Bible Flares › Saints › Francis of Assisi
Feast day · October 4
c. 1181, Assisi, Italy – 3 October 1226, Assisi, Italy
A dying man asks to be laid on the bare earth. As the light goes, he remembers a road, a leper, and the day he got down from his horse.
Francis grew up in Assisi surrounded by fine cloth and wealth. His father was a successful silk merchant, and Francis loved the good life, throwing parties and dreaming of becoming a famous knight. But when he rode off to war against a neighboring city, he was captured. He spent a year in a damp, dark prison.
A long illness followed his release. The quiet days of recovery stripped away his old dreams of glory. He began to wander the hills of Assisi alone, searching for a purpose he could not yet name.
The turning point came on a lonely road. Francis saw a leper approaching. In the past, he would have run away in disgust. This time, he climbed down from his horse, gave the man a coin, and kissed his diseased hand. Francis later wrote in his Testament that what had seemed bitter to him was changed into sweetness of soul and body.
Soon after, he was praying in the crumbling church of San Damiano. He heard a voice from the crucifix say, "Francis, go and rebuild my church, which you can see is falling into ruin." He took the words literally and started hauling stones.
His father was furious that Francis was giving away the family wealth to repair churches and feed the poor. He dragged his son before the Bishop of Assisi to demand his money back. In the middle of the town square, Francis did not just hand back the money. He took off his fine clothes, laid them at his father's feet, and stood naked before the crowd.
He declared that from now on, he only had one Father, who is in heaven. The bishop wrapped Francis in his own cloak. From that day, Francis wore a rough tunic, tied with a rope, and lived entirely on what he could beg.
Francis did not plan to start an order, but his joyful poverty drew others. Rich men and poor men left their homes to join him. They called themselves the Lesser Brothers. They owned nothing, slept on the ground, and worked with their hands or begged for their daily bread.
In 1209, Francis led his small band to Rome to ask Pope Innocent III to approve their simple way of life. The Pope saw the fire of the Gospel in this ragged beggar and gave them his blessing. The brothers spread across Europe, preaching peace and calling people back to Jesus.
Near the end of his life, Francis was nearly blind and in constant pain. In 1224, he went to a quiet mountain called La Verna to pray and fast. There, he asked to share in the sufferings of Jesus. The tradition handed down by his brothers says that a winged seraph appeared, and Francis received the stigmata, the physical wounds of Christ, in his hands, feet, and side.
Two years later, he asked his brothers to lay him on the bare earth at his favorite little chapel, the Portiuncula. He welcomed "Sister Death" with a song and passed into the joy of his Lord.
Animals, Ecology and the environment, Italy, Merchants
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom You give us light.
The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, thus to begin doing penance in this way: for 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.
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