The Little Flowers of Saint Francis

These stories of St. Francis and his first followers have inspired millions of people over the centuries. Since they were first committed to paper, they were told to inspire people to become better followers of Jesus (not St. Francis). For that reason, they have endured unlike any other early Franciscan literature. Many of the stories are known to us from other biographical sources, but in some cases, here they are expanded or made more florid.

            This edition of The Little Flowers is unique in its physical beauty as well as its editorial arrangement. For the first time, the stories have been arranged in the most likely chronological ordering of when they happened—rather than following the traditional ordering of them handed down for centuries. As a result, today’s reader is now able to read The Little Flowers as a biographical narrative of the life of St. Francis and the world-transforming movement that he founded.

Brother Ugolino Boniscambi was born around 1260 and died around 1345. The primary compiler of The Little Flowers, he spent his novitiate in Roccabruna in the far northwest corner of Italy and was a friend of the angelic Pope Celestine V, who briefly ruled and then controversially quit, in 1294. Jon M. Sweeney is an editor and popular spiritual writer who has published widely on Franciscan history. He is the author of The St. Francis Prayer Book and the editor of The Road to Assisi: The Essential Biography of St. Francis, by Paul Sabatier (both Paraclete Press).