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230- TIR 51
Bronze medal from the Paris Mint (cornucopia hallmark from 1880).
Minted in 1982.
Some minimal traces of handling.
Engraver / Artist : André DELUOL (1909-2003).
Dimension : 81mm.
Weight : 222 g.
Metal : bronze.
Hallmark on the edge (mark on the edge) : cornucopia + bronze + 1982.
Quick and neat delivery.
The easel is not for sale.
The stand is not for sale
_
Francis of Assisi (in Italian: Francesco d'Assisi), born Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone in Assisi (Italy) in 1181 or 11821 and died October 3, 1226, is an Italian Catholic religious, deacon, mystic, and founder of the order of Friars Minor (OFM) in 1210, characterized by a sequela Christi in prayer, joy, poverty, evangelization and love of divine Creation.
Considered one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church, he brought about a decisive change in Christianity, and was quickly nicknamed “the Alter Christus” (the other Christ) after his death. According to Catholic tradition, he is the first saint in history to receive the stigmata. He is also considered the precursor of interreligious dialogue, particularly for his exchanges with the Sultan of Egypt Al-Kâmil, whom he attempted to convert while seeking to put an end to the Fifth Crusade. If he is not exactly the inventor of the living nativity scene, he is credited with having improved its form (making it more realistic), and with having widely popularized this practice in the West.
Rarely, he was canonized barely two years after his death (a record beaten only by Anthony of Padua and Peter of Verona) in 1228, by Pope Gregory IX. Francis of Assisi is commemorated on October 4 in the Catholic liturgical calendar. Along with Catherine of Siena, he is designated patron saint of Italy, and is also associated with the patronage of animals and the natural environment.
The most famous writings relating to the life of Saint Francis and the early Franciscans are the Fioretti or Little Flowers.
Considered one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church, he brought about a decisive change in Christianity, and was quickly nicknamed “the Alter Christus” (the other Christ) after his death. According to Catholic tradition, he is the first saint in history to receive the stigmata. He is also considered the precursor of interreligious dialogue, particularly for his exchanges with the Sultan of Egypt Al-Kâmil, whom he attempted to convert while seeking to put an end to the Fifth Crusade. If he is not exactly the inventor of the living nativity scene, he is credited with having improved its form (making it more realistic), and with having widely popularized this practice in the West.
Rarely, he was canonized barely two years after his death (a record beaten only by Anthony of Padua and Peter of Verona) in 1228, by Pope Gregory IX. Francis of Assisi is commemorated on October 4 in the Catholic liturgical calendar. Along with Catherine of Siena, he is designated patron saint of Italy, and is also associated with the patronage of animals and the natural environment.
The most famous writings relating to the life of Saint Francis and the early Franciscans are the Fioretti or Little Flowers.
Son of a rich merchant family in Umbria, Francis was born in Assisi between May and September 2 1181 or 11823.
Francis of Assisi by Orazio Gentileschi.
He is the eldest of the seven children of Pietro Bernardone dei Moriconi, a very rich clothier from Assisi, and Dona Joanna Pica de Bourlémont, a pious woman from the Provençal nobility (Provence is of Occitan culture although part of the Holy Roman Empire). Roman until 1481) and whom Pietro married for a second time in 1180 after being widowed4.
His father is not a cloth producer, but a reseller, in his shop as well as in markets and fairs, picking up his fabrics in production or exchange areas.
His wealth is made up of cash invested or lent at interest, and income from lands located in the contado and especially from houses in the city itself5.
At his birth, while his father was in France trading sheets and fabrics at the fairs of Provence and Champagne, his mother had him baptized under the name Giovanni (Jean in honor of the apostle of the same name) in the cathedral. of Assisi dedicated to Rufinus, patron saint of the city.
Returning from his trip to France where he did very good business and in homage to this country, his father gave him the name Francesco (François = French), which he kept and by which he would be known worldwide6,7 .
Youth
In the 1190s, he attended the canons' school at the church of San Giorgio in Assisi, where he learned Latin.
