Saint Francis
By Nikos Kazantzakis

624 Pages • $13.95

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
AND REFLECTION

Saint Francis
By Nikos Kazantzakis

[Open a pdf version]

Use the following questions as guides to deeper individual understanding of the novel or for group discussion.

1. Describe the character of Brother Leo. How does his personality contrast with Francis’s? What function does this contrast play in the novel?

2. What general impression of Francis did you get from this novel? How did it differ from other presentations of the story of Francis you have heard or read? Did you find this presentation helpful? Why or why not?

3. In this novel, Francis’s life is very much a struggle. How do the images of “leaping across the abyss,” “climbing a mountain,” and even leaving one’s “donkey” behind express the nature of the struggle?

4. Brother Leo asks Francis how one can discern which of one’s wants are the will of God. Francis answers, “The most difficult” (p. 325). Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

5. Francis preaches and lives out of a total dependence on God. What did this mean for him in terms of the concrete realities of his daily life? What might it mean for you?

6. In “marriage” to “Sister Poverty,” Francis tells his followers they will find freedom (p. 240). How does this contrast with our contemporary understanding of the relationship between wealth, material goods, and freedom?

7. Of all the “lepers” and the poor in general, Francis says, “All these, if you kiss them on the mouth—O God, forgive me for saying this—they all . . . become Christ” (p. 138). What does this mean? What elements of the gospel does it express? Why is it difficult to put into practice?

8. Francis wonders that if in thinking about crucifixion rather than actually being crucified “we too are actors.” What does he mean by this? Francis eventually does, literally, bear the wounds of Christ on his own body. What are ways that we can enter into the passion of Jesus in a deeper way?

9. Brother Elias argues that “times have changed, people have changed . . . The new Rule . . . brings you these new truths and new virtues”
(p. 408). In what ways is this conflict between St. Francis and Brother Elias still continuing in modern Christianity? What is St. Francis’s response to the thinking of Brother Elias? What does his response say to those of us still grappling with this question today?

10. What temptation does Captain Wolf offer to Brother Leo? Is Wolf wrong in what he says?

11. Was Francis a “success” or a “failure”? In terms of the life of Francis—or of Christ himself—what do these terms mean? What do they mean to you?

12. How did the Francis you met in this novel challenge you? Did you find his life, as presented, compelling? What did it say to you about the life of a disciple of Jesus? Did it repel you in any way? Did you think that Francis went “too far”? Can one go “too far” in trying to follow Jesus?

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