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The Saint of the Month is regular feature, contributed by a member of our church.
Feast Day: October 4
Founder of the Franciscan Order
Creator of the first live Christmas nativity scene in Greccio (Christmas, 1223)
The first saint in history known to receive the seal of the stigmata
Notable Quote: “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Patron: of Animals, Merchants & Ecology
Also Known As: Francesco (or Giovanni) di Pietro di Bernardone
Born: 1181 in Assisi, Italy
Died: Oct. 3, 1226 in Assisi, Italy
Early Life
St.Francis was born at Assisi in Umbria, Italy in 1181. Young Francis enjoyed a very rich and easy life, as his father was a wealthy cloth merchant. He was happy, charming, and a born leader. As a result, he attracted bad company often - young people addicted to evil and vice. Francis followed his father's wishes by performing well at his father’s business. But he longed for something more than wealth; a desire to be a noble, a knight. He got his first chance to go to battle, when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia. However, Francis was soon captured for ransom. After a year, his ransom was accepted and he was released from prison. His second chance came when he received an invitation to join the knights for the Fourth Crusade. To join this crusade, Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse, which was not a problem for the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. The suit of armor was decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak.
But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. He had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. Now, the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins.
St Francis in San Damiano in the upper church of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, attributed to Giotto.
Conversion of Francis
His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins."
He took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church. His growing disinterest in money made Francis seem more like a madman to his father. Pietro dragged his son before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanded that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir.
The bishop who was very kind to Francis told him to return the money. Francis not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes - the clothes his father had given him. Francis declared his deep desire to marry “Lady Poverty”, and he removed his clothes as a way of renouncing his father’s wealth.
Francis went back to what he considered God's call. He begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands. At first Francis took the assignment literally, physically restoring the ruined building. Later he came to understand his mission in a more spiritual sense: to restore the church back to the radical simplicity of the gospel, to the spirit of poverty, and to the image of Christ in the poor.
“The dream of Pope Innocent III.: St. Francis supports the shaking Lateran Basilica”. Fresco, anon., 17th century. From a series with scenes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
Life as a Franciscan
Soon Francis started to preach (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon). Francis was not a reformer though he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Slowly, people came to join Francis, who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat and loving God. Before long, other people joined him in his life of poverty, dedicated to living out the teachings of Christ. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So, when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. The Pope looking at his ragged clothes threw Francis out. But later that night he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica (the cathedral of Rome, thus the 'home church' of all Christendom). The Pope quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.
Francis felt that nature and all of God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. He would talk to the fish and the birds who gathered to listen to him with utmost attention.
Francis felt that nature and all of God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. He would talk to the fish and the birds who gathered to listen to him with utmost attention.
A famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat.
His community worked for all necessities and only begged if they had to. But Francis would not let them accept any money. He told them to treat coins as if they were pebbles in the road. When the bishop showed horror at the friars' hard life, Francis reasoned, what could you do to a man who owns nothing? You can't starve a fasting man, you can't steal from someone who has no money, you can't ruin someone who hates prestige. They were truly free.
The Final Years
As his community of Franciscans grew, Francis spent more time in solitary prayer. During the last years of his relatively short life, Francis became half blind and was seriously ill. Two years before his death he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side. Francis took the greatest care to hide the stigmata. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. After the death of Francis, Brother Elias announced the stigmata to the order by a circular letter. Later, Brother Leo, the confessor and intimate companion of the saint who also left a written testimony of the event, said that his identification with Christ was so intense that in death Francis seemed like one just taken down from the cross.
In just two years after his death, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX.
Points to Ponder - “Repair My Church”
Points to Ponder - “Repair My Church”
When St.Francis came upon San Damiano, a little church in need of a good bit of repair, he entered and knelt down underneath a large wooden crucifix painted in the Byzantine style of an icon. The open eyes of Jesus on the cross seemed to lock him in a stare. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” he asked. “Show me what you want me to do with my life.” And the Lord answered! A voice as clear as the day responded: “Francis, go and rebuild my church which, as you see, is falling down.”
Today, we are very much in need of repair. Jesus uses us in all our fragility and sinfulness to be the sacrament of his love and mercy in a world that seems to be increasingly unpredictable.
Let us repair our Church with love, mercy, compassion and understanding rooted in Christlike brotherhood and love.
Let us look upon every member in our community with an understanding of extra hands in repair, rather than a threat to our own personal standing, prestige and honor.
Let us look upon every member in our community with an understanding of extra hands in repair, rather than a threat to our own personal standing, prestige and honor.
Let us seek the good in others and reach out to the true needs rather than look for our own personal gain in the process.
Let us seek the good in others and reach out to the true needs rather than look for our own personal gain in the process.
Let us seek to ‘not’ extol ourselves but seek poverty, humility and simplicity in our walk in Christ.
Let us seek to ‘not’ extol ourselves but seek poverty, humility and simplicity in our walk in Christ.
Want to know more ?
Want to know more ?
EWTN - 10/3/2020 - 8:00 pm - Clare and Francis
EWTN - 10/3/2020 - 8:00 pm - Clare and Francis
A moving film about two of the Catholic Church’s most beloved figures, St. Clare and St. Francis, who became forever linked during their search for something higher than riches and social status. (120 minutes)
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