FINTAN
78
FIORETTI
published in the United States, with notices of their
authors and an epitome of their contents. The first
part, which brings the list down to 1820 inclusive, was
published in 1,S72; the second volume, which was to
include the works of Catholic writers from 1821 to
1875, was never finished, though much of the material
for it had been industriously gathered from all avail-
able sources. His last literary effort, which he did not
live to see published, entitled" The Mystery of Wizard
Clip" (Baltimore, 1879), is a story of preternatural
occurrences at Smithfield, W. Virginia, which is partly
told in the life of Father Gallitzin.
Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac, 1880; Biographical sketch in MS,, Georgetown College Archives; McGee's Weekly, Feb. 15, 1879; Ave Maria, Feb., 1879; Sommehvooel, 111,7-17. Edward P. Spillane.
Fintan, Saints. — Fintan of Clonenagh, Saint, a Leinster saint, b. about 524; d. 17 February, probably 594, or at least before 597. He studied_ under St. Columba of Terryglass, and in 550 settled in the soli- tude of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, near what is now Maryborough, Queen's County. His oratory soon at- tracted numerous disciples, for whom he wrote a rule, and his austerities and miracles recalled the apostolic ages. Among his pupils was the great St. Comgall of Bangor. When he attained his seven- tieth year he chose Fintan Maeldubh as his successor in the Abbey of Clonenagh. He has been compared by the Irish annalists to St. Benedict, and is styled "Father of the Irish Monks".
Fintan (Munnu) of Taghmon, Saint, son of Tul- chan, an Ulster saint, d. at Taghmon, 636. He founded his celebrated abbey at Taghmon (Teach Munnu) in what is now County Wexford, in 599. He is principally known as the defender of the Irish methotl of keeping Easter, and, in 630, he attended the Synod of Magh Lene, at which he dissented from the decision to adopt the Roman paschal method. Another synod was held somewhat later at Magh Ailbe, when St. Fintan again upheld his views in op- position to St. Laserian (Mo Laisre). But the views of the Universal Church prevailed. His feast is ob- served on 21 October. The beautiful stone cross of "St. Munn" still stands in the churchyard of the village.
CoLGAN, Ada Sand. Hib. (Louvain, 1645); Acta SS. (1853), Oct., VIII, 896-98; (1858), IX, 325-33; Ziuuer, Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland (London, 1902); O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, s. d.), X; Reeves, Life of St. Columba (Dublin, 1857); Bede, Ecct. Hist, of England, ed. Seller (London, 1907); Annals of Ulster (Dublin, 1901), IV; Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, ed. Lawlor (London, 1907). W. H. Grattan-Flood.
Fioretti di S. Francesco d'Assisi (Little Flow- ers of St. Francis of A.ssisi), the name given to a classic collection of popular legends about the life of St. Francis of Assisi and his early companions as they appeared to the Italian people at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Such a work, as Ozanam observes, can hardly be said to have one author; it is the product rather of gradual growth and must, as Sabatier remarks, remain in a certain sense anony- mous, because it is national. There has been some doubt as to whether the "Fioretti" were written in Italian in the first instance, as Sbaralea thought, or were translated from a Latin original, as Wadding maintained. The latter seems altogether more proba- ble, and modern critics generally believe that a larger Latin collection of legends, which has come down to us under the name of the " Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum Ejus", represents an approximation to the text now lost of the original "Floretura", of which the "Fior- etti" is a translation. A striking difference is notice- able between the earlier chapters of the "Fioretti", which refer to St. Francis and his companions, and the later ones which de.al with the friars in the province of the March of Ancona. The first half of the collection
is, no doubt, merely a new form given to traditions
that go back to the early days of the order ; the other
is believed to be substantially the work of a certain
Fra Ugolino da Monte Giorgio of the noble family of
Brunforte (see Brunforte, Ugolino), who, at the
time of his death in 1348, was provincial of the Friars
Minor in the March. Living as he did a century after
the death of St. Francis, LTgolino was dependent on
hearsay for much of his information; part of it he is
said to have learned from Fra Giacomo da Massa who
had been well known and esteemed by the companions
of the saint, and who had lived on terms of intimacy
with Fra Leone, his confessor and secretary. What-
ever may have been the sources from which Ugolino
derived his materials, the fifty-three chapters which
constitute the Latin work in question seem to have
been written before 1328. The four appendixes on the
Stigmata of St. Francis, the life of Fra Ginepro, and
the life and sayings of Fra Egidio, which occupy nearly
one half of the printed text of the "Fioretti", as we
now have it, form no part of the original collection and
were probably added by later compilers. Unfortu-
nately the name of the fourteenth-century Franciscan
friar who translated into Italian fifty-three of the
seventy-si.x chapters found in the "Actus B. Fran-
cisci" and in translating immortalized them as the
"Fioretti", remains unknown. The attribution of
this work to Giovanni di San Lorenzo rests wholly
upon conjecture. It has been surmised that the trans-
lator was a Florentine. However this may be, the
vernacular version is written in the most limpid Tus-
can and is reckoned among the masterpieces of Italian
literature.
The "Fioretti" have been described as "the most exquisite expression of the religious life of the Middle Ages". That perhaps which gives these legends such a peculiar charm, is what may be called their atmos- phere; they breathe all the delicious fragrance of the early Franciscan spirit. Nowhere can there be found a more childlike faith, a livelier sense of the super- natural, or a simpler literalness in the following of Christ than in the pages of the "Fioretti", which more than any other work transport us to the scenes amid which St. Francis and his first followers lived, and enable us to see them as they saw themselves.
These legends, moreover, bear precious witness to the vitality and enthusiasm with which the memory of the life and teaching of the Poverello was preserved, and they contain much more history, as distinct from mere poetry, than it was customary to recognize when Suyskens and Papini wrote. In Italy the "Fioretti" have always enjoyed an extraordinary popularity; indeed, this liber aureus is said to have been more widely read there than any other book, not excepting even the Bible or the Divine Comedy. Certain it is that the "Fioretti "have exercised an immense influence in forming the popular conception of St. Francis and his companions. The earliest known MS. of the "Fior- etti", now preserved at Berlin, is dated 1390; the work was first printed at Vieenza in 1476. Manzoni has collected many interesting details about the well- nigh innumerable codices and editions of the " Fior- etti". The best edition for the general reader is un- questionably that of Father Antonio Cesari (Verona, 1822) which is based on the epoch-making edition of Filippo Buonarroti (Florence, 1718). The Crusca quote from this edition which has been often reprinted. The " Fioretti ' ' have been translated into nearly every European language and in our own day are being much read and studied in Northern countries. There are several well-known English versions.
Oz.^NAM, Les potles Frandscains en Italie au treizi^jne sitcle (6th ed., Paris, 1882), vii; Bonav. ha Sorrento, 11 libra de' Fioretti di San Francesco (Naples, 1885); Manzoni, Studi sui Fioretti in jl/isc Franeeseoml. Ill (Foligno, 1888-89); Alvisi. Fiorilli ili S. Franresco: Sluihi snHii loro composizione storicn in An-h. .SV..r. //.//. . SIT. l, IV ( lS7ill, 488 sqq.; Stadehini, Sulle fnntiil,, Fi„r.tti in lioll. d. S„c. I'mbra di St. Patria (1896), II, faac. II-III.; Gauavani, La queslione starica dei Fiorettie it loro
