Amy Welborn sets the record straight and reiterates something I’ve been saying for years. The famous “Prayer of St. Francis” (“Make me an instrument of your peace..”) — which is the source for one of the most popular and treasured hymns in modern Christianity (Catholics and others sing it) — was not written by the saint:
The most recent scholarship indicates that St. Francis of Assisi could not have written this prayer. The earliest mention we can find of the Peace Prayer appeared in a French religious journal in 1913, about 800 years after St. Francis lived. This journal gives as its source another journal, no longer in existence. The next appearances come from both Italian and French newspapers in 1916, saying that Pope Benedict XV had been sent a copy of the prayer. courtesy of yet another French periodical, crucial copies of which do not seem to exist and which arc assumed to have been lost in one of the two World Wars. These earliest versions of the prayer, as printed in these newspapers and journals, make no mention of St. Francis or the Franciscans.
The Peace Prayer came into wider circulation just a couple of years later on a prayer card printed for Third Order, or Secular Franciscans who were living in the region of Reims. France. Secular Franciscans live in the Franciscan spirit, take certain vows. but live in regular society rather than in community. On one side of the card was a picture of St. Francis, and on the other side was the prayer. called -Prayer for Peace,- with an admonition that all Secular Franciscans live by the spirit of this prayer.’
She goes on to explain how it spread around the world — and then suggests another prayer that Francis did write that we all should embrace.
By the way: I hate to be a party pooper here, but there’s also no evidence that the saint from Assisi ever said, “Preach always, use words if necessary.” Read all about that here.
Sorry.