Destined to assist his father and probably succeed him, he left school at 14 and entered the merchants' corporation8.
Francesco then saw a dissipated youth marked by the aspirations of his time. At this time he perhaps committed the sin of the flesh as his Testament suggests9.
At the time of communal revolts with their bourgeois aspiring to nobility, he waged war against the nobility of Assisi and Perugia.
The defeat of the Assisiates at Ponte San Giovanni in November 1202 was followed by a year of imprisonment for him.
Sick during his captivity (probably the beginnings of tuberculosis), he was released at a price thanks to his father and must, after his return to Assisi, calm his ardor6.
The illnesses contracted during his stay in prison seriously undermined his health, which would subsequently always remain fragile10.
Loving the gesture of the troubadours, he did not hesitate to sing Provençal songs, so we will find in the stanzas of his works the rhythmic work of these poets and musicians of the Occitan language11.
Lifestyle change
Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds (after the Fioretti) by Giotto.
His conversion, carried out in several stages, took place during a long illness which immobilized him for a large part of the year 120412.
In 1205, while he still dreamed of acquiring the rank of nobility through great feats of arms and of being knighted in the manner of a princeps juventutis, he prepared to join the army of Gauthier de Brienne but, a dream he had in Spoleto where he fell ill, pushed him to abandon all hope of accomplishing this project and refused to take up arms13.
Returning to Assisi, perceiving the limits of the chivalric ideal which had until then animated him14, he gradually abandoned his lifestyle and his party companions and frequented the chapels of the Val di Spoleto15 more and more often.
In his Testament, Francis indicates that the meeting with the lepers is the event which determines his turnaround.
He was then imbued with the notion of mercy that he received from the secular religious movements of his time, a new sensitivity to the suffering and decline of others.
With penitence and peace, mercy will become one of the key words of the Franciscan prediction16.
In 1205, he was twenty-three years old. While he is praying in front of the crucifix in the Saint-Damien chapel, according to legend17 (“legend” is understood here in its original sense, that is to say a hagiography read in monasteries, during meals ; in churches, for the edification of the faithful during the feast of a saint), Francesco hears a voice asking him to “repair his ruined Church”18,19.
Taking the order literally, he went to the nearby town of Foligno to sell goods from his father's business so that he could restore the dilapidated old chapel.
Saint Francis in Ecstasy by Francisco de Zurbarán, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
He also spends a lot of money on alms20.
Furious at his son's eccentricities, Pietro Bernardone demands that he be held accountable and does not hesitate to take him to court to disinherit him.
At the end of this trial in the court of the Bishop of Assisi Guido, Francesco broke off the relationship with his father by leaving him, symbolically, his clothes21.
Francesco, claiming a penitent status which made him escape secular justice, would then be summoned by the Bishop of Assisi.
During his hearing The originality of Francis of Assisi is to have celebrated a living nativity scene in a more evocative natural setting, by associating the villagers of Greccio who were able to experience the “Nativity” and have the impression of embodying the characters from biblical writings34. Little by little, the custom spread, notably under the influence of Clare of Assisi and Franciscan preachers, especially in Franciscan oratories in Provence and Italy, in the form of living nativity scenes but also nativity scenes made with wooden figurines. or in the ground and which could be exposed for longer35.
Stigmata, end of life
The stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi by Peter Paul Rubens, 1616, Cologne
In August 1224, Francis retired with some brothers to the Alverne monastery.
On September 17 (three days after the Feast of the Glorious Cross), he would have received the stigmata36,19.
He would be the first stigmatized in History37.
Since then, he has often been ill and suffered from anxiety attacks; he takes refuge in a hut near the San Damiano chapel.
In the Chapel of San Damiano he begins his spiritual journey and where he lives the community of poor sisters inaugurated by Clare of Assisi.
There he wrote his “Canticle of Brother Sun” (or “Song of the Creatures”), the first text in modern Italian written seventy years before Dante Alighieri's Vita nuova, a true celebration of God in his Creation, and one of the first great Italian poems.
He died on October 3, 1226 in the small church of the Portiuncula, today included as a chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels of Assisi in the Val di Spoleto not far from the upper town of Assisi.
