Anne Zagursky-Brother Sun/Sister Moon

St. Francis of Assisi
The other day I was watching the movie Brother Sun/Sister Moon, about St. Francis. I tried throughout the movie to figure out who Brother Sun and Sister Moon were. I, as well as others I have spoken to, thought that perhaps it was talking about St. Francis and Poor Claire or even about the real sun and moon. St. Francis was what I would like to refer to as the first hippie. He was definitely a tree-hugger, animal friendly kind of guy. However, I spoke with Dr. Powell about the film and he explain the title to me this way: Brother Sun, the true source of heat and power, is the Pope and Sister Moon, who derives her power from the sun, is the government or political power. In the movie it showed the Church as a power-hungry entity setting out on crusades and concerning themselves more with money than with the souls of the citizens. When Francis returned from a Crusade, he was delirious and near death. One day he rose from his bed and seemingly found God through the birds on his rooftop. When he attended Church he was even more convicted that he, a wealthy individual, could stand in the presence of Christ while showing no love to his lowly neighbors. He appears crazy to most of the people and runs away to rebuild a church. Some of his lifelong friends find what they have been searching for as well and join St. Francis.

The Bishop of Assisi does not like Francis and his little cult of followers because he has drawn away many of the parishioners (which means much of the tithes) to his own church. The Franciscan monks as they are know today formed merely because they wanted to reach out to the lower class people and serve Christ in a real way. The group traveled to Rome and spoke with Innocent III asking to be given official ordination, but Francis also used the time to rebuke the Pope and high Bishops for being selfish and haughty. The Pope at first kicks them out but then brings them back and allows them to become official. This movie is an awesome way to see what the Church was like and how these little nobodies were able to keep the Church from really losing focus. People often ask why some people are considered saints while others are just people; well honestly I think it mostly has to do with whether that person is truly living their whole lives for Christ as Francis did. He was willing to face a Pope who could have had him excommunicated or even killed for his condemning words, but he did it anyways because he knew it had to be done. He turned his back on everything he knew to go live in the wilderness and relied solely on the kindness of others to keep him from death. He seemed to be a lot like Jesus or John the Baptist or some other person who lived their lives according to their calling from God. (If you have not seen this movie, I recommend it.)