St. Francis of Assisi, also known as Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (c. 1181–3 October 1226), was an Italian poet, mystic, and Catholic monk who established the Franciscan order. He was moved to live in poverty as a Christian and became a traveling preacher and beggar.
On July 16, 1228, Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis, one of the most revered people in Christianity. Typically, he is depicted wearing a brown habit with a rope around his waist that has three knots that stand for the evangelical precepts of obedience, chastity, and poverty.
He traveled to Egypt in 1219 in an effort to resolve the Fifth Crusade’s war and convert Sultan Al-Kamil. As part of Greccio’s yearly Christmas festival, he organized the first live nativity scene in 1223. In a religious experience in 1224, Francis is said to have gotten the stigmata at the appearance of a Seraphic angel.
St. Francis is linked to environmental and animal patronage. Churches began holding animal blessing ceremonies on October 4, his feast day, which later became known as World Animal Day. Francis was renowned for his Eucharistic devotion. Francis was named Italy’s patron saint, along with Catherine of Siena. In addition, he is San Francisco’s namesake. The feast day of Francis’ stigmatization is September 17.
St. Francis of Assisi Biography
One of the children of a wealthy silk trader from Italy, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, and a Frenchwoman, Pica di Bourlemont, about whom nothing is known other than that she was a Provence-bred noblewoman, St. Francis of Assisi was born about 1181.
Encouraged by his parents, Francis led the vivacious life of a young man in his twenties. He was enthralled with everything Transalpine as a young man and became a troubadour enthusiast. Francis loved wearing nice clothes and was an attractive, clever, and chivalrous man. He was a big spender.
The “story of the beggar” demonstrates how Francis’ expressions of disillusionment with the society around him began rather early in his youth, despite the fact that many hagiographers highlight his colorful attire, wealthy companions, and love of pleasures. According to this story, Francis was in the marketplace selling velvet and cloth for his father when a beggar approached him and begged for money. St. Francis left his goods behind at the conclusion of his business transaction and chased after the beggar. Francis gave the man everything in his purse when he discovered him. Francis’ father angrily reprimanded him while his buddies made fun of him for his altruism.
St. Francis enlisted in a military campaign against Perugia in 1202, and he was captured at Collestrada. He was held captive for a year, during which time Francis reexamined his life due to an illness. But when Francis returned to Assisi in 1203, he resumed his freewheeling lifestyle. Francis departed for Apulia two years later to join Walter III, Count of Brienne’s army. He returned to Assisi after experiencing an odd vision that caused him to lose interest in material life. After that, Francis reportedly started to stay away from the games and feasts of his old friends. St. Francis said, “Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen,” referring to his “Lady Poverty,” when a friend asked him whether he was considering getting married.
He joined the impoverished in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica while on a journey to Rome. He prayed to God for divine insight when he was alone. In the abandoned country chapel of San Damiano, just outside of Assisi, Francis claimed to have received a mystical vision of Jesus Christ. The Icon of Christ Crucified told him, “Francis, Francis, go and repair My church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” Francis interpreted this to refer to the dilapidated church where he was already praying, and in order to help the priest there, he sold some fabric that he had taken from his father’s business. Francis became enraged and tossed the coins on the ground when the priest refused to accept the illicit earnings.
St. Francis spent around a month hiding in a cave close to San Damiano to escape his father’s fury. He was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and imprisoned in a tiny storeroom after he returned to town, filthy and starving. After being let free by his mother while Bernardone was away, St. Francis immediately went back to San Damiano and took refuge with the officiating priest. However, his father quickly mentioned Francis in front of the city consuls.
Not satisfied that he had retrieved the riches that had been spread from San Damiano, the latter also attempted to compel his son to forfeit his inheritance as a kind of reparation. St. Francis gave up his father and his inheritance while he was in court with the Bishop of Assisi. According to some stories, the bishop wrapped Francis in his own cloak after he stripped naked as a sign of his surrender.
He traveled the hills behind Assisi as a beggar for the next few months. He worked as a scullion for a while at a nearby monastery. After that, Francis traveled to Gubbio, where a friend offered him alms as well as a pilgrim’s coat, girdle, and staff.
St. Francis walked the streets of Assisi on his way back, pleading for stones to restore St. Damiano. He transported these to the ancient chapel, installed them himself, and gradually rebuilt it. He adopted a penitent lifestyle for two years, restoring a number of abandoned chapels in the countryside surrounding Assisi. These included the Porziuncola, a small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels in the plain just below the town, and San Pietro in Spina, which is located on private property and in ruin about a kilometer from modern Rivotorto in the valley near San Petrignano. Later on, he began to love this house. In the leper colony close to Assisi, he gradually began nursing lepers.
