Who Was St. Francis?

Dog Sitting on St. Francis Lap.jpg

St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d'Assisi, Latin: Sanctus Franciscus Assisiensis), born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco (1181/1182 – 3 October 1226), was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon and preacher.

A SAINT FOR ALL PEOPLE

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Francis of Assisi was born in belatedly 1181 or early 1182, 1 of several children of an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a prosperous silk merchant, and a French female parent, Pica de Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from Provence. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, and Pica had him baptized equally Giovanni. Upon his render to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco ("the Frenchman"), possibly in award of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French. Since the kid was renamed in infancy, the change tin can hardly have had annihilation to practice with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought.

Indulged past his parents, Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young human. Equally a youth, Francesco became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine.  He was handsome, witty, gallant, and delighted in fine clothes. He spent money lavishly. Although many hagiographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, and love of pleasures,  his displays of disillusionment toward the globe that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, equally is shown in the "story of the ragamuffin". In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the market place on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business concern bargain, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got habitation, his male parent scolded him in rage.

Effectually 1202, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year as a captive.  An illness caused him to re-evaluate his life. Information technology is possible that his spiritual conversion was a gradual process rooted in this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. In 1205, Francis left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. A strange vision made him return to Assisi, having lost his gustatory modality for the worldly life. According to hagiographic accounts, thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his sometime companions. In response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered, "Yep, a fairer bride than any of you take always seen", meaning his "Lady Poverty".

Saint Francis Abandons His Begetter. Francis of Assisi breaking off his human relationship with his father and renouncing his patrimony, laying aside publicly even the garments he had received from him.

On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica. He spent some time in solitary places, request God for spiritual enlightenment. He said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, only outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My firm which, equally you can see, is falling into ruins." He took this to hateful the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so he sold some cloth from his begetter's store to assist the priest at that place for this purpose. When the priest refused to accept the sick-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the flooring.

In order to avoid his male parent's wrath, Francis hid in a cavern well-nigh San Damiano for about a calendar month. When he returned to boondocks, hungry and dirty, he was dragged domicile by his father, browbeaten, spring, and locked in a small storeroom. Freed past his mother during Bernardone'due south absenteeism, Francis returned at one time to San Damiano, where he constitute shelter with the officiating priest, just he was soon cited before the city consuls past his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gilded from San Damiano, sought also to forcefulness his son to forego his inheritance by way of restitution. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony. Some accounts study that he stripped himself naked in token of this renunciation, and the Bishop covered him with his own cloak.

For the next couple of months Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi. He spent some time at a neighbouring monastery working as a scullion. He then went to Gubbio, where a friend gave him, every bit an alms, the cloak, girdle, and staff of a pilgrim. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the metropolis begging stones for the restoration of St. Damiano'southward. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and so at length rebuilt it. Over the form of 2 years, he embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them San Pietro in Spina (in the area of San Petrignano in the valley near a kilometer from Rivotorto, today on private property and once again in ruin); and the Porziuncola, the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels in the patently but below the town. This afterwards became his favorite dwelling.  Past degrees he took to nursing lepers, in the lazar houses almost Assisi.

Basilica of St. Francis, Perugia, Italy

Basilica of St. Francis, Perugia, Italian republic

Map of Assisi, Perugia, Italy

Map of Assisi, Perugia, Italia

Founding of the Franciscan Orders

One morning in February 1208, Francis was hearing Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, well-nigh which he had and so built himself a hut. The Gospel of the day was the "Commissioning of the Twelve" from the Book of Matthew. The disciples are to go and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty. Having obtained a fibroid woolen tunic, the dress and so worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants, he tied it effectually him with a knotted rope and went forth at one time exhorting the people of the country-side to penance, brotherly love, and peace. Francis' preaching to ordinary people was unusual since he had no license to exercise so.

His example drew others to him. Within a yr Francis had eleven followers. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar business firm of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their fourth dimension wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, making a deep impression upon their hearers past their earnest exhortations.

In 1209 he composed a unproblematic dominion for his followers ("friars"), the Regula primitiva or "Primitive Rule", which came from verses in the Bible. The dominion was "To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps". He then led his commencement eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent 3 to found a new religious Gild. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his visitor Giovanni di San Paolo, the Fundamental Bishop of Sabina. The Fundamental, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent Iii, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to come across with Francis and the brothers the side by side day. Later on several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured. This was important in part because it recognized Church say-so and prevented his following from possible accusations of heresy, as had happened to the Waldensians decades before. Though a number of the Pope'due south counselors considered the mode of life proposed by Francis as unsafe and impractical, following a dream in which he saw Francis belongings upwards the Basilica of St. John Lateran (the cathedral of Rome, thus the 'domicile church' of all Christendom), he decided to endorse Francis' Society. This occurred, according to tradition, on xvi April 1210, and constituted the official founding of the Franciscan Social club. The group, and so the "Bottom Brothers" (Order of Friars Minor also known every bit the Franciscan Club or the Seraphic Order), were centered in the Porziuncola and preached first in Umbria, earlier expanding throughout Italian republic. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest, although he was later ordained a deacon.

