Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (2)

The second pair of lines in this Admonition read: 'Where here is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor disturbance.' In his biography of Francis, Saint Bonaventure said that Francis 'would rather hear himself blamed than praised, knowing that the former would lead him to change his life, while the latter would push him to a fall'. To want to be blamed was possible for Francis for he always regarded himself as a sinner and remembered how he felt when he stood before the Lord in the person of the leper. But he showed his humility in a more dramatic and painful way when 'in order to make himself looked down up by others, he did not spare himself the shame of bringing up his own faults in his preaching before all the people'. Such patience and humility in Francis drove out anger and disturbance. Rather than getting angry when he was mocked, he had one of the brothers mock him whenever people praised him. He experienced truth more in insults than in praise. This is remarkable. When the brother had mocked and insulted him, albeit unwillingly, Francis said to him: 'May the Lord bless you, my beloved brother, for it is you who are really telling the very truth and what the son of Peter Bernadone needs to hear'. Indeed, patience and humility in Francis drove out anger and disturbance.