Posted November 26, 2012 Book: St. Francis of Assisi Author: G.K. Chesterton Image Books. New York. 1957. pp. 158 An Excerpt from the Jacket: A Thing of Beauty In writing this charming biography . . .Mr. Chesterton has rekindled for us the medieval spirit, with its buoyancy, its childlike soul, its persuasive faith, and he has made us see St. Francis in the light of that spirit. The Dark Ages were over and the pagan leaven had passed out of the minds and imagination of men. . . An Excerpt from the Book: While he was selling velvet and fine embroideries to some solid merchant of the town, a beggar came imploring alms; evidently in a somewhat tactless manner. It was a rude and simple society and there were no laws to punish a starving man for expressing his need for food. . . . On this occasion Francis seems to have dealt with the double interview with rather a divided mind; certainly with distraction, possibly with irritation. . . .Anyway Francis was evidently torn two ways with the botheration of two talkers, but finished his business with the merchant somehow, and when he had finished it, found the beggar was gone. Francis leapt from his booth, left all the bales of velvet and embroidery behind him apparently unprotected, and went racing across the market place like an arrow from the bow. Still running he threaded the labyrinth of the narrow and crooked streets of the little town, looking for his beggar, whom he eventually discovered; and loaded that astonished mendicant with money. . . .Francis, I fancy, felt a real doubt about which he must attend to, the beggar or the merchant, and having attended to the merchant, he turned to attend to the beggar; he thought f them as two men. He believed in the equality of personhood. Table of Contents: The problem of St. Francis The world St. Francis found Francis the fighter Francis the builder Le Jongleur de Dieu The little poor man The three orders The mirror of Christ Miracles and death The testament of St. Francis