St. Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton: A Book Review

St. Francis of Assisi is, as the title suggests, a biography of the saint. It is written by the illustrious and prolific author G. K. Chesterton. It does not follow the form of a typical biography and the author himself calls it a “thin and scratchy sketch.”¹ It is meant to be an introduction to St. Francis and Chesterton hopes that it will inspire its readers to dig deeper into the life of this remarkable and holy man. The intended audience is the average modern man who is open to and interested in learning about the life of St. Francis. Writing for such a man affects the content and organization of the book. Chesterton starts with items that will be easily accepted by the modern reader and thus does not examine the miraculous in the life of St. Francis, at least in any depth, until Chapter 9. The author hopes that the reader will come to accept Francis as a real historical person and accept the miraculous events in his life as real historical events. This book is written to help the modern man understand Francis both as a human and as a saint.

Chesterton writes about St. Francis in almost a casual way. It seems as if the reader is an acquaintance of Chesterton’s and Chesterton is engaged in a friendly conversation with the reader about St. Francis, explaining his own thoughts along the way. Thus, the style of this book has a very natural rhythm and flow to it. Although this style may be difficult for some readers to follow, it is intelligible to anyone who is willing to work at it slowly, making a serious attempt to understand the words and thoughts of the author. In thus being accessible to modern readers, even the style helps to fulfill the book’s purpose of making the life of St. Francis understandable to the modern reader.

There is a foreword, added sometime after the original publication of the work, written by Joseph F. Girzone, author of Joshua. In this foreword, Girzone explains that a child and a saint are similar in that they both live in worlds that seem to us to be make-believe. However, the child and the saint know that their worlds are as real as our real world. Girzone states that Chesterton has found a way to enter into the very real make-believe world of Saint Francis. Chesterton, according to Girzone, is able to write about Saint Francis in a way that makes him seem very much a real man, as indeed he was, and not in a way that makes him seem the dreamer that so many people think he was. Although this foreword is beneficial to the reader, the book alone, true to its purpose, is accessible to any modern reader who is open to reading it and to seeing Francis in a new light.

St. Francis of Assisi is divided into ten chapters and roughly follows the chronology of St. Francis’ life. The cover of the 1990 paperback edition is calming and simple. There is a picture on the front, by B. Gozzoli, of St. Francis with some of his followers and, in this picture, St. Francis seems to be preaching to some birds. The back cover of the book presents the genre of the book: biography/religion. There is also an enticing description of the contents of the book and a quote from the foreword.

The main character in this work is, of course, St. Francis. His story and, even more so, his personality shape the work. To fulfill the purpose of making this man understandable to the average modern reader, Chesterton elects to tell, generally speaking, one anecdote from Francis’ life to illustrate each point that he attempts to make. Thus, this biography is not a simple collection of stories about a man or a mere factual analysis of a man’s life. Chesterton goes beyond the stories to find the man and reveal him to the reader. Further, Chesterton goes beyond the mere facts to give his opinions as to the meanings of the stories and what they indicate about St. Francis. Chesterton’s genius renders this saintly man intelligible, as far as is possible, to ordinary people. In this work, St. Francis emerges as both a human and an extraordinary human. Chesterton strikes a mean between portraying the man as someone that cannot be understood except by a saint and portraying the man as only an ordinary person and failing to portray his holiness or the miracles that were a definitive part of his life. Through depicting Francis in such a way, Chesterton succeeds in making his life accessible and understandable to the average modern reader.

Chesterton, in an analogy, describes Francis as seeing the world upside-down, seeing everything as if it is hanging off of the world and only not falling due to the mercy of God. As a result of this viewpoint, St. Francis is supremely grateful. He is “thankful to God for not dropping the whole cosmos like a vast crystal to be shattered into falling stars.”² St. Francis knows that he owes God an infinitely unpayable debt merely for his continued existence, without taking into account all the beauties and wonders of the natural world or all the supernatural benefits bestowed on him and every other man by God. Chesterton exhibits his great skill as a writer by making accessible to the ordinary modern reader, by means of such a simple analogy, what seems so impenetrable in this saint’s life.

St. Francis of Assisi fulfills its purpose of making the life of this holy man accessible and understandable to the ordinary modern man. The structure, content and style are all carefully chosen by Chesterton to fulfill this commendable purpose. This book helps the soul of the reader to see the world through the eyes of St. Francis and hopefully helps them to grow in holiness as well. The view of St. Francis presented by Chesterton is a new way of looking at this man, a way that displays both his humanity and his holiness as inseparably connected. Chesterton wrote the story of St. Francis, “showing first that nobody but a born fool could fail to realize that Francis of Assisi was a very real historical human being; and then summarizing briefly…the superhuman powers that were certainly a part of that history and humanity.”³

The list price on the back of the book is $9.95 in the United States and the publisher is Doubleday.

Image: Kiera Kelley, “St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton,” scan, 8 March 2017.

¹ G. K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 141.

² Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi, 75.

³ Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi, 142.