He left a will where he professed his attachment to evangelical poverty and the Rule.
At his death, the Franciscan order had 3,000 to 5,000 brothers17.
Works
Although he presents himself as illiterate, François left numerous writings of various genres. Some of them have come down to us as autographs, that is to say the originals written by François himself (BLéon, LLéon).
Others are copies included in collections, such as the prestigious manuscript 338 of the Municipal Library of Assisi. Others, finally, are taken from various writings in which they had been cited (for example the Rule of Saint Clare).
His work, which includes the Statutes of his order, Sermons, Canticles and Letters, was published in Antwerp, 1623, in-4.
Authenticity of the writings
Saint Francis, engraving by Wenceslas Hollar (17th century).
Recent studies have made it possible to determine the writings that can be attributed to Francis, and to what title they can be attributed to him.
Certain texts have been eliminated from recent editions due to their low level of authenticity.
Thus the famous Prayer for Peace, also called Simple Prayer or Prayer of Saint Francis, is not part of any manuscript collection.
The oldest trace of this text does not date back before 1913. The prayer was printed on the back of a pious image representing Francis of Assisi.
It was only from 1936 that it was attributed to Saint Francis. Its worldwide success is due to American senator Tom Connally (in) who read it in 1945 from the podium of the San Francisco conference which saw the birth of the UN, the city of San Francisco having been placed from its creation by the
Francis of Assisi by Orazio Gentileschi.
He is the eldest of the seven children of Pietro Bernardone dei Moriconi, a very rich clothier from Assisi, and Dona Joanna Pica de Bourlémont, a pious woman from the Provençal nobility (Provence is of Occitan culture although part of the Holy Roman Empire). Roman until 1481) and whom Pietro married for a second time in 1180 after being widowed4.
His father is not a cloth producer, but a reseller, in his shop as well as in markets and fairs, picking up his fabrics in production or exchange areas.
His wealth is made up of cash invested or lent at interest, and income from lands located in the contado and especially from houses in the city itself5.
At his birth, while his father was in France trading sheets and fabrics at the fairs of Provence and Champagne, his mother had him baptized under the name Giovanni (Jean in honor of the apostle of the same name) in the cathedral. of Assisi dedicated to Rufinus, patron saint of the city.
Returning from his trip to France where he did very good business and in homage to this country, his father gave him the name Francesco (François = French), which he kept and by which he would be known worldwide6,7 .
Youth
In the 1190s, he attended the canons' school at the church of San Giorgio in Assisi, where he learned Latin.
Destined to assist his father and probably succeed him, he left school at 14 and entered the merchants' corporation8.
Francesco then saw a dissipated youth marked by the aspirations of his time. At this time he perhaps committed the sin of the flesh as his Testament suggests9.
At the time of communal revolts with their bourgeois aspiring to nobility, he waged war against the nobility of Assisi and Perugia.
The defeat of the Assisiates at Ponte San Giovanni in November 1202 was followed by a year of imprisonment for him.
Sick during his captivity (probably the beginnings of tuberculosis), he was released at a price thanks to his father and must, after his return to Assisi, calm his ardor6.
The illnesses contracted during his stay in prison seriously undermined his health, which would subsequently always remain fragile10.
Loving the gesture of the troubadours, he did not hesitate to sing Provençal songs, so we will find in the stanzas of his works the rhythmic work of these poets and musicians of the Occitan language11.
Lifestyle change
Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds (after the Fioretti) by Giotto.
His conversion, carried out in several stages, took place during a long illness which immobilized him for a large part of the year 120412.
In 1205, while he still dreamed of acquiring the rank of nobility through great feats of arms and of being knighted in the manner of a princeps juventutis, he prepared to join the army of Gauthier de Brienne but, a dream he had in Spoleto where he fell ill, pushed him to abandon all hope of accomplishing this project and refused to take up arms13.
Returning to Assisi, perceiving the limits of the chivalric ideal which had until then animated him14, he gradually abandoned his lifestyle and his party companions and frequented the chapels of the Val di Spoleto15 more and more often.
