THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS
St. Francis was born Francesco Bernardone in 1182 in Assisi, Umbria, Italy. His father, Pietro Bernardone was a cloth merchant and his mother, Lady Pica was a French woman from a noble family of Provence. Francis was a gentle, likable and fun loving boy who learned to read and write in Latin at St. George’s Church school. He grew up to be a handsome man, gallant, one of ready wit, fine cloths and showy display that combined with courteousness, merrily singing and an over all happy disposition made St. Francis the leader of his peers, the “king of frolic.”
Assisi in the 12th century was a time of much violence. Frequent skirmishes broke out with the town of Perugia and during one of these, Assisi was defeated resulting in Francis’s imprisonment for over a year. During this time Francis became sick due to the poor conditions of the prison, but was released as his father was able to ransom him out on the grounds of illness.
In 1204, Francis arrived back in Assisi and was bedridden for the entire year. After his recovery, he was no longer the same Francis. He wandered the hills of Assisi disconsolate as the world had lost its splendor. It is during this time that Francis began to hear the voices and see the visions that transformed his life.
The first voice came to Francis when he was in Spoleto where he entertained the hope of going off to war as a knight. Misinterpreting the voice as a prophecy of knighthood, another voice came to him and it is then that Francis recognized the voice and asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?" The Lord replied, “Return to Assisi. There it shall be revealed to you what you are to do, and you will come to understand the meaning of this vision.” From that point on, Francis began to listen to God instead of following his hopes and desires for glory on the battlefield.
After he returned to Assisi, Francis spent an entire year in a cave outside Assisi trying to understand God’s will and allowing God to purify his heart. The voice within is the voice Francis hears one day while praying before the crucifix in the run down chapel of San Damiano, “Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruins.” At first, Francis interprets the Lord’s words to physically repair the old chapel, but the Lord’s will was for Francis to repair the entire Church. Francis’s acceptance of God’s call becomes more pronounced with two events: one, the announcement of God as his only Father and two, the understanding of his vocation from the Mass at St. Mary of the Angels.
In the presence of the Bishop of Assisi, his own father and a crowd that had gathered at the Bishop’s courtyard, Francis took his cloths off and declared, “Listen to me, everybody! Until now, I have called Pietro Bernardone my father! But now that I am determined to serve God, I return not only his money, but all the cloths I have from him! From now on, I can walk naked before the Lord, no longer saying, my father, Pietro Bernardone, but our Father who art in Heaven!’” Then, one day while at Mass at St. Mary of the Angels, Francis heard the Gospel as a literal instruction for his vocation, as Jesus tells his disciples who were sent out to preach, “carry no gold or silver, a wallet or purse, bread, walking stick, or shoes, or two tunics.” Francis’s response, “This is what I want to do with all my strength,” and as soon as Mass was over he rid himself of his clothing, wallet and anything else from the world, put on a coarse woolen tunic, tied around his waist with a rope and began his mission of repairing God’s house.
Francis had found his vocation and it was not too long after this that others began to feel drawn by his example. The first was Bernard of Quintavalle, a magnate of the town. In Francis spirit of enthusiasm, Francis asked Bernard to accompany him to the church of St. Nicholas so that they may further understand God’s will. After Mass, Francis asks the priest to open the Gospel three times and the following is what was read: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give to the poor…and come, follow me,” (Matthew 19:21) “Take nothing for your journey, neither staff nor knapsack, shoes nor money,” (Luke 9:3) “If any man will come after me, let him renounce self, take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). Francis declared, “This shall be our rule of life.” Francis took Bernard and Peter of Cattaneo, a well known canon of the cathedral who also embraced Francis’ way of life, and they went to the public square and gave away all their belongings to the poor. A few days later, Giles became the third follower of St. Francis. Others joined and the number of brothers reached eleven. It was at this time that Francis wrote the first rule of the Friars Minor. He subsequently sought approval for his rule from Pope Innocent III in Rome.
While in Rome, Pope Innocent III asked Francis to pray about his request to ensure that it was God’s will. During prayer Francis hears, in spirit, a parable that reveals to him the answer of God’s will. In revealing to Pope Innocent III the parable, he is very moved and tells Francis of a dream he had prior to his arrival in Rome of “…the falling basilica saved by resting on Francis’ shoulders.” The Pope embraces Francis and approves his rule, giving Francis and all his brothers permission to preach repentance to all.
Francis and his brothers obtained a permanent foot hold near Assisi through the generosity of the Benedictines of Monte Subasio, who gave the Franciscans the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels or the Portiuncula (Little Portion). Francis and the brothers erected huts and this settlement became the cradle of the Franciscan Order. Throughout the region they went out, two by two, preaching to everyone.
