Chronology of Francis, Clare and Sources

(Events, dates and source references are from FONTI FRANCESCANE Nuova edizione, Ernesto Caroli (editor), Editrici Francescane, Padova – 2004)

Date	Event
1181/1182	Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone is born in Assisi; his father, a wealthy merchant who was absent at his baptism, wanted him to be called Francis. He learnt to read and write at the church of San Giorgio (cf. 1Cel 23; LegM 15.5).
1193/1194	Clare, daughter of Favarone di Offreduccio and Ortolana, from an aristocratic family, is born in Assisi.
1198–1200	Following the death of Emperor Henry VI (September 1197), the commoners of the guilds (homines populi) destroyed the imperial fortress of Assisi and attacked the fortified houses of the nobles (boni homines), many of whom took refuge in Perugia.
1202–1203	In the war between Perugia and Assisi, the Assisian militias were defeated at Collestrada: Francis was taken prisoner, only to be released a year later, in poor health.
1204–1206	Francis’s ‘conversion’ begins: a mysterious vision at Spoleto, an encounter with lepers, and persistent prayer at San Damiano (cf. 3Comp 6–14). Prayer before the Crucifix (early 1206).
1206–1208	Conflict with his father and renunciation of his paternal inheritance before the Bishop of Assisi. Dressed as a hermit, he restores San Damiano, San Pietro and Santa Maria della Porziuncola (cf. 3Comp 16–24). He composes and recites the prayer ‘We adore You’ (FF 111).
1208	April: together with his first companions, Bernardo di Quintavalle and Pietro Cattani, in the church of San Niccolò, he consults the Gospel, which becomes their rule of life (cf. 3Comp 27–29; Anper 10–11). Wearing the habit of penitents, they began their first apostolic pilgrimages. By the following spring, their number had grown to twelve.
1209–1210	On an uncertain date, Innocent III verbally approved the rule of life ‘according to the form of the Holy Gospel’ which Francis ‘had written down in a few words and with simplicity’ (2Test 14–15). The Pope ‘authorised him and his companions to preach penance everywhere’ (3Comp 51; Anper 36). This ‘Protoregola’, rather than having been lost, was incorporated and then progressively expanded within the text of the unconfirmed Rule (1210–1221). From Rivotorto, the brotherhood moved to Santa Maria della Porziuncola, the little church entrusted to their care by the Benedictines of Subasio.
c. 1212	Clare is welcomed by Francis into the penitential life, and therefore into obedience, with a written commitment on the part of Francis: The Rule of Life (c. 1212), as recorded by Clare (RsC 6:1–5; TestsC 29).
1212–1215	Francis attempts in vain to reach Syria (1211?), then Morocco via Spain (between 1213 and 1215). Exhortation to the Praise of God (FF 265a): given its rough structure and form, it may date from the early years of Francis’s ‘pilgrimage’.
1215	November: the Fourth Lateran Council is held, which was significant for the reform of the Church and anti-heretical measures. The ‘Friars Minor’ are not bound by the provisions of the Ne nimia religionum diversitas (according to which, for example, the Preaching Friars (Dominicans) must adopt the Augustinian Rule).
1216	16 July: Innocent III dies. He is succeeded by Honorius III. Present at these events is James of Vitry-sur-Seine, consecrated Bishop of Acre (Ptolemais), who, in a letter dated October 1216, provides valuable testimony regarding the life and ecclesiastical esteem enjoyed by the so-called Friars Minor and Sisters Minor (FF 2205: but cf. 2200–2209).
1217	26 May: the General Chapter decides on the first mission beyond the Alps and overseas.
1219	26 May: at the Pentecost Chapter, whilst the Fifth Crusade had been underway since 1217, a decision is taken to send a second mission of friars beyond the Alps and overseas. 11 June: in the papal bull Cum dilecti, addressed to bishops and prelates, Honorius III recommends that the ‘Friars Minor […] be received as Catholic and faithful men’ (FF 2708). In June, Francis set sail for the East and arrived in Damietta, where he met peacefully with the Sultan of Egypt, Melek-el-Kamel.
1220	January: in Morocco, the first five martyred Friars Minor. Having been informed that the ‘vicars’ left behind in Italy had introduced arbitrary provisions into the Rule, Francis returned, obtained from Honorius III as protector of the Order Cardinal Ugolino, and enriched the Rule with biblical texts with the help of Brother Cesario of Speyer (cf. Giordano 12–15: FF 2334–2338). In the wake of his experience in the East and the papal letter Sane cum olim (dated 22 November 1219), Francis sent letters to the ‘three Christian states’, inviting them to public divine praise and Eucharistic worship: Exhortations to the Clergy, 1st draft (FF 207/a–209/a), 2nd draft (FF 207–209). A Letter to the Rulers of the Peoples (FF 210–213). First Letter to the Custodians (FF 240–244). The Second Letter to the Custodians (FF 245–248: supports the three preceding letters). 22 September: the papal bull Cum secundum also obliges the Friars Minor to undertake a year of novitiate, forbidding them to leave the Order after their profession (FF 2714). Francis relinquishes direct governance of the Order, entrusting it to a vicar (Pietro Cattani, until 10 March 1221; he is succeeded by Brother Elia).
