Linda Bird Francke

Francke writes a biography of Francis by traveling and following in his footsteps. It works well in that when Francis' story begins to pall, the contemporary travel aspect of the book kicks in. The biographical aspect of the book suffers a bit from Francke's apparent true believer syndrome. She seems to believingly and uncritically gulp the tales of Francis' miracles. More importantly, one suspects that his crowning touch of Christ's stigmata likely were self-inflicted. No doubt Francis was a great man and for the most part a good man, even if the myths and miracles surrounding him were bogus, as likely they were. History is full of visionaries who claim to channel voices; they may be mental cases, but if they do more good than harm ... .… (meer)