During Lent of 1212, a great and unexpected joy came into Francis’s life, Clare, a young heiress of Assisi. Clare, moved by Francis’s preaching at the church of St. George, sought Francis as she wanted to embrace his way of life. After Clare left her family and former life, Francis cut her hair short, clothed her with a habit and received her to a life of poverty, penance and seclusion. Soon after, Francis received Clare’s sister, St. Agnes and others joined as well. Francis gave them an adjoining dwelling at the church of San Damiano, which became the first monastery of the Second Order in the Franciscan family, the Poor Clares.
Francis, who embraced the idea of receiving a martyr’s death, traveled to Morocco in hopes of converting the Saracens. He also traveled to Spain, but had to return due to illness. After arriving back in Umbria, he welcomed new members to his Order, one of which was Thomas of Celano, his first biographer. In 1215 while attending the Lateran Council in Rome, Francis met and formed a lasting friendship with St. Dominic. Legend says that Dominic had a vision of a beggar, who like Dominic, would do great things for the Faith. Dominic met the beggar the very next day, embraced him and said, "You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power can withstand us." The beggar in his vision was St. Francis of Assisi.
In 1216, Francis obtained the “Portiuncula Indulgence” from Pope Honorius III. In 1217, the first general chapter of the Friars Minor was held in which provinces and missions in European countries were organized. The year of 1218 was one where Francis preached in Italy. He usually preached out doors, in the market place, from church steps and court yards. Many became captivated by his preaching, so much so that one day in a town of Cannara, a small village near Assisi, the entire congregation was so moved by Francis’s words that afterwards they presented themselves as one body to be admitted to his order. To accommodate such a request, Francis instituted the “Brothers and Sisters of Penance,” or as it became to be known, the Third Order. As not everyone could join religious life, Francis instituted this order so that those desiring to follow his way of life could do so in their secular state.
In 1223 during Christmastide, Francis conceived of the idea of celebrating the Nativity of Bethelem by reproducing it in a church at Greccio. It has come to be regarded as a devotion inaugurated by St. Francis. In 1224 at Mount La Verna Francis retires to the mountain to prepare for the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. It is hear that one of the most well known events of his life occurs. Francis in prayer asks the Lord, “O Lord, I beg of you two graces before I die, to experience personally and in all possible fullness the pains of your bitter Passion, and to feel for You the same love that moved You to sacrifice Yourself for us.” Christ reveals himself to Francis in the form of a crucified seraph and imprints on Francis’s body the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ’s crucifixion.
After the reception of the stigmata, Francis suffered increasing pains that coupled with the harsh penances of his life, prompted Francis to ask pardon of “Brother Ass” as he termed his body. Francis’s health had steadily deteriorated and unable to travel by himself, asked to be taken to San Damiano. There in a small hut next to the convent of St. Clare, Francis spends over fifty days in physical and spiritual darkness. Amongst the great suffering and loneliness Francis felt, he hears a voice saying, “Francis, if in exchange for all these evils, you were to receive a treasure so great that the whole earth, changed into gold, would be nothing beside it, would you not have reason to be satisfied?” Francis replied, “Certainly, Lord.” The Lord continued, “Then, be happy, for I guarantee you that one day you shall indeed enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven, and this is as certain as if you possessed it already.” In ecstasy, Francis who is assured of the treasure he had been seeking, responded to the Lord’s assurance by singing the great poem of his life, "The Canticle of Brother Sun."
On the night of October 3, 1226 with his brothers around him, Francis's life had ended. Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX at St. George’s Church on July 16, 1228. In 1939 he was proclaimed the patron of Italy and in 1980 The Servant of God Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis the patron of ecology. His feast day is October 4 and the Church celebrates the impression of his stigmata on September 17. The death of St. Francis, the Transitus, is celebrated on October 3 by the entire Franciscan family.
As for St. Francis, so many wonderful things can be said about the Umbrian Poverello, his chivalrous spirit, his poetic nature, his charm, his constant care to respect the opinions of all and to offend no one, his love of nature in appreciation of God's presence in all creation, his sincerity and simplicity, his heroic imitation of Christ's poverty, his obedience to the voice of grace, his deep humility, but perhaps the greatest impression one might be left with in thinking of St. Francis of Assisi is, that his entire life became an acceptance and fulfillment of God’s call to "repair my house."
We, the Order Franciscan Secular at St. Peter's Fraternity hope that the life of St. Francis of Assisi will further inspire you to a greater following of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May your life be filled with all the blessings and graces to do so, and in St. Francis's own words to his friars just before his death, "I have done what is mine to do; may Christ teach you what is yours to do."