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Francis (1181–1226) didn’t write much, though most of it is memorable stuff, and he certainly did not write the Downing Street prayer. It can be traced no earlier than 1912.
It first appeared in that year, in French, in a magazine called La Clochette, published by a pious organisation founded by Father Esther Bouquerel (1855–1923). Esther is an unusual name for a man, but the prayer, which begins ‘Lord, make me an instrument of your peace’, was well received. It caught the eye of the Marquis de La Rochethulon, who in 1915 sent a copy to the pope, Benedict XV, who was exhausting his energies trying to stop the first world war.
The prayer was published in the Vatican paper L’Osservatore Romano and in about 1920 it was printed by a French Franciscan on the back of images of St Francis under the title ‘Prière pour la paix’. In 1936 it appeared in English translation in a book called Living Courageously by Kirby Page (1890–1957), an American pacifist, where it was attributed to St Francis.
Once the attribution had been made, it stuck. But, like other prayers and homespun philosophy suitable for reproduction on teatowels (like the one called ‘Desiderata’ or another supposedly found in an old woman’s hospital locker), it has made its way by its appeal to popular taste.
People sometimes look down on the Middle Ages for rashly attributing writings to saints or ancient authorities, but our own age, now with the help of the internet, is busier at it than ever.
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