One of the best known events in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi occurred soon after his conversion, while praying in the Church of San Damiano. It was here that the Saint heard our Lord speak to him from the crucifix saying, “Francis, rebuild my Church!” As you may know, this story has a sequel. After St. Francis progressed beyond simply carrying stones to rebuild dilapidated local churches, he gathered a band of companions around him. Once he decided to formalize their way of life by founding a religious order, he had to go to Rome to seek approval from Pope Innocent III. He did not have much of a plan, but fortunately for him, the night before he tried to meet the Holy Father, Pope Innocent had a dream wherein he saw a poor man holding up the collapsing St. John Lateran—the pope’s own cathedral, the Mother and Head of all churches in Rome and in the World. When the Holy Father saw Francis the next day, he immediately recognized him as the poor man from his dream. Thus St. Francis was able to gain an audience with the pope—no small feat, and one which even Francis likely could not have accomplished on his own.
Even if many of us are already familiar with this story about St. Francis, it’s possible that some don’t know that the same story is told about St. Dominic! One could argue about which one is original, but I see no reason that they should not both have happened. In both cases the symbolism of the pope’s dream would have been apt: the Lord inspired both of these great saints and friends to found different orders of friars, both of which the Lord has used to build up and support the Church for over eight centuries now.
For Dominicans and Franciscans, this history should be special to us not only as beautiful stories about our founders, but also because the grace of our founders is a grace in which we share as their sons. As Fr. Vayssière, O.P. wrote in his True Devotion to St. Dominic, “just as God gave to Christ a plenary, capital grace, which pours from his heart over all the mystical Body, so too to St. Dominic, to other patriarchs of the religious life, he has given this plenitude of grace, from which their posterity lives: a fullness received from Christ, which, by their mediation, flows into the souls of their children” (67). While every grace has its source in the graced life of our Lord, for those in religious life, the grace of their life flows to them from our Lord through their Order’s founder. Thus since Francis and Dominic received the grace of supporting the Church in difficult times, we can be confident that this grace will be given to their sons and daughters also, yet it will be expressed in a multitude of different ways.
Yet while the sons and daughters of St. Dominic are recipients of his graces and are called to participate in his mission, we are also members of the Church. All members of the Church are upheld not just by the historical activity of Francis and Dominic, but by their powerful, though unseen, intercession even now. Let us remember that even in these difficult times the Church is upheld by the prayers of the saints and entrust ourselves to their intercession. Our present predicament is a great opportunity for all of us, whether religious or lay, as members of the same mystical body with the saints, to ask our Lord that he may show us the ways in which we too can support his Church, whether it be by an active charism, or if it simply be by joining our prayers to those of the saints from the isolation of our quarantine.
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Image: Dominican House of Studies Chapel, Mural of Pope Innocent’s Dream. Photo by Jaclyn Lippelmann (used with permission).
