The transcendental portrait of the fiery and nature-loving Saint Francis of Assisi by Nikos Kazantzakis, for the first time in a commented edition. In this reprint of the novel, an afterword is added, where the editor Dr. Patrokles Stavrou outlines Kazantzakis's relationship with Saint Francis and with the great humanist Albert Schweitzer, whom he considers the "Saint Francis of our times." It also includes an article by Kazantzakis about Schweitzer, to whom he dedicates the book.
"This life of Saint Francis of Assisi, narrated by Brother Leo, his humble companion in his first and last hour, required all the deeply human talent and the Christian zeal of Nikos Kazantzakis to invoke it with such simplicity and with this mystical sense, sometimes frightening, other times radiant. Here before us are the Italian countryside, the sun-scorched roads, the forests under the rain, the medieval towns resonating with the roar of the crowd and the pealing of church bells. Here is the road to Rome, the sea, the Holy Places, and then the return of Francis to the land that bore him, to this land that he loves so much and to which he belongs so little since God wanted him entirely for Himself.
The perfect poverty, the adventure that Francis unreservedly embraces, has something dizzying - dizzying like the love that Francis progressively discovers until he embodies it himself: the inexhaustible and unpredictable love of God. The reader will rediscover in this fiery book, whose tone is that of the most noble and intimate hagiographies, not only the lyricism of a poet passionately possessed by the beauty of the world, but also all the deep themes of Kazantzakis's thought, the faithful and rebellious, the restless and serene, the lonely yet in unity with all his fellow humans.
"The seraphic sweetness of Saint Francis enters into an unceasing battle against the father, against the state, against mockery, malice, and indifference, against the diabolical traps that slip even into the confines of the monastery, where the brothers pray in their little huts made of branches." (Marcel Brion of the French Academy - La Revue de Paris)
"This is not a novel, but a genuine passion that the author lives in all its intensity... The author justifies himself: he characterizes his book as a "novel," but calls it My "Saint Francis of Assisi." Indeed, Francis is he, Kazantzakis, who lived the "Asceticism" to the limits and survived." (Aziz Izet, from his book "Nikos Kazantzaki")
