Thomas of Celano
Thomas of Celano
Friar Minor, poet, and hagiographical writer, born at Celano in the Province of the Abruzzi, about 1200; died about 1255. He was one of the first disciples of St. Francis of Assisi and joined the order probably in 1215. In 1221 Thomas accompanied Caesar of Speyer on his mission to Germany. The following year he became custos of the convents at Mayence, Worms, Speyer, and Cologne, and soon after Caesar of Speyer, on his return to Italy, made him his vicar in the government of the German province. Before September, 1223, Thomas returned to Italy, and lived there in familiar intercourse with St. Francis. Soon after the canonization of St. Francis (16 July, 1228) he wrote his “Vita prima”, or “First Life” of St. Francis of Assisi, by order of Gregory IX. Between 1244 and 1247, he compiled his “Vita secunda”, or “Second Life” of St. Francis, which is in the nature of a supplement to the first one, by commission of Crescentius of Jessi, then minister general of the order. About ten years later Thomas wrote a treatise on the miracles of St. Francis at the bidding of Blessed John of Parma, the successor of Crescentius as minister general. In addition to these works, around which a large controversial literature has grown up in recent years, Thomas of Celano wrote two beautiful sequences in honour of St. Francis: “Fregit victor virtualis” and “Sanctitatis nova signa”, and, in all probability, he is also the author of the “Dies Irae” and of the “Life of St. Clare of Assisi”, written between 1255 and 1262 (cf. Robinson, “Life of St. Clare”, Introduction, pp. xxii sq.). The best critical edition of the works of Thomas of Celano is that of Pere Edouard d’Alençon.
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HOWELL, The Lives of St. Francis of Assisi, by Brother Thomas of Celano, I (London, 1908), 24; ROBINSON, Life of St. Clare, ascribed to Thomas of Celano (Philadelphia, 1910), 22 sq.; IDEM, A Short Introduction to Franciscan Literature (New York, 1907), 7-9; DUBOIS, Thomas of Celano, The Historian of St. Francis, in Cath. Univ. Bulletin, XIII, no. 2 (April, 1907), 250-268; D’ALENCON, S. Francisci Assisensis: vita et miracula, additis opusculis liturgicis, auctore Fr. Thoma de Celano, IX (Rome, 1906), 22: BARLATI, Tommaso da Celano e le sue opere (Casalbordino, 1894); Analecta Boll., XVIII, 81-176; WADDING, Script. Min., 323; SHARALEA, Supplem. ad script. min., 672-74.
FERDINAND HECKMANN Transcribed by Thomas M. Barrett Dedicated to Brother Larry Sabrowski, SFO
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Thomas of Celano
was a native of Celano, in Abruzzo Ultra II. He is noted as having written the earliest biography of Francis of Assisi, and the hymn Dies Irce (q.v.). Neither the date of his birth nor of his death is known. It would appear from the preface to the biography that he was early associated with. Francis, as many of the statements are given as based on personal observation or the authority of Francis himself. Caesar of Spires, the first provincial of the Order of Franciscans in Germany, appointed him to the office of custos over the Minorite convents of Cologne, Mayence, Worms, and Spires, as early at least as 1221. This statement is questioned by some, because the chronicle of the order compiled by Mark of Lisbon does not mention him among the twenty-five earlier and more important disciples of the saint, though more obscure names are found in that list. The biography ascribed to him is given, with notes, in the Acta Sanctorum, October, tom. 2. There is no proof either for or against his claim to the authorship, which is nowhere asserted by himself. Nor is the honor of having composed theDies Irce secured to him by any better evidence. The Franciscans attribute its composition to him, the Dominicans to one of their own order, a Jesuit to an Augustinian monk, a Benedictine to Gregory the Great or to St. Bernard. Each of these statements is arbitrary, and some of them cannot be true. Bartholomew Albizzi of Pisa was the first to credit the hymn to Celano, in his. Liber Conformitatuim (1385); and his statement warrants the conclusions that the hymn was already at that date incorporated with the Missal, and therefore well known, and that Celano was generally held to be its author Wadding, in Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, states that Celano composed two additional sequences, the Freyit Victor Virtualis in honor of St. Francis, and the Sanctitatis Nova Signa. See Mohnike, Kirchen u. literan hist. Studien (1825), 1, 31; Hber, Dreifache Chronik d. dreifachen Franzisk. Ordens (Munich, 1686), p. 16; Wadding, A nnales Minor. tom. 2, ad ann. 1222; Hase, Frans.v. Assisi, etc. (Leips. 1856), p. 17, note 17; Tholuck, Verm. Schriften, 1, 110; Daniel, Thesaur. Hymnol. 1, 103-131. Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.