1182-1226
“As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that greater peace is in your hearts. For we have been called to heal wounds, to bind up the broken, and to call home any who have lost their way.”
Saint Francis of Assisi
From an article by Therese Ream, Office of the Franciscan Order:
Francis was born in the Umbrian valley in the city of Assisi, Italy close to 1181. As he grew into a young man, he joined his father in the family cloth merchant business. Like other boys his age, he enjoyed spending his money and having fun, buying himself lavish clothing and treating his friends to wonderful feasts. At the age of 21, while fighting in the local army, he was captured in a battle and taken prisoner for one year. Upon his return to Assisi, Francis began to feel that something essential was missing in his life.
As was the norm in those days, Francis was disgusted by leprosy and tried to stay away from people afflicted with this condition. But one day while riding, he came upon a person with leprosy. His heart was so moved with compassion that he dismounted and embraced the leper. Filled with great joy, any previous bitterness turned into sweetness. This experience was to be called the first of his conversions. In the catholic church, conversion is the turning away from selfish desires and being open to doing God’s will. It means that people’s hearts are changed and they enter into a closer relationship with God.bea
A few years later, while he knelt deep in prayer, the figure of Christ on the crucifix spoke to him and said, Francis, go repair my house, which is falling in ruins. Francis took the words of Jesus literally. He stole many reams of cloth from his father’s merchant business, and sold them along with his horse, to finance the church repairs. When Francis went to the church priest at San Damiano and tried to give him the money from the sales, the priest was suspicious of the apparent change in Francis’s behavior and refused the money, thinking this was a practical joke. But, having no horse, he was allowed to stay in the church.
The next day, when his father found out what had occurred, he went to the church and in the presence of the Bishop, demanded that Francis return to him all the money from the sale of the cloth and horse. A big commotion resulted. After Francis defiantly handed over all the money, he disrobed and also handed all of his clothes to his father. Standing completely naked, he declared that since he now served the Church, he no longer had two fathers, but only one Father - “Our Father who art in heaven.” This episode was the end of his relationship with both parents.
Over the next few years, Francis rebuilt and repaired some of the churches around Assisi. One church, the Portiuncula, was extremely special to Francis. It was here on the 24th of February 1206, while reading the Gospel, that Francis heard that he should “Go and preach the message” and “live according to the Holy Gospel.” The Little Poor Man (IL Poverello), as people began to refer to him, then began to preach. He set about his work joyfully and greeted everyone with a saying that was revealed to him by God: “The Lord give you peace!” This remains a common greeting among Franciscans and one that reminds them of their roots in the Gospel as peacemakers and bearers of God’s peace to everyone.
Because of Francis’s simple way, and his love for his brothers and sisters, he started to have followers who wanted to experience the same joy and love through a simple life. So, they joined Francis and lived lives of prayer and penance. One of the more famous disciples was Clare, who joined Francis in 1212. She was canonized as Saint Clare of Assisi on September 26, 1255, just two years after her death.
Francis is well known for teaching by example and using few words. He has been quoted as instructing his disciples to, “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” He taught that by loving God, and being willing to change one’s heart, we can more faithfully do God’s will.
In stories of his life, Francis is quoted as talking to animals and natural elements. He does not speak to them just as birds or wolves, but as mutual spiritual beings who are worthy of being addressed. He was always telling them who they are, why they should be happy, and why they make him happy. He said they give glory to God just by being who they are! One of his early biographers wrote, “We who were with him saw him always in such joy, inwardly and outwardly, over all creatures, touching and looking at them, so that it seemed that his spirit was no longer on earth but in heaven.” That may sound sentimental to our modern ears, but perhaps that is what a saint looks like—completely attuned to God’s presence everywhere and at all times.
He is probably best known for his poem, “Canticle of the Sun,” the song of praise he wrote in 1225. It begins:
“Most High, all-powerful, good Lord … praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor; and bears a likeness of You, Most High One. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars…. Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather…. Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water….”
Francis took to heart, the spiritual vision of Jesus that is proclaimed in the Beatitudes; Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. . . . and then he translated it into a way of life. . . a resolve to take seriously Jesus’s example of self-emptying love; the way of mercy and compassion; above all, a determination to proclaim the Gospel not only with words but with one’s life.
Francis lived during the time of the Christian Crusades. After his spiritual conversion, a fifth crusade was instigated by the Pope of Rome. Being a Peacemaker in the name of Jesus, Francis travelled to Egypt with Brother Illuminato to preach to the Christian crusaders that war was wrong; it was not the way of Jesus, and so they should not fight. When they refused to listen, Francis walked directly into enemy territory to speak with the Egyptian Sultan, al-Kamil, to try to stop the war. According to the Catholic website Aleteia, the two friars were invited to stay in the home of the Sultan for several days and afterwards they departed on peaceful terms. Each Teacher recognized the spirituality of the other. Before leaving, al-Kamil gave Francis an ivory horn that is displayed in Assisi’s Basilica of St. Francis. There are also icons that show Francis and the Sultan of Egypt praying together or dancing together in prayer. The encounter changed al-Kamil, who gave safe passage to St. Francis and his companions and began to treat Christian prisoners of war with surprising kindness. The Sultan proceeded to negotiate for peace with the crusaders, asking them to peacefully leave Egypt, but the efforts ultimately failed.
Sayings of Saint Francis
“We must bear patiently not being good….and not being thought of as good.”
(This reminds us of the old adage, ‘Patience is a virtue’.)
“You can show your love to others by not wishing that they should be better Christians.”
This teaching encourages acceptance of the so-called faults of others, and also of those individuals who may not consider themselves to be of the Christian faith.
“When I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them and I showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me turned into sweetness of soul and body. And afterwards I delayed a little and left the world.”
Through Divine Mercy, Francis was ‘lifted out’ of a worldly, judgmental perspective, and into a higher consciousness of unconditional love.
“A man has not given up everything for God as long as he holds on to the money bag of his own opinions”
Resources
Canticle of the Creatures - Download
Francis Of Assisi: Spiritual Father And Guide by Therese Ream, O.F.S. - Download
Meditations on Saint Francis from Richard Rohr’s Website:
Franciscan Action Network Guiding Values from St. Francis