"The same literary method is being used."  Yeah, an untruth.  The truth is that St. Francis was a fiery preacher who would preach in up to five villages a day.  And James Joyce, while steeped in Catholicism  was hostile to the Church.

Theses urban legends are only accepted by the ignorant and the ideological.  You're the first person I've ever encountered who tried to spin them into "truth".  They are false to the "core" because they rest on the fact that persons of authority allegedly said them when,  in fact, these persons not only never said them, they never believed in them!