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"Saint Francis of Assisi", "St. Francis of Assisi" and "St Francis of Assisi" all redirect here. For the
opera by Olivier Messiaen see
Saint-François d'Assise.
| Saint Francis of Assisi |
El Greco, Saint Francis in Prayer, 1580–85, oil on canvas, 115.5 x 103 cm.
Joslyn Art Museum |
| Confessor; Renewer of the church |
| Born |
26 September 1181(1181--), Assisi, Italy |
| Died |
3 October 1226 (aged 45), Porziuncola, Assisi |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church |
| Canonized |
16 July, 1228, Assisi by
Pope Gregory IX |
| Major shrine |
Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi |
| Feast |
4 October |
| Attributes |
Dove, Stigmata, poor Franciscan habit, cross, Pax et
Bonum |
| Patronage |
animals, merchants, Italy, Meycauayan, Philippines, Catholic Action, the environment |
 Saints Portal |
Saint Francis of Assisi (September 26, 1181 –
October 3, 1226) was a Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.
He is known as the patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment, and it is
customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies honoring animals around his feast
day of October 4.[1]
Childhood and early adulthood
Francis was born to Pietro di Bernardone, a prominent businessman, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known
except that she was originally from France. He was one of seven children. Pietro was in France on
business when Francis was born, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni di
Bernardone[1] in honor of Saint
John the Baptist, in the hope he would grow to be a great religious leader. When his
father returned to Assisi, he was furious about this,[citation needed] as he did not want his son to be a man of the Church. Pietro decided to
call him Francesco (Francis), in honor of the child's maternal heritage.
Rebellious toward his father's business and pursuit of wealth,[citation needed] Francis spent most of his youth lost in books (ironically, his father's
wealth did afford his son an excellent education, and he became fluent in reading several languages including Latin). He was also known for drinking and enjoying the company of his many friends, who were usually the sons of
nobles. His displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him became evident fairly early, one of which is shown
in the story of the beggar. In this account, he found himself out having fun with his friends one day when a beggar came along
and asked for alms. While his friends ignored the beggar's cries, Francis gave the man everything
he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity, and when he got home, his father scolded
him in a rage.[citation needed]
In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia, was taken prisoner at
Collestrada, and spent a year as a captive. It is probable that his conversion to more
serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. After his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis recommenced his
carefree life. But in 1204 a serious illness started a spiritual crisis. In 1205 Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. But on his way,
in Spoleto, a strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his spiritual crisis.
It is said that when he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions, and
they asked him laughingly if he was thinking of marrying, he answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen" –
meaning his "lady poverty", as he afterward used to say. He spent much time in lonely places,
asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most
repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a
pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the
poor, he claimed to have had a mystical experience in the Church of San Damiano just outside
of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified came alive and said to him three
times, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." He thought this to mean the very
ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so sold his horse together with some cloth from his father's store, to
assist the priest there for this purpose.
His father Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to bring him to his senses, first with threats and then with corporal
chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced his father
and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in
the region of Assisi. Returning to the town for two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the
Porziuncola, little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, just outside the town, which later became his favorite
abode.
The founding of the Order of Friars Minor
St. Francis of Assisi in
Sacro Speco, Subiaco, Italy
At the end of this period (according to Jordanus, on February
24, 1209), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. The
sermon was about Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers that they should go
forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no
money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself wholly to a life of
poverty.
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance.
He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Many other companions
joined Francis, and reached the number of eleven within a year. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest, and the community
lived as "fratres minores", in Latin, "lesser brothers". The Franciscans are sometimes called Friars
Minor, a term derived from "fratres", in Latin, "brothers".
The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar
house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of
Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their
earnest exhortations.
In 1209 Francis led his first 11 followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent
III to found a new religious order. At first his attempt to speak with the Pope was refused; but the following night,
according to accounts, Innocent saw in a dream the church was crumbling apart and a poor man appearing to hold it up. The next
morning, recalling the poor man he had refused the day before, he recognized him as the man he saw in his dream, and decided to
change his verdict the following day.
Later life
From then on, his new order grew quickly with new vocations. When hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1209, Clare of Assisi became deeply
touched by his message and she realized her calling. Her brother Rufino also joined the new order.
On Palm Sunday, 28 March 1211 Francis received Clare at the Porziuncola and hereby established the Order of Poor Dames, later called
Poor Clares. In the same year, Francis left for Jerusalem, but he was shipwrecked
by a storm on the Dalmatian coast, forcing him to return to Italy.
On 8 May 1213 he received the mountain of La Verna as a gift from the count Orlando di Chiusi. This mountain would become
one of his favorite retreats for prayer. In the same year, Francis sailed for Morocco, but this
time an illness forced him to break off his journey in Spain. Back in Assisi, several noblemen
(among them Tommaso da Celano, who would later write the biography of St. Francis) and
some well-educated men joined his order.
In 1215 Francis went again to Rome for the Fourth Lateran Council.
During this time, he probably met Dominic de Guzman.