Franciscan
St. Francis had already constructed a cottage next to the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, where he was participating in a Mass one morning in February 1208. The “Commissioning of the Twelve” from the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus gives his followers the mandate to go and announce that the Kingdom of God is near, was the day’s gospel. St. Francis was motivated to live a life of destitution. Francis tied a coarse woolen tunic, which was then the garment of the poorest Umbrian peasants, around himself with a knotted rope and proceeded to encourage the rural populace to practice penance, brotherly love, and peace. He had no license to preach to common people, hence it was unusual for him to do so.
Others followed Francis’ lead. He gained 11 followers in a year. In the abandoned leper colony of Rivo Torto, close to Assisi, the brothers led a modest life. They traveled through Umbria’s mountainous regions for a considerable amount of time, and they were frequently greatly impressed by the sincerity with which they treated everyone they met.
He created the Regula primitiva, or “Primitive Rule,” in 1209 for his adherents, or “friars,” based on biblical passages. The standard was “to follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.” After that, he escorted eleven disciples to Rome to ask Pope Innocent III for approval to establish a new religious order. Giovanni di San Paolo, the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, was with Bishop Guido of Assisi when the brothers arrived in Rome. Pope Innocent III’s confessor, the Cardinal, was instantly sympathetic to Francis and consented to speak on Francis’ behalf before the pope.
After a few days, the Pope consented to the group’s informal admission, with the stipulation that they may return for an official audience when God expanded the group’s grace and size. They were tonsured. This was significant in part because it acknowledged the authority of the Church and shielded his followers from charges of heresy, which had befallen the Waldensians decades before. Despite the fact that several of the pope’s advisors viewed Francis’s suggested way of living as dangerous and unrealistic, he chose to support Francis’s order after having a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica. In accordance with custom, the Franciscan Order was formally founded on April 16, 1210.
In accordance with custom, the Franciscan Order was formally founded on April 16, 1210. Originally based in the Porziuncola, the group—later known as the “Lesser Brothers” (Order of Friars Minor, often called the Franciscan Order or the Seraphic Order)—preached in Umbria before spreading throughout Italy. Later on, Francis received a deacon’s ordination but not a priest’s.
St. Francis of Assisi Prayer
St. Francis left for Jerusalem in the late spring of 1212, but he had to return to Italy after being shipwrecked by a storm off the coast of Dalmatia. The Count Orlando di Chiusi gifted Francis the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) on May 8, 1213, describing it as “eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind.” He would learn to love the mountain as a place to pray.
He traveled to Egypt in 1219 during the Fifth Crusade, when a Crusader force had been encamped and besieging the fortified city of Damietta for more than a year. Along with Friar Illuminatus of Arce, he wanted to either be crucified or convert the Sultan of Egypt. Encamped upstream of Damietta was the Sultan, Al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin who had succeeded his father as Sultan of Egypt in 1218. On August 29, 1219, the Christians launched a deadly and fruitless attack on the city, after which both sides agreed to a four-week ceasefire.
St. Francis and his companion most likely broke through the Muslim defenses during this lull and were taken before the Sultan, where they spent a few days in his tent. Reports only mention that Francis preached to the Muslims and that the Sultan greeted him with grace, but they don’t elaborate on what actually happened during the encounter. He came back safely. The visit is not mentioned in any known Arab sources.
Some late sources claim that St. Francis was granted permission by the Sultan to travel to and even preach at the Holy Land’s hallowed locations. It is safe to say that Francis and his companion did not return to the Crusader camp until they arrived in Acre, from where they set sail for Italy in the latter part of 1220. Later stories, based on a sermon by Bonaventure from 1267, state that the Sultan met Francis and secretly converted or received a baptism on his deathbed.
Regardless of the outcome of Francis and al-Kamil’s encounter, the Franciscans have been in the Holy Land since 1217 and are still there (see Custody of the Holy Land). Pope Clement VI granted them jurisdictional privileges in 1342 (as far as the Catholic Church is concerned) and concessions from the Mameluke Sultan in 1333 about specific Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
St. Francis Character and Legacy
Francis’s goal was to literally do what Christ had done. Understanding Francis’ personality, his love for the Eucharist, and his reverence for the priests who administered the sacrament all depend on this. Francis said, “Your God is of your flesh, He lives in your nearest neighbour, in every man.”
