Saint Francis

Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone in 1181 in the town of Assisi. His father, a wealthy cloth merchant with extensive commercial contacts in France, nicknamed him “Francesco.” As a young man, Francis lived the life typical of the well-to-do young men, spending huge sums on drinking and feasting and on fine clothes. In 1202, he joined a military expedition against the neighboring city of Perugia, in which he was captured. He spent a year as a prisoner. When he returned home in 1203, he resumed his former way of life for two years. He set out once again in 1205 for military service, but a strange vision compelled him to return to Assisi. He lost interest in his former way of living.

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He decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome, begging God to give him some direction as to what he should do. Once he returned home, he was praying in a broken-down chapel called San Damiano, where he had a mystical vision in which Christ ordered him “Go and repair My church, which you can see is falling into ruins.” Francis understood this to mean the chapel in which he was praying. Francis stole cloth from his father’s store and sold it to give the money to the priest at San Damiano. The priest refused the money because it was the proceeds of stolen goods. Francis hid out for about a month, but he was captured by his father when he came into town and imprisoned. His mother freed him, and his father brought a legal suit against his son. Francis then publicly renounced his inheritance in front of the bishop of Assisi, allegedly even stripping off his clothes to return them to his father!

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Francis embraced the life of a simple religious friar, refusing to own anything and begging for his food and shelter. Many flocked to embrace his unique way of life, and so he founded the Franciscan Order, which received official permission in April 1211. The order quickly grew, and both men and women flocked to join the Franciscans. They became very influential across Europe because of their vow of poverty; they lived just as the poor lived.

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Toward the end of his earthly life in 1224, Francis was granted the grace of suffering the stigmata, the wounds of Christ Himself. He is the first person known to have received the stigmata. Francis of Assis died on October 3, 1226, and he was canonized in record time, in July 1228. He is the co-patron of Italy (along with Catherine of Siena) and is the patron saint of animals and ecology.

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Saint Francis, pray for us.