Thoughts to Live by: St Francis of Assisi

4 October, Friday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time:

Some Notes on St, Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) --

1. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, he was called Francesco by his father, a rich silk merchant. His mother was a noble woman from France. St. Francis of Assisi, the "Poverello" (Poor Little Man), was a mystic, a poet, a Franciscan monk, and one of the most venerated figures of Christianity.

2. Although as a young man, Francis had a general spirit of worldliness, he was charitable to the poor. When he was 21, he took part in a war between Assisi and Perugia and spent a year as a prisoner. In 1205, he joined the papal forces against the Emperor Frederick II, but a strange vision made him return to Assisi where he began to live a life of solitude and prayer. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome and joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica.

3. Returning to Assisi, he spent a lot of time in prayer. One day he had a mystical experience in the chapel of San Damiano. The icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Go, Francis, and repair my church, which, as you see, is falling into ruins." Taking this literally, he sold his horse and some cloth from his father's shop to assist the priest. But the priest refused the ill gotten money. Francis then threw the gold coins out the window. Angered, his father locked him in small storeroom and then brought him before the civil authorities. When Francis refused to answer the summons, his father called him before the Bishop of Assisi. But Francis stripped himself naked and renounced his patrimony as well as his father. The bishop covered him with his cloak.

4. He embraced a life of poverty, wandering as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi, and worked for a while in a monastery. He repaired the old chapel of San Damiano, and also restored several chapels, among them the Porziuncola, the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels on the plain below Assisi. He took care of lepers in the leper colonies near Assisi.

5. On 24 February 1208, he was inspired by the Gospel at Mass, where Jesus instructs the disciples to go and proclaim the Kingdom of God, taking no gold nor silver in their belts (Mt. 10:7-11). So, dressed as a poor man, Francis went around exhorting the people to repentance. Within a year, he had 11 followers. They went about through the mountainous districts of Umbria, exhorting the people.

6. In 1209, he composed a rule for his mendicant "friars" the "Regula Primitiva" (Primitive Rule), from verses of the Bible. He and his followers went to Rome to seek the approval of Pope Innocent III. Hesitant at first, the Pope finally approved the request after he dreamed of Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica. The approval was given on 16 April 1210 and marked the official founding of the Order of Friars Minor or the Seraphic Order. Their base was in Porziuncola and, with no possessions, first preached in Umbria, then throughout Italy.

7. Later ordained as a deacon, Francis had a profound love of the Eucharist and great respect for priests who handled the very Body and Blood of Christ.

8. After hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Ruffino, the young noblewoman, Clare of Assisi, decided to live like the Franciscans. On the night of Palm Sunday, Clare secretly left her family's palace. Francis received her at the Porziuncola and thereby established the Second Franciscan Order, now known as the Order of Poor Clares. Francis gave Clare a religious habit, similar to his own. He lodged Clare, her younger sister, Caterina, and other young women, in a few small huts in San Damiano, the first monastery of the Poor Clares. Later Francis formed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters, for priests and lay people who neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows, but observed the principles of Franciscan life.

9. In 1212, Francis tried to go to the Holy Land but was shipwrecked by a storm and was forced to return to Italy. In 1219, Francis went to Egypt, where the Crusaders were besieging the walled city of Dalmietta. During a truce, Francis and his companion, Friar Illuminatus, crossed the Muslim lines and were brought before the Sultan of Egypt, al-Kamil, a nephew of the legendary Muslim Sultan Salahadin (Saladin). Attempting to convert the Sultan, Francis preached to him. He and his companion returned unharmed. It is said that the Sultan invited him to visit the Holy Land. The Franciscans have been present in the Holy Land since 1217 as Custodians of the Holy Land.

10. On or about the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 1224, while praying and fasting on the mountain of La Verna (Alverna), Francis had a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. The angel gave him a greater ardor of love and the gift of the 5 wounds of Christ. He lived 2 years longer in constant pain because of the stigmata and was almost totally blind because of trachoma.

11. He spent his last days, finishing his spiritual Testament which says that absolute personal and corporate poverty was the essential lifestyle of his Order.

He died at Porziuncola on the evening of Saturday, 3 October 1226. On 16 July 1228, he was declared a Saint by Pope Gregory IX, the former Cardinal Protector of the Franciscan Order.

He was buried in a tomb in the Lower Basilica of St. Francis, but was soon hidden to protect it from Saracen invaders. The location of the tomb remained unknown until it was discovered in 1818.

12. St. Francis believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his "brothers" and "sisters." In the Canticle of the Creatures (less properly called the Canticle of the Sun), Francis gives thanks to God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, all of which he sees as rendering praise to God. One account says that Francis even preached to birds, not one of whom flew away. At Greccio near Assisi, around 1229, Francis set up the first known "crèche" or Nativity scene, the "belen." He used real animals to create a living scene.

13. In 1979, Pope John Paul II declared Francis the Patron Saint of ecology.

Upon his election as Pope in 2013, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio chose Francis as his papal name because of his love and concern for the poor. In 2015, Pope Francis published his encyclical letter "Laudato Si'," the 1st words of the Canticle, about the ecological crisis and care for our common home.

14. Prayer -- O God, you granted St. Francis the gift of being conformed to Christ in poverty and humility. Grant, we pray, that we may walk in Francis' footsteps and follow your Son and be united with you through joyful charity. This we humbly ask through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!