Saint Francis

Kazantzakis' "Saint Francis" captures the "madness" of the Poverello of Assisi like no other book. Francis was truly a revolutionary character, but often biographies have a tendency to neuter him into a quaint, slightly eccentric character from a fairy tale. But Kazantzakis does not fall into this trap - he displays Francis in his full devotion to God and desire to imitate Christ completely. This can make one uncomfortable, as Francis appears unbalanced at times, but it drives home the point that the Saint of Assisi cared for nothing other than embracing Christ in poverty and love. The book is written from the perspective of Francis' closest follower, Brother Leo. Kazantzakis' depiction of Leo as a simple, struggling, but devoted follower of Francis helps to enlighten his portrait of Francis by contrasting the two in their travels and struggles. At times, Kazantzakis is harsh in his depiction of others in Francis' life, especially Brother Elias, and even St. Dominic, but this all works to allow the reader to focus on the specific charism of Francis to preach - and live - Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, and Love. Anyone with a devotion to St. Francis will be rewarded by reading this book - it has the power to force you to reevaluate your own life in the light of the life of the poor friar from Assisi.

I did know Saint Francis before but when i read this book it is with great honor I should say Nikos Kazantzakis is my Saint Francis!!

I am pleased to find that a number of reviewers find this book life-changing. It presents the entire anguish of human being, and it is the book that describes one of the highest concerns of Kazantzakis, an issue that he deals on several other books, but never with such fever: the desire of the human being to talk with God, and the depths that the human mind has to go in believing and disbelieving, in facing irrationality and hearing the voice of God. You do not have to be religious in the strict christian sense. If that is the case, then this book might be offending, as it presents the passions of man that tries to reach God in an 'uncoventional' way, that does not abide by the doctrine of the church. Still, I was deeply affected and deeply shaken by this book, more than any other book of Kazantazakis that I have read. Reading it was a 'passion' in itself. I had to reach the same depths, and I felt some of the anguish of St. Francis, as presented by Kazantakis. A lst remark. Do not compare the book with a biography. St. Francis is a tragic hero, an embodiment of mans religious passions, an example of faith.

Saint Francis is a passionate and highly personal vision of the life of Francis of Assisi, the poor man of God, by the late Nikos Kazantzakis, author of The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1958), The Last Temptation of Christ (1960), Zorba the Greek (1953), The Greek Passion (1954) and Freedom or Death (1956). (Note: dates are those of the first American editions.) Nikos Kazantzakis' books transcend the usual limitations of the novel: they go beyond the mere telling of an exciting story and enter the sublime world of the spirit. Their themes are powerful and heroic, for above all they are concerned with the struggle between good and evil in man's soul, and with the ability of ordinary men, at all times in history, to leave behind their daily occupations and their pleasures and to dedicate themselves to a noble ideal, often at the cost of their lives. In Freedom or Death, Kazantzakis wrote of the mortal combat between Greek and Turk on his native island of Crete; in the THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, he wrote of the Saviour's spiritual passion and agony as He prepares His own martyrdom. In SAINT FRANCIS, Kazantzakis has re-created the story of Christianity's best-known, most human, and most beloved saint -- Francis of Assisi. It is a historical novel, and the reader will grasp in it all the miseries and glory of medieval Italy. But Kazantzakis has not limited himself to the retelling of this well-known story. He has tried to show us Saint Francis as a person, tempted by the life that is offered to him and the comforts of his home, but driven by his own restless spirit to rise above the level of his fellow men and to assert his belief in goodness and submission. Kazantzakis' Francis is not the calm and undisturbed saint of legend, preaching to the animals. His is a man, tempted, weary, but searching for spiritual peace in a world of evil and war. Kazantzakis has made his narrator, Saint Francis' companion, a cheerful monk, happy with wine and good food, weak in the ways of the flesh, but faithful to the master he cannot fully understand. Through his eyes we see the endless strife between the flesh and the spirit, the bitter wanderings over Europe and the Holy Land, the struggle against complacent and entrenched men in the Church that finally led to the founding of the Franciscan order. This is the story of Saint Francis as only Nikos Kazantzakis could tell it. It is a book that cannot fail to move everyone who reads it.