Saint Francis of Assisi
(1181-1226)
Feast day: October 4
Saint Francis was born in the town of Assisi in 1181, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He worked with his father and was known for his kindness, his charm and his skill in business. He earned a great deal of money and spent it recklessly on parties and feasts.
At eighteen, he took part in the war between Assisi and Perugia, its nearby rival. He was captured and imprisoned, and returned to Assisi in poor health after a year in captivity.
For a long time he stayed at home, alone and reflective, and felt a radical change taking place deep within him. When he had recovered and went out again, he began visiting the small churches scattered across the countryside around Assisi. He would spend long hours in them, in a prayer that opened his heart to the sufferings of the world.
One day, while praying in the church of San Damiano before the Byzantine crucifix, he heard the Lord Jesus say to him: “Francis, go and repair My house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin!”
Only later did Francis understand that the house of God in need of repair was the Church. At the time, he thought only of the small, crumbling chapel. In answer to the voice he had heard, he became a builder, restoring churches and begging for donations to finish his work, as the poor do. His father disowned him, for he neither approved of nor accepted his new way of life.
For two years he lived as a hermit and a rebuilder of churches. One day, in one of the churches he had restored with his own hands, he listened during Mass to the Gospel reading on “the sending of the disciples”. A light burst forth before his eyes and opened his heart: at that moment Francis discovered his vocation, “the mission”. He understood that, like the disciples, he was sent to the people to proclaim the Good News to them in poverty and joy.
The first community was formed: a small group that grew quickly until it numbered several thousand brothers spread across Europe. Always on the move, close to the people through their poverty and simplicity, they carried wherever they went a breath of peace and reconciliation, a fragrance of praise and thanksgiving. Francis and his brothers sought to renew the Church from within.
The Gospel life that Francis led with the first brothers found a deep echo in the heart of an eighteen-year-old noblewoman of Assisi named Clare. She came to Francis and firmly asked him to consecrate her to the Lord. She withdrew from the world and founded the Order of Poor Ladies, whose aim is to unite the highest contemplation with the humblest and poorest Gospel life.
Francis never separated mission from contemplation. He often withdrew to hermitages and lost himself in contemplation of God. He loved the Lord Jesus deeply, seeing in Him God’s communication with humanity.
During the Crusade, heedless of his own life, Francis went to Egypt to meet its Sultan. There he contracted a serious eye disease that nearly blinded him, the result of the hardships of travel and especially the intense heat he endured on the way there and back. Yet he refused all treatment, despite the insistent pleas of his brothers and others. To this were added worries, doubt and sorrow when he learned that some brothers opposed his Gospel ideal. He resigned as Minister General of the Order in 1220; it was a time of darkness and desert for him.
In 1224, Francis made a long retreat on Mount La Verna. His heart burned with love for the Lord Jesus and he received the stigmata of the Passion. He then returned to Assisi, worn out by illness and hardship, yet a wondrous joy dwelt in his heart… He composed the Canticle of the Sun, a hymn in which he invites all creation to join in his prayer and praise.
On October 3, 1226, the Poverello opened his heart to death at the age of forty-five. He asked the brothers present to sing him the Canticle of the Creatures, asked everyone’s forgiveness and blessed them… He blessed his beloved city too, and was absorbed in prayer: “Welcome, my Sister Death… The Lord is calling me.”
Less than two years after his death, he was canonized on July 16, 1228.
Francis of Assisi left a collection of writings and some prayers, most of them dating from the last years of his life.