1221	30 May: at the General Chapter at the Porziuncola, new expeditions beyond the Alps (to Germany) are carefully organised and the new text of the Rule is discussed: The Earlier Rule, comprising 24 chapters (FF 1–73), certainly approved by the Pope (cf. Prologue and 24:4), but not with an official papal bull. A ‘spiritual’ complement to the norms for the brotherhood is provided by the Admonitions (FF 141–178), perhaps compiled gradually at the general chapters, where ‘Saint Francis addressed admonitions, rebukes and precepts to the brothers […], after consulting the Lord’ (Anper 37: FF 1529).
1221 ff.	In all likelihood, the following belong to the later years of Francis, though it is impossible to determine their chronology more precisely: A Salutation to the Virtues (FF 256–258). A Salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary (FF 259–260). A Prayer inspired by the Our Father (FF 266–275).
1221–1223	Francis continued his work towards producing a definitive text of the Rule, as demonstrated by an important document: A Letter to a Minister (FF 234–239). There was no shortage of tensions within the community (at the ‘chapter of the mats’: CAss 17–18; 2Spec 68) and a long ‘temptation’ of Francis (cf. 2Cel 115; 2Spec 99). The following may have emerged from this troubled biographical context: True and Perfect Joy (FF 278). The Office of the Passion (FF 279–303).
1223	Start of the year: at Fonte Colombo, not without difficulties and conflicts (cf. LegM 4,11; CAss 17), Francis drafts the definitive Rule of his Order: The Later Rule (FF 73a–109a), approved by Honorius III (bull Solet annuere, 29 November). 24–25 December, at Greccio: Eucharistic ‘commemoration’ of the Nativity of the Lord (1Cel 84–87).
1224	At a date certainly after the approval of the Regula bullata: A Letter to Brother Anthony of Padua (FF 251–252: reference to Rb 5:2). A Letter to the Entire Order (FF 214–233), which in verses 34–43 contains references to the Rule of St Benedict. August–September: the Lent of St Michael, ‘at the place of La Verna’ (15 August–29 September), where Francis received the stigmata, after which he wrote ‘in his own hand’: The Praises of God (FF 261), ‘giving thanks to God for this blessing’; The Blessing to Brother Leo (FF 262; for the reasons, cf. 2Cel 49). Francis returns to the Porziuncola, restricted in his apostolic activity by the stigmata and the worsening of his illnesses. If not even the first draft (FF 178/1–7), then at least the second draft of A Letter to the Faithful (FF 179–206) perhaps belongs to these later years, given that Francis states his intention to write ‘considering that I cannot visit the faithful personally, due to the infirmity and weakness of my body’ (2Lf 3: FF 180).
1225	Spring: at San Damiano, Francis composes two praises-exhortations in the vernacular, the first in thanksgiving for the assurance of salvation, the second ‘for the greater consolation of the poor sisters’: The Canticle of the Creatures (FF 263; cf. CAss 83 and the additions: CAss 84 and 7). The Canticle of Exhortation for the Ladies of San Damiano, (FF 263/1; cf. CAss 85). He travelled through the Rieti valley, where he underwent futile surgical treatments for a serious eye disease contracted in the East.
1226	April–May: in Siena, whilst his condition worsened, he dictated briefly his final ‘will’: The Testament of Siena (FF 132–135; cf. CAss 59). Francis was subsequently transferred to the Celle di Cortona, to Bagnara near Nocera, and then escorted to Assisi, to the bishop’s palace. Upon hearing of his impending death, he composed the final stanza of the Canticle. September: probably during the final weeks of his life, he dictated his last Testament (FF 110–131), ‘remembrance, admonition, exhortation’ (v. 34): a text universally regarded as exemplary for Francis’s spirituality and approach to life, but which must also be regarded as such for its fidelity to the Church and to the Rule he had professed (cf. 2Test 38–39: FF 130). ‘Shortly before his death’, he dictated the Ultima volontà (FF 140) for the ‘poor ladies’ of San Damiano (cf. RsC 6:6–9; TestsC 33). 3 October: Francis dies at the Porziuncola, on the evening of Saturday 3 October (after sunset: according to the medieval liturgical calendar, 4 October). The following day, his body is laid to rest in Assisi, in the church of St George (now incorporated into the Basilica of Saint Clare), where ‘as a young boy he had learnt to read and where he later preached for the first time’ (LegM 15,5).