According to some late sources, the Sultan gave Francis permission to visit the sacred places in the Holy Country and even to preach there. All that can safely be asserted is that Francis and his companion left the Crusader camp for Acre, from where they embarked for Italia in the latter one-half of 1220. Drawing on a 1267 sermon past Bonaventure, later sources report that the Sultan secretly converted or accepted a death-bed baptism as a result of the meet with Francis.[38] The Franciscan Club has been nowadays in the Holy Land almost uninterruptedly since 1217 when Brother Elias arrived at Acre. It received concessions from the Mameluke Sultan in 1333 with regard to certain Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and (and then far as concerns the Catholic Church) jurisdictional privileges from Pope Clement Six in 1342.

Reorganization of the Franciscan Order

By this time, the growing Order of friars was divided into provinces and groups were sent to France, Federal republic of germany, Hungary, and Spain and to the Eastward. Upon receiving a report of the martyrdom of 5 brothers in Morocco, Francis returned to Italy via Venice.  Primal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated past the Pope as the protector of the Order. Another reason for Francis' return to Italy was that the Franciscan Order had grown at an unprecedented rate compared to previous religious orders, simply its organizational composure had not kept up with this growth and had trivial more to govern information technology than Francis' example and simple rule. To address this problem, Francis prepared a new and more detailed Dominion, the "Start Rule" or "Rule Without a Papal Bull" (Regula prima,Regula non bullata), which again asserted devotion to poverty and the churchly life. However, it also introduced greater institutional structure, though this was never officially endorsed by the pope.

On 29 September 1220, Francis handed over the governance of the Lodge to Blood brother Peter Catani at the Porziuncola, simply Brother Peter died just v months later, on 10 March 1221, and was cached there. When numerous miracles were attributed to the deceased brother, people started to flock to the Porziuncola, disturbing the daily life of the Franciscans. Francis then prayed, request Peter to stop the miracles and to obey in death as he had obeyed during his life.

The reports of miracles ceased. Brother Peter was succeeded by Blood brother Elias equally Vicar of Francis. Two years subsequently, Francis modified the "Offset Rule", creating the "2nd Rule" or "Rule With a Bull", which was approved by Pope Honorius III on 29 Nov 1223. Equally the official Rule of the Order, it called on the friars "to observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our ain and in chastity". In addition, it set regulations for field of study, preaching, and entry into the Order. Once the Rule was endorsed by the Pope, Francis withdrew increasingly from external affairs. During 1221 and 1222, Francis crossed Italy, start as far south as Catania in Sicily and afterwards equally far north every bit Bologna.

iStock-1041675852.jpg

Stigmata, final days, and Sainthood

Francis considered his stigmata part of the False of Christ.

While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty-day fast in training for Michaelmas (29 September), Francis is said to have had a vision on or well-nigh fourteen September 1224, the Banquet of the Exaltation of the Cross, every bit a result of which he received the stigmata. Blood brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the fourth dimension, left a articulate and simple account of the effect, the first definite account of the phenomenon of stigmata. "Of a sudden he saw a vision of a seraph, a half dozen-winged angel on a cantankerous. This affections gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ."[43] Suffering from these stigmata and from trachoma, Francis received care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the stop, he was brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the identify where the Franciscan motion began, and feeling that the end of his life was approaching, he spent his terminal days dictating his spiritual testament. He died on the evening of Saturday, three October 1226, singing Psalm 142 (141),"Voce mea ad Dominum".

On sixteen July 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory Nine (the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend of Saint Francis and Key Protector of the Order). The next day, the Pope laid the foundation rock for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. Francis was cached on 25 May 1230, under the Lower Basilica, simply his tomb was soon hidden on orders of Blood brother Elias to protect it from Saracen invaders. His verbal burying identify remained unknown until information technology was re-discovered in 1818. Pasquale Belli then constructed for the remains a crypt in neo-classical fashion in the Lower Basilica. It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present course by Ugo Tarchi, stripping the wall of its marble decorations. In 1978, the remains of Saint Francis were examined and confirmed past a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul Half dozen, and put into a drinking glass urn in the ancient stone tomb.

Character and legacy

Francis set out to imitate Christ and literally carry out his piece of work. This is important in understanding Francis' graphic symbol, his analogousness for the Eucharist and respect for the priests who carried out the sacrament.[3] He preached: "Your God is of your flesh, He lives in your nearest neighbor, in every homo."