St. Francis and his adherents praised and even worshipped poverty, which was so fundamental to his personality that he claimed in the Testament, his final writing, that complete personal and collective poverty was the necessary way of life for his order’s members.
He thought that God was reflected in nature. All animals were referred to as his “brothers” and “sisters” by him. He even preached to birds and allegedly convinced a wolf in Gubbio to cease attacking some residents in exchange for food. Francis said that “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died” and that his strong sense of fraternity under God extended to others.
Since the Franciscans, out of all Catholics, would be permitted to remain in the Holy Land after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom and be acknowledged as “Custodians of the Holy Land” on behalf of the Catholic Church, Francis’s trip to Egypt and his attempt to rapprochement with the Muslim world had far-reaching effects that would last long after his own death.
Around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by erecting the earliest documented presepio, or crèche (Nativity scene), at Greccio, near Assisi. His depictions of nativity mirrored the scene found in conventional paintings. Francis employed the senses, particularly sight, to create a living scenario with actual animals so that the worshippers may directly reflect on the birth of the child Jesus. Francis’s biographers Bonaventure and Thomas of Celano describe how he only utilized a manger (feeding trough) filled with straw that was placed between a real ox and a donkey. With the manger serving as the altar for the Christmas Mass, Thomas thought it was lovely in its simplicity.
Animal rights activists and some contemporary pundits have misrepresented Francis as a vegetarian. He did, however, eat meat, according to historical accounts, and his early biographers don’t imply that Francis followed a vegetarian diet. Shrimp pie was Francis’ favorite food.
St. Francis and Creation
St. Francis promoted the Christian belief that although God created the world in a good and beautiful way, human sin necessitates redemption. “St. Francis was a great lover of God’s creation…” I said, seeing God reflected in the natural world. He thanks God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth in the Canticle of the Sun because he believes that these things honor God.
He had a deep affection for animals and the natural world, according to many of the legends that surround his life. Following Francis’ passing, a collection of myths and folklore known as the Fioretti (“Little Flowers”) emerged. According to one story, Francis and some of his friends were traveling when they came to a spot in the road where the trees on either side were teeming with birds. His friends were instructed by Francis to “wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds.” The strength of his voice captivated the birds around him, and none of them fled. He is frequently shown holding a bird in his hand.
There was a wolf “terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals” in the city of Gubbio, where St. Francis briefly resided, according to another legend from the Fioretti. When St. Francis discovered the wolf in the hills, he made the sign of the cross and told it to approach him so that no one would be harmed. After leading the wolf into the town, Francis made a deal with the wolf in front of the shocked residents. The townspeople were supposed to feed the wolf on a daily basis because it had “done evil out of hunger.” The wolf would stop preying on them and their flocks in exchange. Gubbio was thus liberated from the predator’s threat.
Named after Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun, Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’ on the ecological catastrophe and “care for our common home” was issued in 2015. It describes Francis as “the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically” . The Laudato Si’ Movement, a global network of about 1000 groups advocating the Franciscan approach to ecology and the Laudato si’ message, was born as a result of this.
St. Francis Books
- Canticum Fratris Solis or Laudes Creaturarum; Canticle of the Sun, 1224
- Oratio ante Crucifixum, Prayer before the Crucifix, 1205 (extant in the original Umbrian dialect as well as in a contemporary Latin translation)
- Regula non bullata, the Earlier Rule, 1221
- Regula bullata, the Later Rule, 1223
- Testament, 1226
- Admonitions, 1205 to 1209
Some literary scholars believe that St. Francis was the first poet from Italy. He frequently wrote in Umbrian instead of Latin because he thought that simple people ought to be able to pray to God in their native tongue.
There is no proof that he is the author of the anonymous prayer “Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace” from the 20th century, despite its widespread attribution.
Books on St. Francis’ Life
There are hundreds of books about him. Conrad Harkins (1935–2020), a Franciscan friar and the head of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University, made the following recommendations.
- Paul Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assisi (Scribner’s, 1905).
- Johannes Jørgensen, St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography (translated by T. O’Conor Sloane; Longmans, 1912).
- Arnaldo Fortini, Francis of Assisi (translated by Helen Moak, Crossroad, 1981).
- Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis (Ο Φτωχούλης του Θεού, in Greek; 1954)
- John Moorman, St. Francis of Assisi (SPCK, 1963)
- John Moorman, “The Spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi” (Our Sunday Visitor, 1977).
- Erik Doyle, St. Francis and the Song of Brotherhood (Seabury, 1981).
- Raoul Manselli, St. Francis of Assisi (translated by Paul Duggan; Franciscan, 1988).