In his Testament, Francis indicates that the meeting with the lepers is the event which determines his turnaround.
He was then imbued with the notion of mercy that he received from the secular religious movements of his time, a new sensitivity to the suffering and decline of others.
With penitence and peace, mercy will become one of the key words of the Franciscan prediction16.
In 1205, he was twenty-three years old. While he is praying in front of the crucifix in the Saint-Damien chapel, according to legend17 (“legend” is understood here in its original sense, that is to say a hagiography read in monasteries, during meals ; in churches, for the edification of the faithful during the feast of a saint), Francesco hears a voice asking him to “repair his ruined Church”18,19.
Taking the order literally, he went to the nearby town of Foligno to sell goods from his father's business so that he could restore the dilapidated old chapel.
Saint Francis in Ecstasy by Francisco de Zurbarán, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
He also spends a lot of money on alms20.
Furious at his son's eccentricities, Pietro Bernardone demands that he be held accountable and does not hesitate to take him to court to disinherit him.
At the end of this trial in the court of the Bishop of Assisi Guido, Francesco broke off the relationship with his father by leaving him, symbolically, his clothes21.
Francesco, claiming a penitent status which made him escape secular justice, would then be summoned by the Bishop of Assisi.
During his hearing The originality of Francis of Assisi is to have celebrated a living nativity scene in a more evocative natural setting, by associating the villagers of Greccio who were able to experience the “Nativity” and have the impression of embodying the characters from biblical writings34. Little by little, the custom spread, notably under the influence of Clare of Assisi and Franciscan preachers, especially in Franciscan oratories in Provence and Italy, in the form of living nativity scenes but also nativity scenes made with wooden figurines. or in the ground and which could be exposed for longer35.
Stigmata, end of life
The stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi by Peter Paul Rubens, 1616, Cologne
In August 1224, Francis retired with some brothers to the Alverne monastery.
On September 17 (three days after the Feast of the Glorious Cross), he would have received the stigmata36,19.
He would be the first stigmatized in History37.
Since then, he has often been ill and suffered from anxiety attacks; he takes refuge in a hut near the San Damiano chapel.
In the Chapel of San Damiano he begins his spiritual journey and where he lives the community of poor sisters inaugurated by Clare of Assisi.
There he wrote his “Canticle of Brother Sun” (or “Song of the Creatures”), the first text in modern Italian written seventy years before Dante Alighieri's Vita nuova, a true celebration of God in his Creation, and one of the first great Italian poems.
He died on October 3, 1226 in the small church of the Portiuncula, today included as a chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels of Assisi in the Val di Spoleto not far from the upper town of Assisi.
He left a will where he professed his attachment to evangelical poverty and the Rule.
At his death, the Franciscan order had 3,000 to 5,000 brothers17.
Works
Although he presents himself as illiterate, François left numerous writings of various genres. Some of them have come down to us as autographs, that is to say the originals written by François himself (BLéon, LLéon).
Others are copies included in collections, such as the prestigious manuscript 338 of the Municipal Library of Assisi. Others, finally, are taken from various writings in which they had been cited (for example the Rule of Saint Clare).
His work, which includes the Statutes of his order, Sermons, Canticles and Letters, was published in Antwerp, 1623, in-4.
Authenticity of the writings
Saint Francis, engraving by Wenceslas Hollar (17th century).
Recent studies have made it possible to determine the writings that can be attributed to Francis, and to what title they can be attributed to him.
Certain texts have been eliminated from recent editions due to their low level of authenticity.
Thus the famous Prayer for Peace, also called Simple Prayer or Prayer of Saint Francis, is not part of any manuscript collection.
The oldest trace of this text does not date back before 1913. The prayer was printed on the back of a pious image representing Francis of Assisi.
It was only from 1936 that it was attributed to Saint Francis. Its worldwide success is due to American senator Tom Connally (in) who read it in 1945 from the podium of the San Francisco conference which saw the birth of the UN, the city of San Francisco having been placed from its creation by the