Saint Francis Determines to Win His Bride

One evening [while still in the world] Francis was appointed by his fellow-revellers as their chief, so that he might spend their contributions as he pleased. Accordingly (as he had often done), he had a sumptuous feast prepared; and when they left the house, his companions went before him together, and passed through the city singing, while he, bearing a wand in his hand as their chief, came a little behind them, not singing, but deep in thought. And suddenly the Lord visited him, and his heart was filled with such sweetness that he could neither speak nor move. But when his companions looked behind them and saw that he was so far away from them, they turned back, and, filled with awe, perceived that he had already been changed, as it were, into another man.

Then they questioned him, saying: 'What were you thinking of, that you did not come after us? Perhaps you were thinking of taking a wife?'

'You have said the truth,' he eagerly replied, 'for I have thought to take a nobler, richer, and fairer bride than you ever saw.' And they mocked him. But this he said, not of himself, but inspired by God: for that bride was the true Religion that he embraced, nobler, richer, and fairer than all others, through poverty.

- text taken from Franciscan Days: being selections for every day in the year from ancient Franciscan writings, translated and arranged by Alan George Ferrers Howell