Chapter VII. Of the persecution of his father and his brother after the flesh

12. But now that he was applying himself to works of piety his father after the flesh persecuted him, and, deeming Christ's service madness, he assailed him everywhere with curses. So God's servant called to his aid a certain low-born and very simple man whom he adopted in the stead of his father, asking him that when his father redoubled his curses, he on the contrary should bless him. Truly he turned the prophet's word into action and showed by deeds what that saying betokens: "They shall curse but thou shalt bless".

At the persuasion of the bishop of the city, a very pious man, who told him that he might not spend anything ill-gotten¹ on sacred purposes, Francis gave up to his father some money he had meant to lay out on the work at the said church; and in the hearing of the many who had come together, "Henceforth," he cried, "I may freely say ' our Father who art in heaven,' not any more ' father Pietro di Bernardone,' to whom lo! I not only restore the money but give up all my clothes.1 Naked therefore will I go to the Lord." (O liberal spirit of the man to whom now Christ alone is sufficient!) It was then found that the man of God had been wearing sackcloth under his clothes, rejoicing rather in the reality than in the appearance of virtue. His brother after the flesh, even as his father, pursued him with venomous words; and one winter morning, seeing Francis at prayer clothed in rags and shivering with cold, that wicked man said to one of his fellowtownsmen, "Ask Francis to sell you now a pennyworth of sweat". But when the man of God heard this he was filled with gladness and answered with a smile, "Indeed I will sell my sweat very dear to my Lord". Nothing more true: for he received not only a hundred but a thousandfold more in this life, and won not for himself alone but also for many eternal life hereafter.

»C/. I., 14, 15.