In 1216 Francis received from the new pope Honorius III the confirmation of the
indulgence of the Porziuncola, now better known as the Pardon of Assisi : which the Pope decreed to be a complete
remission of their sins for all those who prayed in the Porziuncola.
In 1217 the growing congregation of friars was divided in provinces and groups were sent to France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and to the East.
St. Francis before the Sultan - the trial by fire (fresco attributed to
Giotto)
In 1219 Francis left, together with a few companions, on a pilgrimage of non-violence to Egypt.
Crossing the lines between the sultan and the Crusaders in Damietta, he was received by the sultan Melek-el-Kamel.[2] Francis challenged the Muslim scholars to a test of true religion by fire;
but they retreated. When Francis proposed to enter the fire first and, if he left the fire unharmed, the sultan would have to
recognize Christ as the true God, the sultan was so impressed that he allowed him to preach to his subjects.[3] Though he didn't succeed in converting the sultan, the last words of the
sultan to Francis of Assisi were, according to Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre, in his book "Historia occidentalis, De Ordine et praedicatione Fratrum Minorum
(1221)" : “Pray for me that God may deign to reveal to me that law and faith which is most pleasing to him.”.[4]
At Saint Jean d'Acre, the capital of what remained of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he rejoined the brothers Elia and Pietro
Cattini. Francis then most probably visited the holy places in Palestine in 1220.
Although nativity drawings and paintings existed earlier, St Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas by setting up the first
known three-dimensional presepio or crèche (Nativity scene) in the town of
Greccio near Assisi, around 1220. He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the
birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight. Thomas of Celano, the biographer of Francis
tells how he only used a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey. According to Thomas, it was
beautiful in its simplicity with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.
When receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers in Morocco, he returned to Italy via Venice. Cardinal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated by the Pope as the
protector of the order. When problems arose in the order, a detailed rule became necessary. On 29
September 1220 Francis handed over the governance of the order to brother Pietro Cattini at
the Porziuncola. However, Brother Cattini died on 10 March 1221.
He was buried in the Porziuncola. But when numerous miracles were attributed to the late Pietro Cattini, people started to flock
to the Porziuncola, disturbing the daily life of the Franciscans. Francis then prayed, asking Pietro to stop the miracles and
obey in death as he had obeyed him during his life. The report of miracles ceased. Brother Pietro was succeeded by brother Elia
as vicar of Francis.
During 1221 and 1222 Francis crossed Italy, first as far south as Catania in Sicily and
afterwards as far north as Bologna.
On 29 November 1223 the final rule of the order (in twelve
chapters) was approved by Pope Honorius III.
St. Francis receives the Stigmata (fresco attributed to
Giotto)
While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty day fast in preparation for Michaelmas, Francis is said to have
had a vision on or about 14 September, 1224, the Feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. Brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the
event,[5] the first definite account of the phenomenon of
stigmata. "Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds
of Christ."
Suffering from these Stigmata and from an eye disease, he had been receiving care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the
end he was brought back to the Porziuncola. He was brought to the transito, the hut for infirm friars, next to the
Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it all began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life dictating his
spiritual testament. He died on the evening of 3 October 1226
singing Psalm 141. His feast day is observed 4 October.
Some historians have speculated that Francis died of starvation, having deprived himself
of most comforts in his ascetic lifestyle. [citation needed]
On 16 July, 1228 he was pronounced a saint by the next pope
Gregory IX, the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend and protector of St. Francis.
The next day, the pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint
Francis in Assisi.
St. Francis is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in
their own language, and he wrote always in dialect of Umbria instead of Latin. His writings are considered to have great literary
value, as well as religious.
Saint Francis, nature, and the environment
A garden statue of Francis of Assisi with birds
Many of the stories that surround the life of St Francis deal with his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident that
illustrates the Saint’s humility towards nature is recounted in the 'Fioretti' (The Little Flowers), a collection of legends and
folk-lore that sprang up after the saint’s death. It is said that one day while Francis was traveling with some companions they
happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to “wait for me while
I go to preach to my sisters the birds.” The birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew
away. Francis spoke to them:
My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom
to wing through the sky and He has clothed you…you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for
your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or
weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore… always seek
to praise God.
Another legend from the Fioretti tells us that in the city of
Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, there was a wolf
“terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals.” Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk, and went up into the
hills to find the wolf. Soon fear of the animal had caused all his companions to flee, but the saint pressed on and when he found
the wolf he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously the wolf closed his
jaws and lay down at the feet of St. Francis. “Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil…” said
Francis. “All these people accuse you and curse you…But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people.”
Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens he made a pact between them and the wolf. Because
the wolf had “done evil out of hunger” the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly, and in return, the wolf would no longer
prey upon them or their flocks. In this manner Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator. Francis, ever the lover of
animals, even made a pact on behalf of the town dogs, that they would not bother the wolf again.
These legends exemplify the Franciscan mode of charity and poverty as well as the saint's love of the natural world. Part of
his appreciation of the environment is expressed in his Canticle of the Sun,
a poem written in Umbrian Italian in perhaps 1224 which expresses a love and appreciation of Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Mother
Earth, Brother Fire, etc. and all of God's creations personified in their fundamental forms. In "Canticle of the Creatures," he
wrote: "All praise to you, Oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures."[1]
Francis's attitude towards the natural world, while poetically expressed, was conventionally Christian. He believed that the
world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of the primordial sin of man. He preached
to man and beast the universal ability and duty of all creatures to praise God (a common theme in the Psalms) and the duty of men
to protect and enjoy nature as both the stewards of God's creation and as creatures ourselves.
Legend has it that St Francis thanked his donkey at his bedside for carrying and helping him throughout his life, and his
donkey wept.
Main sources for the life of Saint Francis
Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi.
- Friar Elias, Epistola Encyclica de Transitu Sancti Francisci, 1226.
- Pope Gregory IX, Bulla "Mira circa nos" for the canonization of St. Francis, 19 July
1228.
- Friar Tommaso da Celano: Vita Prima Sancti Francisci, 1228; Vita Secunda
Sancti Francisci, 1246 – 1247; Tractatus de Miraculis Sancti Francisci, 1252 – 1253.
- Friar Julian of Speyer, Vita Sancti Francisci, 1232 – 1239.
- St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior Sancti Francisci, 1260 – 1263.
- Ugolino da Montegiorgio, Actus Beati Francisci et sociorum eius, 1327 – 1342.
- Fioretti di San Francesco, the "Little Flowers of
St. Francis", end of the 14th century: an anonymous Italian version of the Actus; the most popular of the
sources, but very late and therefore not the best authority by any means.
For an exhaustive list of sources, see [1].
Main writings by St. Francis
- Canticum Fratris Solis, the Canticle to Brother Sun.
- 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.
For a complete list, see [2].
See also
- Order of the Holy Sepulchre, lay organization related to Franciscan
hospitality in the Holy Land.
- Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), a film by Franco Zeffirelli
- Prayer of Saint Francis, a prayer widely attributed to St. Francis of
Assisi, although in fact there is no record of it prior to 1912.
- Clare of Assisi
- Saint Juniper, one of Francis' original followers.
- Saint David
- University of Saint Francis (Illinois), a school founded in the tradition
of St. Francis of Assisi.
- Saint Francis University (Pennsylvania)
- List of people on stamps of Ireland
- Saint Margaret of Cortona
- Saint-François d'Assise, an opera by Olivier Messiaen
- Society of Saint Francis
- The Flowers of St. Francis (1950), a film by Roberto Rossellini
- Francesco (1990), a film by Liliana Cavani, somewhat slow moving film which
follows Francis of Assisi's evolution from rich man's son to religious humanitarian and eventually to full-fledged self-tortured
saint. This movie was inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel Peter Camenzind. St. Francis is played by Mickey Rourke, and the woman who later became Saint Clare,
is played by Helena Bonham Carter
- Flowers for St Francis (2005), a book by Raj Arumugam (see www.ttsworld.com.au)
- Lynn Townsend White, Jr.
- Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi a book by Donald Spoto
(2002)
- Christian mystics
- Siena College
- Saint-François (places called for Francis of Assisi in French-speaking
countries)
- Saint Francis et His Four Ladies (1970) a book by Joan Mowat Erikson
- Brother, Sister (2006), third full-length album by indie rock band mewithoutYou, featuring the song The Sun and
Moon
Footnotes
External links
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
- ORDO FRATRUM MINORUM - OFM- The homepage of the first
order of Franciscans, Friars Minor. Lots of information.
- Franciscans International
- Friars Minor Province of England
- The Capuchin-Franciscan Friars
- The Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis of
Assisi, CFP located in the United States, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Brazil, Regular Third Order, official website
- Conventual Franciscans Worldwide
- The Franciscan Archive
- The Society of St. Francis (Anglican/Episcopal) in North America
- The Society of St. Francis (Anglican/ Episcopal) in Europe
- Franciscan Cyberspot: Sources for
the Life of St. Francis
- (English) ST. FRANCIS AND THE WOLF OF GUBBIO
on Associazione Eugubini nel Mondo
- The Words
of St. Francis
- refer Flowers for Francis/ Praise by Raj Arumugam at www.ttsworld.com.au
- Article on St Francis at
Catholic Online
- detailed Article on Francis of
Assisi from the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier, available at Project Gutenberg.
- Patron Saints@ Catholic
Forum
- Musical Theatre about St. Francis of
Assisi
- Friars Minor Conventual in North America, the
United Kingdom, and Ireland
- Opuscula omnia Sancti Francisci
Assisiensis Writings of St. Francis, in Latin
- The Writings of St. Francis of
Assisi
| Persondata |
| NAME |
St. Francis of Assisi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Bernardone, Giovanni di |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan order |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
1182 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Assisi, Italy |
| DATE OF DEATH |
3 October 1226 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Assisi, Italy |
be-x-old:Францішак з Асізіnrm:Françouais d'Assise
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