Saint Francis, the poor man of Assisi

Summary:

The personality and charisms of Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant from the Italian province of Umbria, illuminated the 12th century, and much more broadly, the history of Catholics to this day. However, when he was born in 1182, the "Poverello" (the "Poor Man" of Assisi) hardly seemed predisposed to becoming the great saint we know today. His father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, was a prosperous silk merchant from Assisi who often travelled to France on business, and his mother, Pica di Bourlemont, a French noblewoman. Although young Francis' professional destiny was not yet set in stone, his parents assumed that he would one day be a partner in his father's business. He received a good education thanks to the classes he attended at the church of Saint George in Assisi.

In 1196, at the age of 14, he left school and was admitted to the professional guild of merchants, which opened the door, as his parents had hoped, to cloth merchants. Indulged by his parents, Francis spent the next six years in a carefree life, pursuing sports, pleasures and feasts, with plans to become a knight. He was known to be a handsome, witty and gallant youth. In 1202, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken prisoner. Imprisoned for a year, he was freed after his father paid a ransom for his release.

Until the summer of 1205, the future saint fell victim to illnesses that would one day prove providential, but he did not abandon his plan to take up the profession of arms. He led a fashionable life, reciting poems, living like a troubadour, spending money lavishly and running with a fun-loving society youth of the region.

In the early days of 1205, Francis had a strange dream while passing through Spoleto, in which he learned that military life was not for him. He heard a voice say to him: "Why do you serve the servant and not the master?" Back in Assisi, he lost interest for the worldly life and gradually turned away from his former companions to devote his time to prayer. A single event finished to convert his heart: in Umbria at that time were many lepers. Leprosy, incurable at the time, was a frightening disease. Following an encounter with a leper, Francis experienced an inner illumination in which he saw Christ in one of these unfortunate people. As he himself explained in his Testament, he was seized by grace and changed forever. Thanks to God, Francis began seeing Jesus in every human brother.

A little later, as he was praying in the chapel of San Damiano in Assisi, he heard a voice coming from the icon of Jesus Crucified telling him: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." He took this order literally, sold several pieces of cloth stolen in good faith from his father, and set about renovating the building, which was in danger of falling into ruin. For his father Pietro, a prominent citizen of Assisi, this was too much. Demanding accounts from Francis, who had already given large sums to the poor, he wanted all this to stop and for his son to fall into line. Mad with rage, he cited Francis before the city consuls, then forced him to forgo his inheritance.

The scene is famous: summoned in the spring of 1206 by Guido, the bishop of Assisi, to the city's main square, in the presence of his angry father and the inhabitants, Francis handed over the few pennies he had left, undressed and said: "Up until now I have called you Father on earth; from now on I can say: Our Father in heaven, since it is to him that I have entrusted my treasure and given my faith." The separation was complete. Francis, the merchant's son, took as his bride "Lady Poverty". He put a definitive distance from his father: trusting in divine providence alone, Francis broke not only with his family but also with the town he was born into, whose municipal statutes protected its inhabitants. His only family was now the Church and its representative, Bishop Guido.

It was an extraordinary conversion. Francis begged for food, worked a a simple servant in various monasteries, looked after lepers and restored two chapels with his own hands. From 1209, a new chapter in his life began: young friends joined him and together they formed a true spiritual community, praying and doing manual work together. Francis donned a dark tunic, tied around his waist with a simple rope with three knots, symbolizing the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. This would become the Franciscan habit.

Pope Innocent III had a prophetic dream: he saw Saint Francis supporting the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Shortly afterwards, he orally approved the first Rule written for the friars. In 1212, Francis welcomed the future Saint Clare of Assisi. Together they founded the female branch of the order, the future Poor Clares. From that moment on, the number of vocations increased extraordinarily. This was astonishing, given the very demanding life that Francis was calling them to, including a vow of absolute poverty. But the charity and joy of the sons and daughters of Saint Francis bear witness to the presence of Jesus in their lives.

In 1219, Francis travelled to Egypt where, thanks to providential circumstances, he met the Sultan Al-Kâmil, whom he wanted to convert. Despite the Muslim leader's refusal, the exchange was cordial and constructive. Such a meeting, inconceivable for the vast majority of people at the time, paved the way for the idea of inter-religious dialogue. The saint's stay in the Middle East marked the beginning of a secular Franciscan presence in this part of the world, where he founded the Custody of the Holy Land. 

Rejecting honours and money (the Franciscans were a "mendicant order") - including the priesthood, of which he considered himself unworthy), Francis handed over the leadership of his group of religious to Peter of Catania in 1220. The following year, he drew up the definitive Rule of his order and then founded a third order that enjoyed European success from the top to the bottom of society. In August 1224, already ill, he retired with a few brothers to the monastery of La Verna, not far from Assisi. There, on September 17, he received the stigmata of the Passion. As his first biographer, Thomas of Celano (d. 1260), wrote, "in his hands and feet" appeared not the holes of the nails, but the nails themselves, formed of flesh fibres; pressure exerted on one side caused them to protrude on the other. You could also see his flank reddened with blood." On this date, "transformed into the likeness of Christ crucified" (Legenda Major 13, 3), Francis became the first known stigmatized person in history.

Before his death on October 3, 1226, in the little church of the Porziuncola in Assisi, he wrote his famous "Canticle of Creatures" (or "Canticle of Brother Sun"), a hymn to the beauty of the universe saved in Jesus Christ and the first poem in modern Italian. 

Despite some disagreements over the following decades in the way the poverty of the Order was interpreted, today Christians the world over know what they owe to the humble husband of Lady Poverty.

Francis is one most venerated figures in Christianity. The Catholic Church and the various Orthodox Churches celebrate the exceptional legacy of Francis in every respect: In 1931, Pius XI made 4 October, his feast day, the day for celebrating animals; in 1979, Saint John Paul II proclaimed him the patron saint of ecology farmers and then chose Assisi in 1986 for the World Days of Prayer; on March 13, 2013, Archbishop Bergoglio took the name of Francis when he was elected pontiff.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Exhorting the people to penance, brotherly love, and peace, and modeling this radical life in poverty and evangelical zeal, Saint Francis of Assisi has been an attractive figure of holiness since the 12th century, for believers and non-believers alike, thanks to the fruitfulness of his works and the universality of his message of love for humanity and for nature.

Going further:

The Complete Francis of Assisi: His Life, The Complete Writings, and The Little Flowers (Paraclete Giants) by Jon M. Sweeney, Paraclete Press; Illustrated edition (August 1, 2015)

More information:

• Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton, Clydesdale; Reprint edition (January 28, 2020)

• The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Saint Bonaventure, TAN Books (April 1, 2010)