Saint Francis’s Vision of the Future of His Order

Source: Annales des Frères Mineurs, Castet 1680, t. 1, pp. 166-167.

Saint Francis was greatly distressed to see that the original fervor of his Brothers was beginning to diminish, largely due to the laxity of those who should have been the first to strengthen it. But God made known to him through a prodigious vision that even more astonishing things were destined to happen to his Order.

While he was praying in the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, he saw with his own eyes a great statue with a golden head and a very beautiful face. Its chest and arms were of silver; its belly and thighs of bronze; its legs of iron; and its feet were partly of clay and partly of iron. It was covered with a sack, which made it appear deeply ashamed.

As he gazed at it with as much attention as astonishment, the statue spoke to him and said: God has sent me to you to reveal what shall happen in your Order.

My golden head represents its beginning, for just as gold is the most precious of metals and the head the most eminent part of the body, so too shall your Order in its beginnings attract the esteem and approval of the whole Church, because of the excellence of the evangelical perfection it professes.

My silver chest and arms represent its second phase, in which there will be religious of noble birth, learned men, and great preachers, some of whom will be elevated to the highest dignities of the Church. And just as arms signify strength, there will be some whose virtue and knowledge will defend both their state and the faith. But since silver is worth less than gold, these successors will be inferior to the first.

My bronze belly and thighs are the image of a third stage, of much lesser worth; for although your Order will grow in number and include doctors and renowned preachers, they will love flesh and blood too much, and, as Saint Paul says, be like a sounding brass, whose sound vanishes into the air. They will benefit others but lose themselves.

My iron legs represent the fourth stage, for just as iron has the strength to break all other metals, hardness of heart will so prevail in some that they will erase all the good done by their predecessors. They will still maintain a certain appearance through hypocrisy, but their pride will go so far as to challenge both secular and ecclesiastical powers, and they will find themselves exposed to countless persecutions.

My feet of clay and iron signify the fifth stage, in which attachment to earthly things will cause many divisions among ambitious hypocrites, making them objects of universal aversion.

This is what shall come to those who turn away from my golden head. The sack that makes me seem ashamed represents the sentiment of many who will be ashamed of evangelical poverty, even though it ought to be the glory and happiness of all who preserve it.