St Francis meets the Sultan

Pope Francis' trip to Egypt, from April 28 to 29, 2017 and, especially, his visit to Imam Al-Azhar, evoke a distant precedent: the meeting of Saint Francis of Assisi with Sultan Malik al-Kamil, in 1219. Although, historically, all the details of the story are not proven, they are still discussed almost eight centuries later.

In 1219, the war wreaked havoc between the Crusaders and Islam. Two centuries later, the tomb of Christ would be reduced to dust by the Sultan's troops. On the Egyptian plain of Damietta, in the Nile Delta, the two armies face each other.

Sultan Al-Kamil has issued a decree that promises a great gold reward to anyone who brings the head of a Christian. On the other hand, the Crusaders, commanded by Pelagio Galvani, try to take the port of Damietta with the intention of conquering Egypt.

In these circumstances, Saint Francis decides, in the company of the Enlightened Brother, to go to preach the Gospel in Muslim territory. In a second attempt, since "il Poverello d'Assisi" had already tried to make Christ known in the Holy Land, without success.

The only detailed account of this episode available to historians is signed by St. Bonaventure. It is a post-event writing, more than a century later, and above all it aims to extol the glorious epic of the holy founder of the Franciscan order.

Francisco, after being captured by the Saracens when trying to cross their lines, according to Saint Bonaventura, asks for an audience with the Sultan and they grant it.

Saladin's nephew receives him with great courtesy, as the chronicler describes, but this visit is considered a failure, since the saint has failed to convince the Sultan of the validity of the Christian religion. Nor did he get the palm of martyrdom.

For seven centuries, the episode remains relatively out of the records of the hagiographs of San Francisco. Even though the fioretti of St. Francis reported that, in the end, the Sultan would have muttered to him: “Brother Francisco, I would gladly convert to the faith of Christ, but I fear doing it now, because, if they came to knowing it, they would kill me and kill you with all your partners. ”

Father Gwenolé Jeusset, a Franciscan, participated on September 19, 2016 in Assisi during the meeting "Thirst for Peace: religions and cultures in dialogue". Recalling the aforementioned episode, this former head of the Franciscan Commission for relations with Muslims and a member of the Vatican Commission for the same purpose, added a detail almost forgotten until the twentieth century.

It is about the meditation that St. Francis himself drew from his experience. “The brothers who live between Muslims and other non-Christians - writes the saint of Assisi - can contemplate their spiritual function in two ways: either do no censorship or dispute, be submissive to every human creature because of God and simply confess that They are Christians; or, if you see that this is the will of God, announce the Word of God so that non-Christians believe in Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator of all things, and in His Redeeming Son and Savior, may they be baptized and become Christians. ”

On the other hand, Albert Jacquard writes in The Concern for the Poor (editorial Herder, 1996) that “the Sultan did not forget the smile of Francisco, his sweetness in the expression of a faith without limit. Perhaps this memory was decisive when he decided, ten years later, when no force forced him, to give Jerusalem to the Christians. ”

So for "what the armies from Europe had not been able to achieve," Jacquard continues, "(...) without a doubt Francisco's clear gaze had continued to do his slow work in the conscience of this man open to the thoughts of others. "