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A few months ago my beloved grandfather, father, friend and brother gave me a book which made a profound impact on his life. My grandfather, now 84 years old, is as so many old people reaching the final stage of his life. He is busy with “cleaning” up as he calls it and that means I’m lucky enough to receive books from him. Apart from the material itself it is fantastic to be able to hold a book bought my grandfather so many years ago knowing he hold it in has hands and it moved him just as it has moved me and still being able to talk with him about it. I’m very grateful for that.

Yesterday evening I finished the last 70 pages in one go. During my read tears flowed from my eyes on multiple occasions. Not tears of sadness but tears of joy. It was truly an experience of “unio mystica”. It touched a deep part of my soul, so deep you start to believe it is a part of your soul’s previous life. Next year I will visit Assisi and walk to Rome I must make this pilgrimage. That was my conclusion after reading this book and that is what I’ll do. I’m not a christian but I want to experience the land Saint Francis roamed. Because I’m human and his words and deeds touch my soul profoundly.

I read the first paperback edition published in 1962 by Simon and Schuster Inc. translated by P.A. Bien. It is out of print but you should be able to get from an antique bookstore or you can buy other editions on Amazon. Kazantzakis wrote this with so much love, it is so intimate this book will light your heart and soul.

I was enchanted by Saint Francis Kazantzakis‘ incredible retelling of this man’s story, the man whose life was so radically distinctive in perfect purity, perfect poverty, and perfect peace, that he created one of the most lasting and far-reaching reforms in Church history.

The book starts slowly, with Francis’ companion Brother Leo mourning the death of his friend and bemoaning the years of self-denial he suffered in following Francis and his life of self-imposed deprivations. He begins to write of the life of Francis, at first erratically, and then, chronologically, remembering how he met him, and how God began changing Francis. Leo’s recollection becomes a seamless chronological narrative, inevitably progressing from fascinating to gripping to utterly captivating. I read the last pages in one sitting, and felt I was not in this time or space, but with Francis himself at the incredible close of the earthly phase of his life.

Unlike The Last Temptation of Christ, Saint Francis is much more biography than fiction. The main fiction Kazantzakis uses is making Brother Leo the constant companion to Saint Francis, and thus an eyewitness to all the miracles in his ministry. In reality, although Leo was one of his first brothers and biographers, he did not accompany him on all the journeys. Leo also conveys the irresistible charisma of Francis, and the contagiousness of his vision of abandoning all worldly desires to pursue and serve Jesus through boundless love for not just every person, but everything, with determined peace, and perfect simplicity.

Run to a rare bookstore, library or go to Amazon.com and get it! And as Francis would say:

May Peace and Good rain upon you

(parts of this review were borrowed with kind permission from John Zuck. (http://frimmin.com/books/stfrancis.php)