 | Saint Francis of Assisi
Celebrated on October 4 (San Francisco de Asis 1181-1226)
Francis was born at Assisi to Peter Bernardone, a wealthy silk merchant. Although he was baptized John, he was usually called Francesco, (Francis for short) which means "the Frenchman" either because his mother was from Provencal, or because Peter was absent on business in France when his son was born. Young Francis was never interested in his father's business, and lived a worldly, spendthrift life. He was influenced by the ideals of chivalry, and it was with those romantic ideals of poverty, chastity, and obedience that he would later capture the imagination of his time.
Around the age of twenty, Francis was taken prisoner by the Perugians, who were fighting with Assisi. When he returned, he became seriously ill. When he recovered, he decided to join the forces of Walter de Brienne, who was fighting in southern Italy in 1205. He bought expensive equipment and a new outfit, but when he came across a poor man who was poorly clothed, he gave him the clothes. At Spoleto, he fell ill again, and as he lay in bed, saw a vision of Christ who urged him to turn back. Francis returned home facing accusations of cowardice. Riding one day, he met a leper, whose repulsive sores horrified him. He got off his horse, however, and as he gave the man alms, he kissed him.
After this experience, he visited hospitals, serving the sick, and often gave money and his clothes to the poor. Praying one day in the Church of San Damiano, outside the walls of Assisi, he heard a voice coming from the crucifix, which repeated three times, "Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down." The church was old and in disrepair, so thinking he was being asked to restore it, he went home, and sold some of his fathers cloth. He gave the money to the priest of San Damiano´s and asked to be allowed to stay with him. The priest agreed but he would not accept the money. His angry father came looking for him, but Francis hid. After days of praying and fasting, Francis appeared again, but his looks were so altered that people threw things at him and called him mad. His impatient father took him home, beat him, and locked him, bound up, in a room. His mother released him when his father was out, and Francis returned to San Damiano´s. His angry father followed him there, hit him, and dramatically disinherited him. Francis said he did not regret being disinherited but that the money from the goods now belonged to God and the poor. He was summoned before the bishop of Assisi, who instructed him to return the money and to trust in God. Francis did so, stripped on the spot and gave his clothes to his father. The bishop mustered clothes and Francis thanked the household for these first alms and put a cross on the garment with chalk. Singing divine praises, Francis went in search of shelter. He met a band of robbers, who asked him who he was. He answered "I am herald of the great King." They beat him and threw him into a ditch of snow. Undeterred by this treatment, he continued singing.
At a monastery he received alms and work. In the city of Grubbio, an acquaintance took him and gave him a shabby tunic, belt, and shoes. He wore these clothes for two years, walking with a staff. He returned to San Damiano at Assisi. He begged alms to restore the church and was mocked by townspeople who had known him as a rich man. He helped in the work of restoring the church.
After helping to restore another church in the same way, he retired to a little chapel called Portiuncula, belonging to an abbey of Benedictine monks at Monte Subasio. Located two miles from Assisi, the chapel was neglected and falling down. Francis repaired it and lived nearby. On the feast of St. Matthias in 1209, Francis saw the way of his life in the gospel of the mass, which said "Do not possess gold... Nor two coats nor shoes nor a staff..." He gave away his shoes, staff, and girdle. He was left with a poor coat, which he tied with a cord. This undyed woolen dress of the shepherds and peasants in those parts would be the dress he would give to his friars.
Disciples began to seek him out because of his preaching, Among them was Bernard da Quintavalle, a rich tradesman of Assisi, who sold all his possessions and gave the money to the poor. Francis gave the habit to him and to Peter of Cattaneo, a canon of the cathedral, on April 16, 1209. The third to join them was the famous Brother Giles, a simple and wise man. When he had a dozen followers, Francis drew up a short informal rule, consisting chiefly on the gospel counsels of perfection. Thus, the Franciscans were founded.
He sought approval for this rule from the Pope in Rome in 1210. He sent for Francis, verbally approved the rule, going the Franciscans a general commission to preach repentance. Francis gave his order the name of Friars Minor, wishing that they should be below their fellows.
Poverty was the foundation of the order, and Francis would not allow any poverty to be vested in his order, or in any community or convent of it. In 1212, Francis decided to preach o the Mohammedans. He and a companion departed for Syria, but they were driven onto the coast of Dalmatia and shipwrecked. They traveled back to Ancona as stowaways. Francis preached a year in central Italy, during which the lord of Chiusi put at the disposal of the Franciscans as a place of retreat Mt. Alvernia in the Tuscan Apennines. Franciscans appeared throughout Umbria, Tuscany, Lombardy, and Ancona. In 1216, Francis is reported to have received from the pope the Portiuncula indulgence, or pardon of Assisi. He was in Rome again the following year and it is probably then that he met St. Dominic. Francis wanted to preach in France, but Cardinal Ugolino advised against it, so he sent Brother Pacifico and Brother Agnello, who would later bring the Franciscans to England. Missions were sent to Spain, Germany and Hungary. The first general chapter was held at Portinucula at Pentecost in 1217.
Francis held a general chapter in 1221 and presented a revised rule, which clearly expressed the fundamental precepts of poverty, humbleness, and evangelical freedom. His order was different from those of other poor Italian preachers of the time due to its respect for and obedience to Church authorities and doctrinal orthodoxy. Members slept on the ground, and used no tables or chairs, and had very few books. It was not until later that they became an order whose theology won attention in universities.
In 1224, Francis retired to Mt. Alverna, living in a small cell and forbidding visitors until the feast of St. Michael. It was here that the miracle of Stigmata occurred, the first certain recorded incidence of such an occurrence and the most famous example. To conceal it, Francis wore shoes and stockings and covered his hands with his habit. His health worsened, he suffered pain from the stigmata, and his eyes were failing. In 1225 Cardinal Ugolino and the vicar Elias begged him to see the pope's physicians at Rieti. He obeyed them, and on his way he stopped for the last time to see St. Clare at San Damiano. In terrible discomfort, he wrote the "Canticle of Brother Sun," set it to music, and taught the brethren how to sing it. He went on to undergo primitive surgery and painful treatment at Monte Rainero, but although he received some relief, he was dying. In Assisi, doctors told him he could not live longer than a few weeks. He asked to be taken to Portinuncula and was taken there on a stretcher. He asked that they send to Rome for Lady Giacoma di Settesoli, an old friend, and to ask her to come and bring candles and a gray gown for his burial and some favorite cakes. She arrived before the messenger started. As he wished, he died lying on the ground, covered with an old habit. He was still in deacon's orders; he had never been ordained. He had asked to be buried in the criminals cemetery on the Colle d´Inferno, but his body was taken to the Church of St. George in Assisi. It remained there until 1230, when it was secretly removed to the basilica built by Brother Elias.
His relics were rediscovered in 1818 and were reburied, first in an ornate tomb, and then in 1932, in a very simple one.
He is the patron saint of Italy, Italian Merchants, ecology, and ecologists. He is represented in art in the habit of his order, a drab gown, and usually has the stigmata. He might be with a winged crucifix before him, preaching to the birds, propping up a falling church or kneeling before a crib. |