t was adopted only
after Bonaventure's work had been examined and approved.

Of this work it is now time to give some account. {61} Owing to the
important place in history this new "life" was to hold, and the
manifold distractions of public duties among which it was to be
written, we may accept in strict and literal sincerity our Saint's
expressions of reluctance to undertake it. "Feeling myself unworthy,"
he writes, [Footnote 28] "to relate that life most worthy of all
imitation, I should in no wise have attempted it, had not the devout
desires of the Brethren and the unanimous importunity of the Chapter
moved me thereunto, and had not that love compelled me which I am
bound to feel for our holy Father. . . . This, indeed, was my chief
reason for undertaking this work; to wit, that since I owe to him
under God the life of my body and soul, and have learned the holiness
of his life through personal experience of his power with God, it
behoved me in return to collect, as best I could, his words and
deeds--fragments, as it were, partly overlooked and partly
scattered--that they be not utterly lost with the death of those who
lived and conversed with the Blessed Servant or God."

[Footnote 28: "Legend of St. Francis," Prologue, Sec. 3.]

During the year 1261, St. Bonaventure was in Italy collecting the
materials for his work. "The better to come by first-hand information
of this life," he tells [Footnote 29] us, "I visited the scenes of the
birth, life and death of the Blessed Francis, and held studious
converse on these things with all who had enjoyed his intimacy, and
with such especially as {62} had fuller knowledge of his holiness and
were his chief disciples. To all of these all credence is due alike
for their tried virtue as for their perfect knowledge of the truth."
We cannot say definitely who these "chief disciples" were. To have
mentioned them by name would have frustrated the purpose for which the
life was undertaken. We presume, however, that our Saint was chiefly
indebted to Brothers Leo, Illuminatus, and Giles.

[Footnote 29: "Ibid." Sec. 4.]

When these researches were completed, Bonaventure returned to Paris to
work up into an authentic record of St. Francis' life all the
materials--oral and written--he had come by during his sojourn in
Italy. Every incident of any moment in St. Francis' life is faithfully
recorded. The graces bestowed upon him, the labours he undertook, the
sufferings he bore, the vi