1227	19 March: Cardinal Ugolino, elected Pope, takes the name of Gregory IX. 30 May: Giovanni Parenti is elected Minister General of the Order.
1228	16 July: Gregory IX celebrates the canonisation of Francis in Assisi: the relevant papal bull, Mira circa nos (FF 2720– 2728), is made public on 19 July. 17 September: Clare obtains from Gregory IX the Privilegium paupertatis for the monastery of San Damiano in Assisi.
1228–1229	Thomas of Celano, commissioned by Gregory IX, composes the saint’s biography: Vita del beato Francesco (The Life of Saint Francis) (1Cel), approved by the Pope, possibly on 25 February 1229.
1230	25 May: the transfer of Francis’s remains from the church of San Giorgio to the basilica erected in his honour. 28 September: following consultation with a commission of friars, Gregory IX promulgates the Quo elongati which denies legal validity to Francis’s Testament and resolves certain points of doubt regarding the interpretation of the Rule.
1232	Brother Elias of Assisi, formerly Francis’s vicar, is elected Minister General of the Order.
1232–1235	Julian of Speyer composes the Vita sancti Francisci.
1234	11 June: Agnes, daughter of Ottokar I, King of Bohemia, makes her religious vocation public.
1234–1238	The first three letters from Clare to Agnes of Bohemia.
1239	15 May: Brother Elias is deposed from his office; in the presence of Gregory IX, the General Chapter elects Albert of Pisa, the first priest to hold the supreme leadership of the Order; the first Constitutions are promulgated.
1241	Before 25 October, Primordi o fondazione dell’Ordine (The Assisi Compilation/The Legend of Perugia), a short work probably composed by Brother Giovanni, a disciple of Brother Egidio.
1244	At the General Chapter in Genoa, Crescenzio da Iesi, Minister General, promotes a collection of testimonies, so that the gaps noted in The Life of Saint Francis (1Cel) by Thomas of Celano might be filled.
1245	14 November: Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ordinem vestrum as a commentary on the Franciscan Rule.
1246	11 August: Leone, Rufino and Angelo, companions of Francis, send their accounts from Greccio to Crescenzio da Iesi; the citizens of Assisi, too, give their testimony, focusing on Francis’s youth.
1247	Giovanni da Parma is elected Minister General. Tommaso da Celano composes The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul or The second Life of Saint Francis (2Cel), approved by the General Chapter. 18 August: Innocent IV promulgates a ‘rule of life’ for the female monasteries of the Order of San Damiano.
1252–1253	Thomas compiles the section concerning the miracles of Francis: The Treatise on the Miracles of Saint Francis (3Cel).
1253	Fourth letter to Agnes and Clare’s Testament. 9 August: Innocent IV confirms Clare’s Rule for the monastery of San Damiano in Assisi. 11 August: Clare dies at San Damiano. 18 October: Innocent IV requests the opening of the process of canonisation of Clare.
1255	15 August: Clare is canonised by Innocent IV at Anagni (although not certain, this is the most reliable date).
1250–1260	Composition of the Sacrum Commercium (The Sacred Exchange between Saint Francis and Lady Poverty).
1257	Deposition of Giovanni da Parma; Bonaventure da Bagnoregio is elected Minister General.
1260	The General Chapter, meeting in Narbonne, commissions Bonaventure to write a new life of St Francis and promulgates new General Constitutions.
1263–1266	In Pisa, the General Chapter approves the Legenda maior (The Major Legend of Saint Francis) by Bonaventure In Paris, the General Chapter decrees the destruction of all the lives of St Francis, with the exception of the work by Bonaventure.
1276	The General Chapter, meeting in Padua, orders the recovery of the previous account of St Francis. After that date, using the material gathered during the investigation led by Crescenzio da Iesi, the Assisi Compilation and the Legend of the Three Companions are produced.
1289	18 August: with the papal bull Supra montem, Nicholas IV officially establishes the Franciscan Third Order, bringing together the previous penitential movements.
1305	Ubertino da Casale, confined to La Verna, writes a first draft of The Tree of the Crucified Life of Jesus.
c. 1318	Composition of The Mirror of Perfection.
c. 1325	Angelo Clareno completes The Book of Chronicles or of the Tribulations of the Order of Lesser Ones.
1327–1337	Composition of The Deeds of Blessed Francis and his Companions by Ugolino Boniscambi of Montegiorgio; from these, an anonymous vernaculariser would draw, a few decades later, the very famous Fioretti (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis).