Born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone; 1181/1182 in the town of Assisi, Italy, Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Pietro Bernadone and his wife, Pica. As a youth, Francis was devoted to his amusements and seemed carried away by the mere joy of living, taking no interest at all in his father's business or in formal learning. His father, proud to have his son finely dressed and associating with young noblemen, gave him plenty of money, which Francis spent carelessly. It was the age of chivalry, and he was thrilled by the songs of the troubadours and the deeds of knights.
When he was about 20 years old, Francis was taken prisoner during a petty scrimmage with the Perugians. Despite a year of captivity he remained cheerful, keeping up the spirits of his companions. He suffered a long illness following his release. After his recovery Francis joined the troop of a local nobleman who was riding to fight under Walter de Brienne for the Pope against the Germans. The night before Francis set forth he had a strange dream, in which he saw a vast hall hung with armor all marked with the Cross. A voice said, "These are for you and your soldiers." Confident now that he would win glory as a knight, he set out again, but on the first day fell ill. While lying helpless, a voice seemed to tell him to turn back, and "to serve the Master rather than the man." Francis obeyed.
At home he began to take long, lonely walks in the country. He felt disgust for a life wasted on trivial things. It was a time of spiritual crisis during which he was quietly searching for something worthy of his complete devotion. A deep compassion was growing within him. Riding one day in the plains below Assisi, he met a leper whose disgusting sores filled Francis with horror. Overcoming his revulsion, he jumped from his horse and pressed into the leper's hand all the money he had with him, then kissed the hand. This was a turning point in his life. He started visiting hospitals, especially the refuge for lepers, which most persons avoided. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he emptied his purse at St. Peter's tomb, then went out to the swarm of beggars at the door, gave his clothes to the one that looked poorest, dressed himself in the fellow's rags, and stood there all day with hand outstretched. The rich young man would experience for himself the bitterness and humiliation of poverty.
One day, after his return from Rome, as he prayed in the humble little church of St. Damiano outside the walls of Assisi, he felt the eyes of the Christ on the crucifix gazing at him and heard a voice saying three times, "Francis, go and repair My house, which you see is falling down." The building, he observed, was old and ready to fall. Assured that he had now found the right path, Francis went home and in the singleness and simplicity of his heart took a horse load of cloth out of his father's warehouse and sold it, together with the horse that carried it, in the market at the neighboring town of Foligno. He then brought the money to the poor priest of St. Damiano's church, and asked if he might stay there. Although the priest accepted Francis' companionship, he refused the money, which Francis left lying on a window sill.
Bernadone, furious at his son's waywardness, came to St. Damiano's to bring him home, but Francis hid himself and could not be found. He spent days praying before he went to face his father. Francis had changed so much in appearance that boys in the streets pelted him and called him mad. The angry Bernadone beat Francis, chained his feet, and locked him up. Later his mother set him free and Francis returned to St. Damiano's. His father again pursued him there, declaring angrily that he must either return home or renounce his share in his inheritance-and pay the purchase price of the goods he had taken. Francis made no objection to being disinherited, but protested that the other money now belonged to God and the poor. Bernadone had him summoned for trial before Guido, the bishop of Assisi, who heard the story and told the young man to restore and trust in God. "He does not wish to have His church profit by goods which may have been unjustly acquired." Francis not only gave back the money but went even further. "My clothing is also his," he said, and stripped off his garments. "Hitherto I have called Pietro Bernardone father.... From now on I say only, 'Our Father, Who art in Heaven.’" Bernardone left the court in sorrow and rage, while the bishop covered the young man with his own cloak until a gardener's smock was brought. Francis marked a cross on the shoulder of the garment with chalk, and put it on. Then and there, as Dante sings, were solemnized Francis's nuptials with his beloved spouse, the Lady Poverty.
And now Francis wandered forth into the hills behind Assisi, making up songs of praise as he went. "I am the herald of the great King", he declared in answer to some robbers, who took all he had and then tossed him in a snow drift. Naked and half frozen, Francis crawled to a neighboring monastery and there worked as a servant. Later at Gubbio, Francis obtained from a friend the cloak and staff of a pilgrim. Returning to Assisi, he went around the city begging stones to restore St. Damiano's, eventually rebuilding the old chapel. He also restored two other deserted chapels-- St. Peter's and St. Mary of the Angels of the Portiuncula, belonging to a Benedictine monastery on Monte Subasio. It stood in the wooded plain, some two miles below Assisi, forsaken and in ruins.
Francis seems to have thought of spending his life there as a hermit, in peace and seclusion. Here on the feast of St. Matthias (May 14), in 1209, the way of life he was to follow was revealed to him. The Gospel of the Mass for this day was Matthew 10: 7-19: "And going, preach, saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.... Freely have you received, freely give. Take neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses . . . nor two coats nor shoes nor a staff.... Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves...." These words suddenly became Christ's direct charge to him. His doubts over, he cast off shoes and staff, keeping only his rough woolen coat, which he tied about him with a rope. This became the habit he gave his friars the following year. In these humble garments he went to Assisi the next morning and, with a touching warmth and sincerity, began to speak to the people he met on the shortness of life, the need of repentance, and the love of God. His salutation to those he passed on the road was, "Our Lord give you peace."
Francis went from village to village humbly preaching the love of God. He soon attracted followers. An early disciple was Bernard Quintavalle, a wise and wealthy merchant, who invited Francis to stay at his house. Bernard soon told Francis that he would sell all his goods, give the proceeds to the poor and accompany him. With Peter de Cattaneo, they went down to the Portiuncula, where, on April 16, Francis "gave his habit" to these two companions and they built themselves simple huts. Other men soon followed. They distributed all their wealth to the poor. Francis and his followers went all over Italy preaching, teaching, healing and blessing wherever they went.They preached the necessity of a poor, simple life-style based on the ideals of the Gospels. This gospel of kindness and love of Francis soon spread all over Europe.
In the summer of 1210 Francis and some others went to Rome to obtain the Pope's approval. Innocent III, the great ruler of Catholic Europe, listened and after some initial hesitation ultimately approved. He gave Francis and his followers permission to preach on moral topics, only requiring that they always get the consent of the local bishop; also they must choose a leader with whom the ecclesiastical authorities might communicate. Francis was elected head, and the men were given the monk's tonsure.
St. Francis collected many followers and founded the Order of Mendicant Friars or Franciscans--Friars Minor (lesser brothers). The members of this Order take a vow of poverty, chastity, love and obedience. In 1212, Chiara Offreduccio (Clare), a young heiress of Assisi, moved by the holy man's preaching, sought him out, and begged to be allowed to embrace the new manner of life he had founded. By his advice, Clare (only 18 years old) secretly left her father's house and with two companions went to the Porziuncola. There Francis welcomed them to the life of poverty, penance and seclusion, cutting their hair and clothing them in the Minorite habit. These pious maidens became what is known as the Second Franciscan Order of Poor Ladies, now known as Poor Clares. Later he established another branch for lay men and women who wished to associate themselves with the Friars Minor and followed as best they could the rules of humility, labor, charity, and voluntary poverty, without withdrawing from the world: the Franciscan tertiaries or Third Order. These congregations of lay penitents became a power in the religious life of the late Middle Ages. Besides the three branches of the order that he established, many other religious societies bear his name.
Because the body was meant to carry burdens, to eat scantily and coarsely, and to be beaten when sluggish or refractory, Francis called it "Brother Ass". When early in his new life, he was violently tempted, he threw himself naked into a ditch full of snow or on occasion he plunged into a briar patch. Yet before he died he asked pardon of his body for having treated it so cruelly; by that time he considered excessive austerities wrong, especially if they decreased the power to labor. He had no use for eccentricity for its own sake. Once when he was told that a friar so loved silence that he would confess only by signs, his comment was, "That is not the spirit of God but of the Devil, a temptation, not a virtue."
Francis was reverently in love with all of God's creation—sun, moon, air, water, fire, flowers. His tenderness towards animals has been noted again and again. He saw that all of creation had been made by the Father, so to St. Francis every creature was his brother. There are stories that St. Francis would preach to birds and wild animals about the love of God and they would listen attentively until he finished. He is said to have persuaded a wolf to stop attack- ing some locals in the village of Gubbio if they agreed to feed the wolf. St. Francis' love of nature is beautifully expressed in his famous song of praise, Canticle of the Sun.
In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis made his famous but at that time fruitless attempts to convert the sultan al-Kamil while the crusaders laid seige to Damietta in Egypt. These attempts had far-reaching consequences, long past his own death, since after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom it would be the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who would be allowed to stay on in the Holy Land and be recognized as "Custodians of the Holy Land" on behalf of Christianity.
Our tradition of a Nativity scene comes from St. Francis. St. Bonaventure in his Life of St. Francis of Assisi, writes: "That in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise... the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis... Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King;... He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem."
It was on or about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, that Francis received on his body the visible marks of the five wounds of the Crucified Christ. The saint's right side is described as bearing an open wound which looked as if it were made by a lance, while through his hands and feet were black nails of flesh, the points of which were bent backward. After the reception of the stigmata, Francis suffered increasing pains throughout his fragile body, already broken by continual deprivation and discipline. In the end, he was brought back to a hut 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 October 3, 1226, singing Psalm 141. He was canonized July 16, 1228 by Pope Gregory IX. His feast day is October 4.
During the Middle Ages, a number of movements were based on the ideal of poverty. What made the movement led by St. Francis different was his attractive personality and passionate dedication to the message he preached.
St. Francis is honored in Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches. He has been the inspiration of countless books, music, films and art.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Catholic Encyclopedia
