Quote Originally Posted by Gman View Post
That poor lizard. St. Francis of Assisi would not be happy. ;-)

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Oddly, a lot of the modern hagiography surrounding St. Francis of Assisi is false and the result of the Romantic era and later the awful 1960's and 70's . He was by no means a hippie, as is so often portrayed.

I recently read a biography of St. Francis by Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., where he takes a pretty hard scholarly look at St. Francis. It was a fascinating look at him. Some interesting conclusions, such as his initial conversion might have been brought on by his earlier experience in the regional wars in Italy. For example, his problem with eating meat was not some PETA-like "love" of animals, but rather that it was indicative of someone who had not embraced poverty for the sake of the Gospel. However, he did not abstain if it was offered. He was also a poor leader. He really just wanted to be a vagabond penitent and not be in a leadership position. Due to obedience to one of the higher prelates who assisted him early on, he reluctantly ceased missionary activity in order to stay with the brothers.

If you are interested, it's here: https://www.amazon.com/Francis-Assis...stine+thompson

As for the lizard, it served its purpose. Soldiers got the point. Animals were meant to serve man. I doubt St. Gabriel lost sleep over it.