S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 7 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 2 1 5 5 Rastislav Nemec interesting expression of this attitude is the event during which he indicates his sinfulness. This was an ancient urban ritual with pagan roots used for the public humiliation of criminals. Francis allowed himself to be exposed in the square in front of the Church of St. Rufino. He started to preach and then he underwent the ceremony of penitence. He allowed himself to be stripped of his clothes and ordered his brothers to tie a rope to his neck and sprinkle him with ashes. Rope – nudity – ashes – public: four fundamental elements that help us identify the ancient tradition, pointing to the connection with the pillory of criminals in Assisi, where villains were publicly punished. There is a similarity to another tradition in which the wives of Assisi led their unfaithful husbands by ropes tied to their penises. To Francis, the public aspect of penitence represents a ritual symbology through which the mercy of God is proclaimed (Celano 1:228 in Francis of Assisi: The Saint 2002). The most astonishing drama-sermon occurs when the saint eats the putrid discharge from a leper’s diseased hand. Francis sits at the table with the leper and the other brothers, a bowl is placed between the two of them. The leper’s fingers are especially putrid and bloody, “so that whenever he put them in the bowl, blood and pus from his fingers dripped into it” (A Mirror of the Perfection 303 in Francis of Assisi: The Prophet 2002). Of course, this symbolic meal serves as edifying theater rather than a real attempt to get his followers to eat pus. Food is not normally consumed with enemies or outsiders. Meals are a primary symbol of fellowship binding humans together in their need for both food and one another. Sharing a meal is an action that generates acceptance of those present. It unexpectedly yet powerfully illustrates that fellowship must be shared with all of God’s creatures (Morrison 2018, 107–108). In many situations, Francis used a symbolical play (e.g. , the cribs of Greccio), scenic plays (singing, lamentation, wailing, his Canticle of the Sun), and biblio-dramatical elements (if brothers touch money, they must smell the barnyard manure for some time). At the end of his life, Francis even stages his own death according to a script. During his life he instructed his religious brothers on how to prepare him for death, how to arrange his body on the floor, surround him with candles and incense, dress him in a chrisom, then let him lie naked on the soil (Lat. humus) because this way his humility (Lat. humilitas) could be expressed in the best way, and let him die like this. The integumental allegory of Francis ignores differences (secular/sacred, Christian/non-Christian), approaching the world as a fundamental instrument of the glorification of God as can also showcased on an example of interreligious dialogue [4].
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