The Tenth General: Brother Bonagrazia of San Giovanni in Persiceto

75 Jerome of Ascoli convokes the Chapter and Bonagrazia is elected 76 The Capitulars ask the Pope for a Cardinal Protector 77 The Pope expounds the Rule 78 Regulations regarding Our Lady of the Angels 79 The stigmata of Saint Francis

(75) The tenth General was the Venerable Father and holy man Brother Bonagrazia from the Province of Bologna. He was very learned and endowed with every virtue. He was elected in the Chapter assembled in the city of Assisi in the year of the Lord 1279. Brother Jerome of Ascoli assembled this Chapter because even though he had become a Cardinal, His Holiness wanted him to continue governing until this Chapter.

(76) After the election of the General had been done and the whole Chapter concluded, the Most Holy Father Nicholas III offered to all the Fathers that if they needed anything from him, the General and his Ministers should go to find him. The General and some Ministers and other Fathers of the Order went into the presence of His Holiness. The General and Ministers and Discreets on behalf of the Chapter made a proposal to His Holiness: if it would please His Holiness to give them a Cardinal as protector, or if His Holiness wanted to be it himself as Alexander IV had done. He replied, “Although I would like to be the main one to take care of this holy Order, nonetheless it is better for it, in order to conform with the Rule, that you have one of the Cardinals.” He immediately named the Cardinals to these Fathers and he, the Holy Father, wanted each of them to know whom he was voting for. Then his nephew Cardinal Matthew was elected in a ballot since, among the Cardinals, he was the one who loved the Order of Minors most tenderly. Therefore while those Fathers were gathered in the presence of His Holiness, and Cardinal Matthew was also present, His Holiness turned his eye upon this Cardinal and cried out loudly and said, “My words now turn to you. Through us you have received from God and the Church countless benefits. If we wanted to tell of them, they must have been many and great, useful and merciful. However, be aware that I have never done for you something so pleasing to the Lord God and such an occasion to merit and draw near to approach blessedness as a pledge from heaven than what I now give you. It is the best thing we have. We give you the desire of our heart. Now we give you the apple of our eye.” The heart of the holy Pontiff was so moved at these words that he broke down into such weeping and sobbing that he could not speak for a while because of his copious weeping. He could not speak nor contain his loud weeping and sobs and therefore without uttering a word. When all those present saw how tenderly that holy pontiff loved the Order they all broke down and could not speak to one another. When he finally regained his strength, the Holy Pontiff said, “I regret I cannot enlarge on this in this discussion because nature does not permit me.” Stretching out his hand towards the Cardinal he gave him his own ring and the holy kiss quite tenderly. He said to him, “We commit the Order of Minors to you so that you may be the Protector, governor and corrector of this holy Order. Know that this Order has no need your governance; that it abounds in such wise, judicious and prudent men who are capable of governing more than just the Order. Nor will you have to correct it because their leadership structures and rulings are so well ordered they have no need for someone else to correct them. They have their Guardians who can have recourse to their Custos if they fail in their duty. If the Custos fail the may have recourse to the Minister. Over all these is the Minister General and over the Minister General is the General Chapter so that it is very unlikely that faults pass uncorrected. Only in this do they need you and your support. For they are poor men and there is no shortage of those who persecute them to whom it is not fitting for them to oppose. In this they need the strength and valour of the Protector and in this will you take care of them.”

With these words His Holiness ended his discourse.

(77) From that day, in order to restrain the boldness of those who disturbed the Order as well as those proud Fathers who wanted to oppress the good ones and who interpreted the Rule in their own way, His Holiness began to expound to the Rule. So that he could do this better, he withdrew to Rocca di Suriano with some of the more learned and discreet, both from the court and from the Order. He stayed there two months, cutting himself off from every other matter, which was very difficult for the for the court and the state of the Church because His Holiness gave no audiences nor did anyone know what he was doing in that place except those who were with him. Therefore with great care His Holiness, together with the General of the Order and other discreet Masters and holy man, he composed that exposition of the Rule and he wanted it recorded in the Decretal. The Venerable Father Bentivoglia of Albania and the Venerable Father John of Palestrina were also present. Both were Friars Minor who had become Cardinals. It was examined by many illustrious and learned men, that is, the Lord Peter, Apostolic Vice Chancellor; the Milanese Lord Count Auditore, both were Cardinals later; the Lord Angelo the very famous court advocate; the Lord Pro-notary Benedict Gaieta, who then became Cardinal and then Pope Boniface VIII. With great diligence between them they revised the Rule for many days of debate by the Cardinals and later in the presence of all the Court because Lord Benedict himself, who had dictated the Rule, had it solemnly promulgated everywhere in the year of the Lord 1279. Then later many Supreme Pontiffs recorded it in the Decretal.

In the year of the Lord 128o, the holy Pontiff passed away to the better life during the Octave of the Assumption of Our Lady and Martin IV was elected.

(78) The General commanded through holy obedience and under the pain of excommunication that the Friars who staid in the friary of Our Lady of the Angels should not, on the day of the Indulgence, receive any money alms in whatever form, and when it is received it should not be spent for the benefit of the Friars. He did this so that the Indulgence should not be despised and weakened in any way through the bad example of the Friars, if they are seen to receive money.

(79) In the year of the Lord 1282 the General convened the Chapter in Argenteuil in the Province of upper Allemagne. In that Chapter he ordered Brother Philip, the Minister of Tuscany, to carefully research the day and time that Christ imprinted Father Saint Francis with the sacred stigmata. While he was researching he found a holy lay man of great contemplation and perfection to whom a revelation about this had been made many times. Father Saint Francis appeared to him in many ways and had verified for him that it was very early on the morning of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and that it was with great pain and greatest clamour of the Saint. He told him that as the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him under the form of a Seraph with His own hands He imprinted the sacred wounds first in his hands, then in his feet and then in his side.