Exegesis, Mimesis, and the Voice of Christ in Francis of Assisi’s Office of the Passion

Abstract

The Office of the Passion attributed to St Francis of Assisi presents a remarkable pastiche of psalms apparently intended to be read as if spoken by Christ during the hours of his passion. This article considers how Francis, otherwise unschooled in the intricacies of medieval biblical exegesis, may have had access to the interpretative tradition according to which the psalms that he used in his Office were assigned to Christ, and how this tradition may have contributed to his understanding of what it meant to follow in the footsteps of Christ.