Friday, September 18, 2020

Week 4 Story: The Wolf of Saint Francis

 

The Wolf of Saint Francis

Saint Francis was a devout follower of the Lord, and was greatly kind to all of those he came across, be they a mere insect or a powerful king. And in turn, all of those he came across were kind to him as well, regardless of their typical temperament.

One day, Saint Francis arrived in the town of Gubbio, and upon talking to some of the townsfolk, he came to learn of a massive and terrifying wolf that had escalated from not only dragging off livestock, but even men were dragged off in the dead of night and feasted upon by the horrible creature. Thus, the townsfolk all barricaded themselves inside at night, for fear of being caught by the beast in the darkness.

Saint Francis was not one to allow people to suffer, and so he told the townsfolk that he would deal with the wolf that had been plaguing their town. They pleaded and begged him not to go, for they cared much for him, and knew that if he were to seek out the beast, he would never return to them. Yet, Saint Francis set out anyway in search of the great wolf.

Saint Francis drew close to the woods beyond the town, yet before he could even enter the forest, the massive wolf came charging out from between the trees, his mouth wide open so as to swallow Saint Francis whole. 

Yet, Saint Francis was not afraid. He did not flee, instead standing where he was, and he he made the sign of the cross and called out to the wolf "Stop". 

And stop it did. The wolf halted its charge and stared down at him. 

"Brother Wolf," Saint Francis said. "I bid you to cease hostilities against myself or any other people of this town, and so too their livestock."

The wolf laid down upon the ground and cast its eyes to the ground.

"Ordinarily, you would be put to death for your vile acts of murder and thievery," Saint Francis said. "But, that is not to be your fate. Instead, you will come with me to the town, and you will work to repent for your sins for the rest of your life."

The wolf raised its head and began to wag its tail.

Saint Francis turned his back on the wolf and walked back toward the town, and the wolf dutifully followed behind him.

The townsfolk were struck with awe and fear when Saint Francis brought the wolf into the town.

However, Saint Francis quickly worked to assuage their fears. "Fear not this wolf," he said. "He will harm you no longer, and will instead spend the rest of his life among you in peace, in order to show his repentance for his sins."

The people took Saint Francis at his word, and allowed the great wolf to live among them. The wolf played with the children and assisted the townspeople with moving things when it could. And whenever unsavory bandits and brigands attempted to accost the people of the town the great wolf was there to scare them off.

When the wolf eventually passed on from the world, the people were sorrowful, since aside from their personal sorrow over the passing of the great wolf who had once plagued them, they knew that Saint Francis would be afflicted with greater sorrow over the loss of one he had made his friend.


Author's Note

So the story I adapted was the story of Saint Francis of Assisi. The original story chronicled many things that Saint Francis did, but I particularly enjoyed the story of him taming the fearsome wolf, and so I decided to adapt that particular story instead of adapting the entire thing.

I kept largely true to the original in terms of overall plot points, but I obviously made my own minor changes as well as telling the story in my own words.


Bibliography

Story Source: Saint Francis of Assisi by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

Image Source: Image of a wolf by skeeze, sourced from Pixabay

6 comments:

  1. I liked how well you put together the story and told it much easier modern style language. That really helped me understand what was going on. I am not Christian so I have never heard of this before. I think it may be helpful if there was some background about why he was favored by God. Did he have some miracle? It makes me wonder why the wolf trusted him so much. Maybe the wolf has heard of Saint Francis, or he had wolf friends that also befriended him. Also, I think you could have added an interesting twist, something like the wolf not listening to him initially, or like if the townspeople resisted letting the wolf into the village. I think that could add some tension to the story and really sell how much the wolf wants to change and pay back for all the wrongdoings he has done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Zeeshawn!
      I'm glad you found the story easy to read!
      As for his favor in the eyes of God, that tends not to be something explained in any text I've read, other than the person in question being devoted to God.
      And thank you for the suggestions!

      Delete
  2. I was blown away when reading your story due to wide range of language you used. It really intrigued me and kept me wanting more. I also love your story of the first interaction he had with the wolf. To have no fear in your body is something else. I wonder what would have happened if the wolf did not repent his actions of murder? Would the story have been much darker or scarier? What if instead St Francis was a female would it have changed the dynamics between character? No matter what I really loved reading this story and it is truly one of my favorites I have commented on so far. I look forward to reading more of your work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cade!
      Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed the way the story was written!
      Definitely some interesting what-ifs!
      It makes me very happy to hear it's one of your favorites that you've read for this class!

      Delete
  3. Hi CJ, this story was great! I didn't read the original story, but I was able to follow along with your version pretty well. You wrote the story concisely so there was little to no confusion on my part. I will say that in the author's note I see that you mentioned you made some changes. It might be helpful for other like myself who haven't read the story to mention what those changes were.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Helen!
      I'm glad you enjoyed the story and that it was easy to follow!
      That's a fair suggestion, but the reason I kept it vague was that the changes really were "minor changes" as I mentioned in the note. Mainly just adding small little details to make the story feel more fleshed out.

      Delete

Wikipedia Trail: From Church Grim to Raijū

For this wiki trail, I began at the article on the " Church Grim ", since I was researching mythological canines to determine whic...