St Francis of Assisi
St Francis of Assisi (c.1182-1226) was the founding member of the Franciscan Order of Friars. Like monks, the Franciscans took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but unlike monks, they did not live in monasteries; instead, they travelled from place to place preaching the word of God to the people. They begged for food and shelter and are often referred to as mendicants meaning beggars.
Francis is probably the most well-known for his love of animals. Legend has it that he preached to the birds, and whilst he is the patron saint of Italy his patronage is often extended to animals. Francis is also credited with being the first to create a living nativity scene, bringing an ox and a donkey into his church to celebrate the Christmas mass. However, this is not the only association St Francis has with a donkey. Image:
By Anonymous – da web, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6382528
Fresco: The oldest surviving depiction of St. Francis near the entrance of the Benedictine abbey of Subiaco, c. 1228-9.
Francis is probably the most well-known for his love of animals. Legend has it that he preached to the birds, and whilst he is the patron saint of Italy his patronage is often extended to animals. Francis is also credited with being the first to create a living nativity scene, bringing an ox and a donkey into his church to celebrate the Christmas mass. However, this is not the only association St Francis has with a donkey.
Francis, as the leader of his Order, was particularly devout and lived an austere life. He likened himself to a donkey referring to his body as frater asinus (brother ass). Just as a donkey would be whipped for encouragement or punishment, Francis practised self-mortification – scourging himself as a means to subdue his sensual nature and keep his vow of chastity.
Towards the end of his life, Francis left the towns and people to live the life of a hermit. Moving to the mountains he lived in solitude and prayer contemplating God. The famous Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini painted his impression of St Francis in one such moment.
This painting, St Francis in the Desert (c.1480), has been argued by art critics to illustrate the moment of Francis’s stigmata (when Francis miraculously received the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion). Bellini’s fifteenth-century painting shuns traditional imagery – a small seraphic crucifix emitting rays – associated with depictions of stigmata; instead, his painting is rich with symbology. One such symbol is the lone donkey.
Art historians often refer to this donkey as a wild donkey or onager – as it would have been known in Francis’s time. The name onager is derived from the Greek onos for ass and agrios, meaning wild. Wild asses were known to frequent the desert and Bellini’s ass is depicted in a desolate field, bereft of company. In Bellini’s painting, Francis and the solitary ass share a metaphorical wilderness. The wild ass of the desert was a symbol for monks who shunned the secular world which Francis did when he retreated to his hermitage. For anyone wanting to know more about the imagery in Bellini’s painting, I recommend this blog.
As Francis encouraged others to know the story of Christ’s birth, he had a live donkey in his church to recall the nativity and as worked on achieving an ascetism, he likened his body to that of an ass – beaten for obedience. Two centuries later, Bellini depicted Francis’s solitude through the solitary ass.
