Jeewan Ramlugun, FRSA
A gentle journeying in the company of my thespian, author and film-maker friend Paul Alexander, a Franciscan, led to another world, through the portals of the famed National Gallery and beyond into hoary and hallowed hagiographic history.
An exhibition of the life and spiritual legacy of Saint Francis of Assisi, one of the most revered saintly figures, is on display at the National Gallery, in representations from the earliest medieval paintings, manuscripts, relics, film imageries and modern-day graphic, animated art forms. 
The perpetual relevance of Saint Francis inheres in his radical and practical spirituality, for his exemplary simple living, devotion to the poor and the destitute, his love of God and Nature and earth’s creatures, and importantly respect for and dialogues with other faiths. His commitment to protecting flora and fauna, his embracing and celebration of beauty and harmony in nature, speak of the need to protect and preserve the environment around us. This moral injunction is becoming presciently apt in the face of the impending ecological and environmental calamities, already beginning to be manifested in myriad ways in our times.
Saint Francis was born circa 1181, in Assisi, Umbria, in the central region of Italy (died October 3rd, 1226). His father was a well-to-do cloth merchant. At birth, he was named Giovanni (meaning ‘God is Gracious’), by his French origin mother, while her husband was away in France, a country where he had commercial interests and with which he had much affinity. On returning, he renamed their newborn as Francis (meaning Frenchman), not being religiously inclined himself.
In his early years, Saint Francis led a carefree and joyful life, even inclined to the usual youthful exuberance. He engaged in military missions against Perugia, during which he was taken prisoner and was incarcerated for a year. He also became ill during this period.
When the time came to devote himself to his spiritual calling, to disown his material belongings and turn his back on his home, his father was indignant and there ensued an irreparable rift between them.
The Exhibition Experience
While this was my first visit, it was Paul’s second. His first viewing was in the company of the Director of the National Gallery, and who had staged the Exhibition.
He had this time round, taken more notice of Stanley Spencer’s ‘St Francis and the Birds’ and El Greco’s ‘St Francis receiving the Stigmata’.
He writes, ‘The second visit with you was quite different. I had time to study every picture in detail as well as seeing the pictures through the eyes of someone relatively new to the Franciscan story. It was an enormous privilege to see so many original works of art spanning eight hundred years. It was interesting to study the various aspects of Franciscan art: romantic, mystical, natural, radical.
The exhibition concentrated on the different attitudes the Art World over the centuries has had toward Francis. This was illuminating, because I realised that what was missing from the exhibition was a sense of playfulness and joyousness of Francis. The elements of wonder and liberation, of an exuberant love of life, for me were missing. The sombre pictures of sainthood trapped him in roles he would not have seen himself in.
Most people, I believe, know of Francis because of his association with nature and there was really only one painting that depicted that relationship realistically, Giovanni Costa’s ‘Brother Francis and Brother Sun’. Those who have read biographies of Francis or met Franciscan brothers and sisters learn of the childlike freedom that Francis displayed, summed up for me in the biblical book of proverbs which says, ‘I was beside him like a little child, and I was daily his delight, playing in his presence continually, rejoicing in the inhabited world and delighting in the human race. This unique Franciscan element, I felt was missing from the exhibition.’
I am personally not a Great Art cognoscenti, though I do naturally sense the majesty of paintings and take an avid interest in the stories they tell, in this instance reading the scripts that accompany the panels and becoming more closely acquainted with the life and legacy of Saint Francis.
Paul Alexander and I have been close friends for many years. When he and his family lived close by, we would meet regularly. These days, he resides in an idyllic abode close to the moors in Devon, which is also a Franciscan Retreat. Since the first onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, Paul had initiated and has kept up an online meeting with other Franciscans, on a daily basis. I was invited as a guest and I composed contemplative poetry for the group, over 200 in numbers, turning out one poem a day.
Saint Francis, the Environment and Nature
Saint Francis of all the saints is the most closely associated with the environment and nature. He had espoused poverty, with no desire for a home, as the most destitute in society were without homes. He considered the environment to be his home, which afforded him a fulfilling closeness with nature and nature’s creatures.
Saint Francis’ love and care for animals had a spiritual purpose. Since his time, we know anecdotally that alarming numbers of animal and bird species have disappeared and continue to disappear. Hence, many of these are on the endangered list. We surely know the lost ‘Dodo’!
The simple, elemental life that typified Saint Francis’s modus vivendi, has remained a perpetual part of his persona and spiritual make-up, known for wearing his brown robes with patches.
The significance of living as simply as possible in a world of stark disparities in resources and overconsumption in a depleting planet, cannot be overstated.
In her book, ‘A life less Throwaway’ (HarperCollins, 2018), Tara Button talks about ‘mindful curation’, investing in longer-lasting, more durable products, instead of cheaper short-lived alternatives. The commercial and advertising worlds tend to lure us to soon-to -be obsolescent purchases.
A perceptive quote from the above book is this: ‘The best things in life aren’t things’ (Art Buchwald, Satirist).
Sustainability itself may be less sustainable than iterative regeneration, a perpetual cycle of newness and reinvention.
Finally, a short note on Paul Alexander‘s Finding Saint Francis’film (Little Portion Films, 2015).
The making of this British Film Institute premiered film was inspired by a desire by Paul Alexander to re-enter the world that he had previously for long inhabited, ‘a world of acting, storytelling and drama’.
Another reason was that no one else in his view, had tried to portray the life of Francis cinematically or through modernist literature, apart from the work of Nikos Kazantzakis in his novel ‘God’s Pauper’.
I am most grateful to Paul Alexander for the contribution of his thoughts and ideas.
Reference: https//www..learnreligion.com/st-francis-of-assisi-patron-saint-124533.
Photo Credit for paintings -www.nationalgallery.org.uk
…
POEM
Il Poverello
Easeful trappings he would forgo,
the smooth path surrender,
one thornier to follow,
hallowed calling to honour,
earthly father’s grief endured
out of fealty to a higher order;
the painterly pageantries on canvas,
by the grandmasters of pictorial art,
a lowly pious life they bring into focus,
reminding us of all that is non-transient,
of perennial relevance,
above all, the power of the spirit
and nature’s plenipotence,
in sum the fundamental lineaments
at the centre that hold together
the fragile, fraying existential fabric,
yet eternally symbolic,
the other world’s wealth of meanings
contained in the humblest of tissues
in the make-up of a saint’s habits.
…
Prince of Peace
The famished wolf grievously
growls, all the attempts
to placate it being made, but vainly,
only by the Prince of Peace
pacified, sustenance promising;
the birds that at ease sweetly sing
from the security of a tree
may come nearer, unfearing,
in the human palm finding safety;
the creatures that timidly
and warily stay distant
suddenly become friendly
when another presence sensing,
in the person of a being
who has only love to impart,
is pure of spirit, no hurt intending.
Jeewan Ramlugun
