Portiuncula Indulgence
According to tradition, St Francis visited Pope Honorius III at Perugia in the summer of 1216 and secured the grant of a plenary indulgence for all of those visiting the Portiuncula during the 24 hours from Vespers on August 1st, providing that they had confessed and truly repented their sins. The Indulgence was not time-limited, but applied in perpetuity.
None of the early biographers of St Francis mentioned the granting of the Portiuncula Indulgence. It does not, for example, appear in the definitive "Major Legend of St Francis" that St Bonaventure, the Franciscan Minister General, published in 1263. However, the oral tradition took root at some time in the following decade.
Plenary Indulgences
Indulgences reduce the period that those receiving them spend in Purgatory. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) warned against
indiscriminate and excessive indulgences. It decreed that new
indulgences should generally offer maximum remission of 40 days in Purgatory, and that they should last for no more than a year. These so-called partial indulgences became quite common in the 13th century, when they were often granted, for example, to those contributing to the building of new churches. However, plenary indulgences granted outside a crusading context remained exceptional: Pope Boniface VIII's grant of such indulgences to those visiting the basilicas of St Peter and St Paul during the Jubilee year of 1300 was considered by contemporaries as a momentous development. The granting in 1216 of a perpetual plenary indulgence to the tiny Portiuncula was thus clearly an exceptional event. This fact, together with the silence of the early biographers, has led some historians to doubt the authenticity of the traditional account. |
The earliest surviving documentary references to the Portiuncula Indulgence date to 1276, when a number of notarised testimonies were submitted to Jerome of Ascoli, St Bonaventure's successor as Minister General:
Brother Benedict of Arezzo and Brother Ranierio of Mariano swore that Brother Masseo of Marignano had told them that he had accompanied St Francis to Perugia and witnessed the granting of the Indulgence.
Brother Peter Zalfani, the Provincial Minister, swore that he had attended the consecration of the Portiuncula and that St Francis had proclaimed the granting of the Indulgence to an audience that included seven Umbrian bishops.
- James Coppoli of Perugia, an important benefactor of the Franciscans, swore that Brother Leo, St Francis closest associate, had assured him that the Indulgence had indeed been granted.
[Leo died in ca. 1271, but Masseo was still alive in 1276 (he died at Assisi in 1280), and it seems odd that he did not testify directly.]
Brother Michele di Bernardino wrote an elaborate account of the granting of the Indulgence in 1284. He had been a young friar at the Portiuncula at the time that it had been granted, and he had learned of the events from Brother Peter Catanii in a conversation that took place soon after outside St Francis cell. (Note that Brother Michele places the events in January, but Pope Honorius was in Perugia only in July and August of 1216 for the conclave in which he was elected to the papacy).
Divine Approbation for the Portiuncula IndulgenceAccount of Michele di BernardinoSt Francis suffered some form of temptation while praying in the snow outside the Portiuncula. When he fought against it by leaping into a bed of brambles, a light appeared and roses bloomed where his blood had fallen. A host of angels then appeared and urged him to rush to the Portiuncula, where Christ and the Virgin awaited him. He picked twelve red and twelve white roses from the miraculous crop and went to the church. There he found himself dressed in white before Christ, who asked him what favour he desired. St Francis was too humble to address Christ directly, but he asked the Virgin to request the Indulgence on his behalf. Christ assented and named the day on which it could be obtained each year. He also told St Francis to seek papal ratification, taking the unseasonal roses with him as proof of Divine approbation. |
Bishop Teobaldo Pontano wrote the definitive account of the granting of the Indulgence in 1310, in an attempt to refute the arguments of the ignorant
the jealous and contentious
who try to destroy, suppress and condemn it. He omitted the story of the roses and the subsequent vision, saying only that Jesus had inspired St Francis during the night to seek the Indulgence. He recorded the surprise of Pope Honorius III that St Francis required no written proof that the Indulgence had indeed been granted. St Francis' reported reply is well-known: "Your word is all I need. If the Indulgence is the will of God, He will make it manifest. I desire no other document: let the Blessed Virgin Mary be my charter, let Christ be my notary, let the angels be my witnesses".
Brother Francesco di Bartoli d' Assisi published a compendium of all the extant information relating to the Indulgence in ca. 1335. This "Tractatus de Indulgentia Santa Maria de Portiuncula" became extremely popular, and it is the main vehicle by which the tradition has come down to us.
A succession of papal confirmations (the most recent of which was given in 1967 at the Second Vatican Council) has rendered the status of the Portiuncula Indulgence beyond doubt, and the feast of the Perdono d' Assisi is still celebrated each year, particularly at Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Read more:
R. Huber, "The Portiuncula Indulgence", New York (1938)
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