A Truly Obedient Religious Is Like A Well-Armed Knight

Brother Thomas of Celano, recounting the words of St. Francis reminds us…

“In a struggle everyone must hold firm and never yield a step. Whoever gives up prayer because of difficulties “is like a man who runs away from battle.” Brother Giles believed that the good knight does not immediately leave the battlefield when he is wounded or struck by the enemy; rather, he continues to resist vigorously to win, so that by winning, he can rejoice and be cheered by the victory. A knight who left the fight as soon as he receives a wound or blow, he said, would be confused and ashamed and disgraced.

The rule of the Friars Minor he compares also to the code of knights: “A truly obedient religious is like a well-armed knight riding on a good horse who passes safely among enemies and no one can harm him. But a religious who grumbles at obeying is like an unarmed knight riding on a bad horse who, when passing among the enemy, falls and is immediately captured, chained, wounded, imprisoned, and sometimes put to death.”

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Passage from 2 Cel., 217; Leg. Maior, XIV, 3.