If you read chapters four and five of St. Bonaventure’s life of St. Francis, you may be a bit put off by St. Francis’ demanding and radical mortifications. In some instances, if we saw someone doing the same today, we would potentially think he was medically insane – that something was truly wrong with him. We may ask questions like, “Does he suffer from self-hatred? Does he suffer from some mental illness?” I and others who know Francis well (and far better than me) would answer, “No,” to these questions, and for good reason.
To give a very cursory answer to this question, it is helpful to take a cursory glance toward some of the history of ascetical (disciplinary) practices in Christianity. Francis was not the first to behave like this; really, he is following a centuries-old way of living Christianity. It is just a way we are not at all used to seeing today.
These heavy penances and mortifications, as well as St. Francis’ attitude toward them, remind me of the Desert Fathers of the Church. These Desert Fathers were men (and women) who in the first centuries of the Church, in places like Syria, Egypt, and around the Holy Land, went out into the desert and willfully embraced lives of the most severe penance. They did this, we have to understand, in full freedom, and out of love for Jesus Christ. They did this, we have to understand, in imitation of Jesus’ own mortification in the desert and his passion on the cross.
It is necessary for us to recognize that these men and women did not hate their bodies – they hated sin. They disciplined their bodies as a way to drive sin from their lives and draw close to Jesus. It is fascinating to read about the lives of some of these people, including St. Francis and his brothers in the early Franciscan order, and to hear that despite these severe penances, they enjoyed health, energy, and a composure before God and others that allowed them to be sources of love and wisdom.
To the question of possible mental illness, it is also important to recognize that none of these people took on these practices before they had a profound encounter with the risen Lord. St. Anthony of the Desert, perhaps the most famous of the desert Fathers, only went into the desert after he was inspired by the Holy Spirit upon hearing the words of the Gospel – Jesus inviting the rich young man to leave everything and follow him.
St. Francis as well encountered Jesus and only then, out of love for him and in imitation of him, began to take on penitential practices.
We often say that these great saints and their practices are “to be admired, not imitated.” That is true, to an extent. Not all of us are called to such a life. And in fact, most of us, with our modern daily duties and cares, truly could not survive with such a straining life of penance. For example, excessive fasting is fine when driving is unnecessary, but nearly all of us have to drive and the effects of fasting can make driving a danger to ourselves and others.
Still, according to our state in life and keeping in mind our vocational responsibilities, there is something more than admiration that we can take from the lives of these saints. We can look to them as an example of love. We can admire the fire that lived in their hearts and we can strive to imitate that depth of desire. Maybe the penances are not all to be imitated, but the inferno of love is to be desired and imitated.
How can I be more like St. Francis? Jesus, set my heart on fire with a burning love for you and for your cross. Help me to sacrifice where I am able and to learn to live only for you!