rotzetter summarizes the distinctives of the missional chapter in contrast to the attitude of Chrisendom during Francis’ lifetime:

1. “The encounter with the Saracens is primarily to be one of pure presence: serving, peaceful, non-violent, indeed an obedient and subservient presence...”

2. The explicit preaching of the gospel is to be secondary, yet when directed by the inner impulse of the Holy Spirit it is to be done boldly and confidently.

3. The entire endevour is to be done in a spirit of total surrender in Jesus Christ, gladly embracing martyrdom because they have already previously given (lost) their lives to Christ. “The early Christian readiness for martyrdom is to be practiced in ‘courage, lack of fear, selflessness, and forgetfulness of self’...”

How was this mission incarnational? What connection does did suffering and martyrdom have with mission towards the Muslims in Francis’ mind? In Francis’ mind the suffering and death of Christ are not simply theological truths to be proclaimed but (1) a spiritual reality to participate in on one’s journey toward union with Christ and (2) a powerful message to the heathen about the reality of Christ. This theme of suffering and co-crucifixion with Christ, so prevalent in his writings on spirituality, also appears here in the context of mission. A few evidences of this connection are:

• Francis’ first biographer, Thomas of Celano, describes Francis as being consumed with a desire for martyrdom after his conversion.

• In his writings to his brothers he repeated stresses the ‘evil of the self-will’ and the virtue of death to self.

• When Francis learned of the five Franciscans stoned to death in Morocco he said, “Finally, I have five true friars minor.”

• De Beer mentions that when Francis was not martyred by the Muslims in Damietta he reinterpreted his calling to martyrdom to be in serving the friars “in illness, obedience and contradiction.”

• Tradition uniformly attests that Francis’ search for co-crucifixion and martyrdom at Damietta was fulfilled when two years before his death an angel sent from heaven bestowed to Francis the stigmata, physical marks of the crucifixion on his own body.

• On his death bed Bonaventure describes Francis as urging his brothers to “keep heart and mind fixed on the footprints of the Crucified and [walking] in them always,” describing the reality of the Passion of Christ in their lives as marked by their “conformity to the Crucified.”

What is the exact relationship between suffering, death, and missions for Francis? After analyzing the all of the various accounts of Francis’ encounter with the Sultan, De Beer draws out his final observations. First, “Francis really thought that if he was martyred, it would speak strongly to the Islamic community”. In contrast to the past effects of martydom being primarily to strengthen the faith of the church, “Francis’ boldness lay in thinking that his martyrdom would speak more to Islam than to the Church...Islam required a radical witness which would be the radical opposite [of the Crusades]. Martyrdom is the conscientious objection...it is an anti-crusade.” Secondly, de Beer observes that in all accounts once it is discovered the Francis comes not as a Crusader but as a Christian sent by God his ill-treatment ceases and he is no longer under the threat of what could be a martyrdom. The significance of this is that Francis cannot provoke a martyrdom by simply confessing himself a Christian. Therefore, according to de Beer’s third observation, Francis proceeds to preach the Gospel to the Sultan in a spirit of confession and presses him to trust in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. When he will not convert Francis suggests a test by ordeal - if Francis enters a fire to be burned and comes out alive the Sultan must convert. De Beer interprets this as clear evidence that Francis sees his martyrdom as the most powerful and likely force for the conversion of the Sultan.

How can Francis’ missional outlook towards Islam, particularly in the encounter with the Sultan, be understood? After examining the broader context of Francis’ life, understanding his spirituality as a search for union with Christ, his lifestyle as imitating the life of Christ in all aspects, and his sense of mission through suffering and death, we can assert that Francis’ missional approach to the Muslims and his encounter with the Sultan flowed from from a desire to incarnate Christ by life or by death. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” Francis willingly risked martyrdom for the sake of confessing the Gospel before the Sultan. His actions were not a protest against the Crusades or as a statement about political passivism, but they certainly point to a spirituality, a lifestyle, and a mission of incarnation that embraces risk and death, which in the 21^st century we must take seriously.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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________. “Francis of Assisi: A Bridge to Islam.” Concilium 2, (1999): xiii, 141 p.

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