Chapter CXLIII. Of brother John the Simple

190. As S. Francis was passing near a village by Assisi a very simple man named John who was ploughing in a field came up to him and said: "I wish that thou wouldst make me a Brother, for I have long been desiring to serve God". The Saint rejoiced, as he considered the man's simplicity, and answered gladly: "Brother, if thou wilt become our companion, give to the poor, if thou hast anything, and I will receive thee when thou hast got rid of thy property".

The man straightway loosed the oxen, and offered one to S. Francis. "Let us give this ox to the poor," said he, "for I am worthy to receive so much of my father's goods." The Saint smiled, but approved his simple disposition not a little. When his parents and his little brothers heard this they came running together with tears, grieving more for the loss of the ox than for that of the man. But the Saint said to them: "Be easy in your minds: see, I give you back the ox though I take away the brother! "So he took the man with him, vested him in the garb of the Religion, and, on account of the grace of simplicity which he had, made him his special companion. And so when S. Francis was in any place engaged in meditation, John the Simple would immediately copy in his own person whatever gestures or movements S. Francis made; for if S. Francis spat, he spat; if S. Francis coughed, he coughed; he accompanied the Saint's sighs and weeping by sighing and weeping himself; if the Saint raised his hands to heaven, so did he, observing him diligently as a model and copying everything himself. The Saint noticed this, and asked him once why he did so. "I have promised," said he, "to do all that thou doest; it is dangerous for me to leave anything out." The Saint rejoiced over this pure simplicity, but gently forbade him to act thus any more. And not long afterwards the simple man in that purity of his passed away to the Lord. And, as the Saint would often put forward this man's life for imitation, he would playfully call him not "brother John "but "Saint John".

Observe that it is a characteristic of pious simplicity to abide by the rule of one's betters and ever to rely on the examples and instructions of the Saints.

Who shall grant to human wisdom to follow him even now that he is reigning in heaven with the zeal wherewith pious Simplicity copied him on earth? What can I add but this: Simplicity followed the Saint in life and went before him into life.