“St. Francis Missal” (W.75)—3 passages the priest probably pointed to and read
In 1208, Francis and two companions sought a
“Gospel book” in a church near his home to learn directly from God how
to live. A priest pointed him to a sacred book on the altar and,
opening it at random, the sortes biblicae,
he pointed to three passages
randomly. (Earlier “bibliomancy” used Homer and Virgil.) He
chose three times for the Trinity, to test the consistency of the
oracle. If W.75 is the book, the randomness of the openings is
extraordinary given the consistency and serial coherence of the
passages. The first passage is on the verso of folio 132, the
left side of the opening, approaching the middle of the 285-leaf
MS. The second is on the verso of folio 119, 13 leaves back
toward the front of the MS, also on the left side of the
opening. The third is on the recto of folio 250, 131 leaves
deeper into the MS than his second choice, and on the right side of the
opening. This tells us the priest was using both the depth of the
leaves in the volume and the leaf size to attempt to randomize the
choice. This was more effective than it might have been because
W.75 was a specialized service book like a missal, not a gospel (i.e.,
only the four evangelists). Had this been a “Gospel book” as
Francis wished, he
might have imagined the priest opening a volume organized in four
segments: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Instead, the missal
abstracts and rearranges thousands of psalm excerpts, non-biblical
prayers, "Old Testament" verses, and a total of 260 Gospel passages,
all without any biblical
context: 83 gospel passages were from Matthew, 29 from Mark, 78 from
Luke, and 70 from John
(Voorvelt and Van Leeuven in Muscat, 6). The priest's three
choices
were further randomized by depth of leaves in the codex and side of the
opening upon which the priest’s finger rested. Nearly incredibly,
all three passages were
from Gospels but none from John (Revelations). Instead, the
choices picked out brief passages from the other three that carry the
same instructions for would-be disciples: give away one’s wealth and
sacrifice in pursuit of a life as that Jesus lived. Those became
the core of Francis’s instructions to his followers.
First passage on f. 132v (“Da pauperibus”) with Francis’s MS fragment in boldface:
Mark 10.21 (on the verso of folio 132v facing 133r):
Vulgate Latin of the manuscript, itself—
Jesus autem intuitus eum, dilexit eum, et dixit ei : Unum tibi deest : vade, quaecumque habes vende, et da pauperibus, et habebis thesaurum in caelo : et veni, sequere me.
Douay-Rheims English translation—
And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.
Second passage on f.119v (“Nihil in via”) with Francis’s MS fragment in boldface:
Luke 9.3 (on the verso of folio 119v facing 120r):
Vulgate Latin of the manuscript itself—
Et ait ad illos : Nihil tuleritis in via, neque virgam, neque peram, neque panem, neque pecuniam, neque duas tunicas habeatis.
Douay-Rheims English translation—
And he said to them: Take nothing for your journey; neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money; neither have two coats.
Third passage on f. 250r (“Tollet crucem”) with Francis’s MS fragment in boldface:
Matthew 16.24 (on the recto of folios 250r facing the verso of 249):
Vulgate Latin of the manuscript itself—
Tunc Jesus dixit discipulis suis : Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me.
Douay-Rheims English translation—
Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
To explore the biblical narrative context from which these passages were extracted to serve as parts of the Mass, click here.