Vatican City (Wednesday, 01/28/2015, Gaudium Press) New manuscripts on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, dating from the years 1232-1239, have been discovered, the specialist in the Middle Ages, Jacques Duran, says. According to him it is a small “Franciscan code, in the literal sense of the word, humble and poor, without decorations or designs.”

The biography contained in this manuscript was not included in any catalogues of other libraries because it belonged to a private collection.

At an auction the work was acquired by the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of France.

“I was looking for this text for seven years,” says Jacques Duran to the Roman journal. “During my studies, I found scattered fragments of it”.

For the researcher the finding of this text “was very reassuring, very valuable and obviously a great joy”.

The data, he said, are not only fragments or indirect quotations from other works, “but the second oldest story of the saint’s life.”

This manuscript on the life of the saint from Assisi, written by Tommaso da Celano in the XIII century, has very concrete and realistic details, like the fact that “Francis repaired the holes in his coat using fibbers taken from the bark of trees and herbs found in the fields, just as did those who had absolutely nothing, not even sewing instruments. “(LMI)