Caesarius of Speyer

CAESARIUS OF SPEYER. - Francesco, a disciple of St. Francis of Assisi, was born in Speyer (Germany) in the second half of the 12th century, and died in Assisi (?) during the generalate of Brother Elias (1232-39). He studied theology in Paris, and was a subdeacon and preacher, when he went with the Crusaders to Syria, where Brother Elias, the first provincial minister of that province (1217-20), received him into the Order. When St. Francis too came there, he came with him to Italy (1220), where at the Saint's wish he adorned the rule II with passages from Holy Scripture. In 1221 the Saint placed him at the head of the Franciscan mission in Germany, of which he was the first provincial minister. He returned to Assisi in 1223 and was present at the death of the Saint (1226). Under the generalate of Brother Elias, as Angelo Clareno (v.) relates, writing around 1323, C., zealous for the purity of the rule, is said to have been imprisoned and to have died from the ill-treatment of a lay brother who was his jailer. But since the source is late and suspect, no full reliance can be placed on it.