A letter from Francis ()

Translated letter:

Listen, poor little ones, called by the Lord who are gathered together from many places and provinces: Live always in truth, that you may die in obedience. Do not look to life outside, for the life of the spirit is better. I pray you in great love, o be discrete with the alms the Lord gives you. Those who are weighed down by illness and the others who are tired out for their sake, bear it, all of you, in peace, for you will see(1) that this weariness is precious, each will be a queen crowned in heaven with the virgin Mary.

Original letter:

Audite, poverelle, dal Signor vocate, ke de multe parte et provincie sete adunate: Vivate sempre en veritate, ke en obedientia moriate. on guardate a la vita de fora, ka quella dello spirito miglora. io ve prego per grand'amore, k'aiate discrecione dele lemosene ke ve da el Segnor. Quelle ke sunt adgravate de infirmitate et l'altre ke per lor suo' adfatigate ute quante lo sostengate en pace, ka multo veder'(1) cara questa faiga, ka cascuna sera regina en celo coronata cum la vergene Maria.

Historical context:

The text of this exhoration in Italian to Clare and her nuns appears in a manuscript written in the 1320's or 1330's, and copied again in the 16th century. The message is attested to in early texts, the Legend of Perugia and the Chronicon of brother Mariano of Florence (+1523) without the text. But the two manuscripts, both in the Convent of Poor Clares at Verona, St. Fidentius of Novaglie, were studied by Giovanni Boccali, who accepts their authenticity.

Scholarly notes:

1. Vederi for vederete or vedrete means see. Boccali suggests that venderete, sell, might have been intended. That is how Armstrong and Brody take it, but the second manuscript gives vi parera, will seem to you, accepting the vederi reading.

Printed source:

Giovanni Boccali, "Canto di Esortazione di San Francesco per le 'Povererlle' di San Damiano," Collectanea Franciscana, 48 (1978), 5-29. A translation was published by R.J. Armstrong and I.C. Brody in Francis and Clare, the Complete Works (NY: Paulist Press, 1982).