He and his followers historic and fifty-fifty venerated poverty, which was so cardinal to his character that in his final written work, the Testament, he said that accented personal and corporate poverty was the essential lifestyle for the members of his order.

He believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his "brothers" and "sisters", and even preached to the birds and supposedly persuaded a wolf in Gubbio to stop attacking some locals if they agreed to feed the wolf. In hisCanticle of the Creatures ("Praises of Creatures" or "Anthem of the Sunday"), he mentioned the "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon", the wind and water. His deep sense of brotherhood nether God embraced others, and he declared that "he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died".

Francis' visit to Egypt and attempted rapprochement with the Muslim world had far-reaching consequences, long past his own death, since after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom, information technology would exist the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who would exist immune to stay on in the Holy Land and exist recognized equally "Custodians of the Holy State" on behalf of the Catholic Church.

At Greccio near Assisi, around 1220, Francis historic Christmas past setting up the first knownpresepio orcrèche (Nativity scene).  His nascency imagery reflected the scene in traditional paintings. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct fashion, making use of the senses, especially sight. Both Thomas of Celano and Saint Bonaventure, biographers of Saint Francis, tell how he used only a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a existent ox and donkey.  According to Thomas, information technology was beautiful in its simplicity, with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.

Nature and the surroundings

Francis preached the Christian doctrine that the world was created expert and beautiful past God but suffers a need for redemption because of human sin. He believed that all creatures should praise God (a common theme in the Psalms) and the people take a duty to protect and enjoy nature as both the stewards of God's creation and equally creatures ourselves. Many of the stories that environment the life of Saint Francis say that he had a nifty honey for animals and the environment.

An incident illustrating the Saint'south humility towards nature is recounted in the "Fioretti" ("Little Flowers"), a drove of legends and sociology that sprang up after the Saint's expiry. I day, while Francis was traveling with some companions, they happened upon a identify in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to "look for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds."  The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the ability of his voice, and not 1 of them flew away. He is frequently portrayed with a bird, typically in his hand.

Another fable from theFioretti tells that in the city of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, was a wolf "terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals". Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk, and and so he went upwardly into the hills to find the wolf. Soon, fear of the animate being had caused all his companions to flee, though the saint pressed on. When he plant the wolf, he made the sign of the cantankerous and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no ane. Miraculously the wolf airtight his jaws and lay down at Francis' anxiety.

"Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have washed great evil", said Francis. "All these people charge you and expletive you lot ... But brother wolf, I would like to make peace betwixt you and the people." Then Francis led the wolf into the boondocks, and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact betwixt them and the wolf. Considering the wolf had "done evil out of hunger, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly. In return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this mode Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator. Francis even fabricated a pact on behalf of the town dogs, that they would not bother the wolf over again. Finally, to show the townspeople that they would not be harmed, Francis blessed the wolf.

Three-quarters of a millennium later his expiry, St Francis remains an of import figure and symbol in and out of Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. On 29 November 1979, Pope John Paul Two declared Saint Francis the Patron Saint of Ecology.] During the Earth Environment Day 1982, John Paul II said that Saint Francis' love and care for creation was a challenge for contemporary Catholics and a reminder "not to acquit similar dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so equally to offering a welcoming and friendly environs fifty-fifty to those who succeed usa." The aforementioned Pope wrote on the occasion of the Earth Day of Peace, one January 1990, the saint of Assisi "offers Christians an instance of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation ..." He went on to brand the indicate that: "As a friend of the poor who was loved by God's creatures, Saint Francis invited all of creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honour and praise to the Lord. The poor human being of Assisi gives u.s. striking witness that when we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building upwards that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples."[49]

Pope John Paul II ended that section of the document with these words, "It is my hope that the inspiration of Saint Francis will assistance us to keep ever alive a sense of 'fraternity' with all those adept and beautiful things which Almighty God has created."

Banquet twenty-four hour period

Saint Francis' feast day is observed on 4 October.

St. Francis in Anglicanism

The 20th century High Church Movement gave birth to Franciscan inspired orders among revival of religious orders in Protestant Christianity.

One of the results of the Oxford Motility in the Anglican Church during the 19th century was the re-institution of religious orders, including some of Franciscan inspiration. The main Anglican communities in the Franciscan tradition are the Community of St. Francis (women, founded 1905), the Poor Clares of Reparation (P.C.R.), the Society of Saint Francis (men, founded 1934), and the Customs of St. Clare (women, enclosed).

A U.S.-founded order within the Anglican world communion is the Seattle-founded order of Clares in Seattle (Diocese of Olympia), The Picayune Sisters of St. Clare.

