Lessons from the Wolf of Gubbio

By Fr. Francis Di Spigno, O.F.M.

On Oct. 27, our nation, once again, was faced with the brutal reality of what happens when one individual thinks he or she is right and has a total disregard for everyone else. The deaths of 11 men and women and the injury of another seven while praying their Shabbat prayers was motived by anti-Semitism and based on some irrational fear that the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people.”

A week and half later, on Nov. 7, 13 people were killed and 12 were injured at a country-western bar in Thousand Oaks, California. This bar is often frequented by college students. It probably isn’t that different than some of the local bars around our campus.

Within a 12-month period, 135 people were killed and 564 people were injured in the six mass-shootings that were reported in the mainstream media: Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue, Pittsburgh; Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, California; Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida; Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, Texas; country music concert outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada; and at a small rural church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

When I was growing up in the ’70s, communist Russia was the big menace. Nuclear proliferation and how many times we could blow each other up was the talk that preoccupied those concerned with the societal ills of the day. The common nemeses in movies and books were often the Russians. They were our enemy.

Ironically, with the apparent victory of that Cold War, it seems that we are now simply killing ourselves.

At some of our fall open houses for prospective students and families, I had an opportunity to share with them the real story behind our university’s mascot. The story of The Wolf of Gubbio is one of the stories found in the book “The Little Flowers of St. Francis.” It is a brief tale of the people of the small Umbrian town of Gubbio, Italy, and a wolf.

The wolf terrorized them, their livestock, and threatened their very lives and way of life. Up in arms, the townspeople were preparing to kill the wolf. When St. Francis heard this news, he intervened and pleaded with the people to let him speak with the wolf. After Francis’ encounter with the wolf, an agreement was made that if the citizens of Gubbio would feed the wolf the creature would agree not to attack them or their livestock. The legend continues to say that the wolf would become greatly revered by the town and was eventually given an honorable burial in what would become the Church of Saint Francis of the Peace.

A simple tale, no doubt, but one whose message, I fear, we have not yet understood.

St. Francis’ wisdom was to abandon fear, anger and hatred, and seek relationship, reconciliation and understanding. Perhaps the childlike story could be easily dismissed as fantasy without us ever attempting to heed the sage advice of learning how to live with the other, even if they are perceived to be our enemy.

Our country, our culture, our very own security is being held hostage by ourselves as we continue to demonize anyone who does not look like us, act like us, or even pray like us. St. Bonaventure received hate mail when we opened the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, despite the fact that St. Francis began that conversation in 1219 when he visited the Sultan in Damietta, Egypt. Fr. Michael Calabria, O.F.M., director of the center, has been working with members of the international Franciscan family, as well as our own university community, to mark that 800th anniversary next year.

As we enter another holiday season, with the apex for those of us who are Christians being the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace, we must not count the cost of what we need to do to bring true peace into our lives, our families, our community, our country, and our world.

It is a high price to choose to talk to a foe. It is a lot of work to sit down with someone who has hurt us, and it is quite demanding to gain all the facts behind the reality in which we live, in our country and in our world.

Our faith in ourselves and in our God must be strong, and our desire to really want peace must never waver because it is too high a price. If we don’t build a relationship with the wolf the price will be even higher.

(Fr. Francis Di Spigno, O.F.M., is executive director of University Ministries.)

[1] Levenson, Eric; Sanchez, Ray (October 27, 2018). “Mass shooting at Pittsburgh synagogue”. CNN.
[2] Hudleston, Roger, ed. (1926). The Little Flowers of Saint Francis
[3] House, Adrian (2003). Francis of Assisi. Paulist Press. p. 181.