Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (3)

'Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither greed nor avarice.' As already noted in these articles, when Francis kissed the leper he found that what had seemed bitter to him was changed into sweetness of body and soul. From reflecting on this experience he was led to choose a life of poverty. Francis followed the ideal of poverty so faithfully that he is still called the Poverello, the Poor Man of Assisi. His pursuit of poverty became a love story that prompted after his death a Franciscan work with the title The Sacred Agreement of Francis and Lady Poverty. St Bonaventure records a marvellous incident that occurred during Francis' life. Bonaventure writes that once, as Francis with some companions was approaching the city of Siena, three poor women, 'exactly alike in health, age and appearance met him and said: "Welcome, Lady Poverty"'. The women disappeared at once but, as Bonaventure says, the brothers continued to reflect on what the vision might mean. Their conclusion was that the vision showed that Francis 'had chosen to glory above all in the privilege of poverty which he was accustomed to call his mother, his bride, and his lady'. While for Francis poverty seemed to be bitter, he found that, when he embraced it, poverty became a source of joy as much as in finding one's partner in marriage. Having found the partner of his life he wanted nothing more and so for Francis it was the joy of poverty that drove out greed and avarice.