There are likewise some small-scale Franciscan communities within European Protestantism and the Erstwhile Catholic Church.  There are some Franciscan orders in Lutheran Churches, including the Social club of Lutheran Franciscans, the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, and the Evangelische Kanaan Franziskus-Bruderschaft (Kanaan Franciscan Brothers). In addition, there are associations of Franciscan inspiration not continued with a mainstream Christian tradition and describing themselves equally ecumenical or dispersed.

The Anglican church retained the Catholic tradition of approval animals on or near Francis' feast day of 4 October, and more recently Lutheran and other Protestant churches have adopted the practice.

From then on, the new Order grew quickly with new vocations. Hearing Francis preaching in the church building of San Rufino in Assisi in 1211, the immature noblewoman Clare of Assisi became deeply touched by his message and realized her calling. Her cousin Rufino, the only male member of the family in their generation, was also attracted to the new Order, which he joined. On the night of Palm Dominicus, 28 March 1212, Clare clandestinely left her family'southward palace. Francis received her at the Porziuncola and thereby established the Gild of Poor Ladies. This was an Order for women, and he gave Clare a religious habit, or garment, similar to his own, before lodging her in a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns until he could provide a suitable retreat for her, and for her younger sister, Caterina, and the other young women who had joined her. Later he transferred them to San Damiano,[three] to a few small huts or cells of wattle, straw, and mud, and enclosed past a hedge. This became the first monastery of the 2nd Franciscan Order, now known every bit Poor Clares.

For those who could not leave their homes, he after formed the 3rd Lodge of Brothers and Sisters of Penance, a fraternity composed of either laity or clergy whose members neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows. Instead, they observed the principles of Franciscan life in their daily lives. Soon, this Third Order grew beyond Italy. The 3rd Order is now titled the Secular Franciscan Club.

Travels

Determined to bring the Gospel to all peoples of the World, Francis sought on several occasions to take his message out of Italy. In the late leap of 1212, he set up out for Jerusalem, but was shipwrecked by a tempest on the Dalmatiancoast, forcing him to return to Italy. On 8 May 1213, he was given the use of the mount of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from Count Orlando di Chiusi, who described it as "eminently suitable for whoever wishes to practise penance in a place remote from flesh".  The mount would become one of his favourite retreats for prayer.

In the same year, Francis sailed for Morocco, only this fourth dimension an affliction forced him to break off his journey in Spain. Back in Assisi, several noblemen (amid them Tommaso da Celano, who would later write the biography of St. Francis), and some well-educated men joined his Order. In 1215, Francis may have gone to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Quango, merely that is not certain. During this fourth dimension, he probably met a catechism, Dominic de Guzman[six] (later to be Saint Dominic, the founder of the Friars Preachers, another Catholic religious order). In 1217, he offered to go to France. Cardinal Ugolino of Segni (the future Pope Gregory IX), an early and important supporter of Francis, advised him against this and said that he was however needed in Italy.

In 1219, accompanied past another friar and hoping to convert the Sultan of Egypt or win martyrdom in the attempt, Francis went to Arab republic of egypt during the 5th Crusade where a Crusader army had been encamped for over a twelvemonth besieging the walled metropolis of Damietta ii miles (3.ii kilometres) upstream from the mouth of one of the main channels of the Nile. The Sultan, al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin, had succeeded his father equally Sultan of Egypt in 1218 and was encamped upstream of Damietta, unable to relieve it. A bloody and futile attack on the urban center was launched by the Christians on 29 August 1219, following which both sides agreed to a ceasefire which lasted four weeks. It was most probably during this interlude that Francis and his companion crossed the Muslims' lines and were brought earlier the Sultan, remaining in his camp for a few days. The visit is reported in contemporary Crusader sources and in the earliest biographies of Francis, but they give no information almost what transpired during the encounter beyond noting that the Sultan received Francis graciously and that Francis preached to the Muslims without effect, returning unharmed to the Crusader camp.  No contemporary Arab source mentions the visit] One item, added past Bonaventure in the official life of Francis (written forty years later on the upshot), has Francis offering to claiming the Sultan's "priests" to trial-by-fire in order to prove the veracity of the Christian Gospel.

Such an incident is alluded to in a scene in the late 13th-century fresco wheel, attributed to Giotto, in the upper basilica at Assisi.  It has been suggested that the winged figures atop the columns piercing the roof of the building on the left of the scene are non idols (as Erwin Panofsky had proposed) but are role of the secular iconography of the sultan, affirming his worldly ability which, equally the scene demonstrates, is limited even as regards his ain "priests" who shun the claiming.  Although Bonaventure asserts that the sultan refused to permit the challenge, subsequent biographies went further, claiming that a fire was really kindled which Francis unhesitatingly entered without suffering burns. The scene in the fresco adopts a position midway between the ii extremes. Since the idea was put forward past the German language fine art historian, Friedrich Rintelen in 1912,  many scholars have expressed doubt that Giotto was the author of the Upper Church frescoes.