Life of Saint Francis
Saint
Francis was born in Assisi (Italy) in 1182. After squandering
his youth away in having excessive fun, he converted, renounced
his inheritance, and he offered himself totally to God. He
embraced poverty, and lived an evangelical life, preaching to
everyone about the love of God. He gave his followers some wise
norms that were later approved by the Holy See. He founded an
Order of friars and his first female follower, Saint Clare,
founded the Claritians through his inspiration.
A Saint for Everyone
There
certainly does not exist any other saint that is as popular as
he is, both among Catholics as well as Protestants and even
among non-Christians. Saint Francis of Assisi captured the
imagination of his contemporaries by presenting to them poverty,
chastity, and obedience with purity and strength of a radical
testimony.
He
became known as the Poor one of Assisi by his marriage with
poverty, his love for the birds and all of nature. All of this
reflects a soul in which God was his everything in an undivided
manner, a soul that was nourished by the truths of the faith and
who had offered himself entirely, not only to Christ, but also
to Christ Crucified.
Birth and Family Life as a Nobleman
Francis was born in Assisi, city of Umbria, in the year 1182.
His father, Pedro Bernardone, was a rich cloth merchant. The
name of his mother was Pica and some authors affirm that she
belonged to a noble family of Provenza. Both his father as
well as his mother were affluent. Pedro Bernardone traded
especially in France. Since he was in France when his son was
born, people nicknamed him “François” (the Frenchman) even if
his baptismal name was John. In his youth, Francis liked the
romantic traditions that the troubadours promoted. He had money
in abundance and he flaunted his wealth. He was not interested
in his father’s business or in his studies; he was only
interested in having fun with vain things which are commonly
called “enjoying life.” However, he was not in the habit of
licentiousness and he was very generous with the poor who asked
him out of love for God.
Finding of a Treasure
When
Francis was 20 years old, discord between the cities of Perugia
and Assisi exploded. While in the war, the young man was
imprisoned by the Peruginos. He was in prison for a year and
Francis withstood it joyfully. However, when he was freed, he
fell gravely ill. This illness tested his patience and
strengthened and matured his spirit. When he felt sufficiently
strong, he was determined to join the army and fight in Galterio
and Briena, in the south of Italy. With that purpose he bought
an expensive armor and a beautiful mantle. One leisurely day,
however, when he was wearing his new outfit, he came across a
poorly dressed gentleman who had fallen into poverty. Moved with
compassion before this unfortunate person, Francis exchanged his
rich clothing for those of the poor gentleman’s. That evening he
saw a marvelous palace with rooms full of weapons over which had
been engraved the sign of the cross, and he seemed to have heard
a voice that told him that those weapons belonged to him and his
soldiers.
Francis left for Apulia with an unburdened soul and the
confidence of winning, but he never reached the battle line. In
Espoleto, city of the path from Assisi to Rome, he fell sick
again and during his illness he heard a celestial voice that
exhorted him to “serve the master and not the slave.” The young
man obeyed. At the beginning he went back to his former life,
although taking things less lightly. Upon seeing him lost in his
thoughts people would tell him that he was in love. “Yes,”
Francis would reply, “I am going to marry the most beautiful and
the fairest from all those I’ve met,” he was referring to “lady
poverty.” Little by little, with much prayer, he began to
conceive the desire of selling all his goods and buying the
precious pearl of which the Gospel speaks.
Even
though he ignored what he had to do to attain it, a series of
clear supernatural inspirations made him understand that the
spiritual battle began by mortification and victory over
instincts. On one occasion when he was strolling by on horse
through the prairies of Assisi, he came across a leprous man.
The wounds of this beggar terrorized Francis; but instead of
fleeing, he approached the leprous man who extended his hand to
receive alms. Francis understood that the time had come to take
the step for the radical love of God. Despite his natural
aversion towards leprous people, he renounced his will,
approached him, and gave him a kiss. That changed his life. It
was a gesture moved by the Holy Spirit, asking Francis for a
quality of an offering, a “yes” that distinguishes the saints
from the mediocre people.
Saint Bonaventure tells us that after this event, Francis would
often visit isolated places where he would lament and cry over
his sins. As he vented his soul he was heard by the Lord. One
day, meanwhile he prayed, Jesus Christ Crucified appeared to
him. The memory of the Passion of our Lord was etched in his
heart in such a way that each time he thought about it, he could
not contain his tears and sobs.
“Francis, repair my Church which, as you can see, is falling
into ruins.”
From thereafter, he began to visit and serve the sick in the
hospitals. Sometimes he would give his clothing away to the
poor; other times he would give away the money he had with him.
He would serve them with great care because the prophet Isaiah
tells us that Christ Crucified was rejected and treated as a
leper. In this way, he would develop his spirit of poverty, his
profound sense of humility and his great compassion. On certain
occasions, meanwhile he prayed in the church of San Damiano in
the outskirts of Assisi, it seemed to him that the crucifix
repeated three times, “Francis, repair my Church which, as you
can see, is falling into ruins.” The saint, seeing that the
church was found in a bad state, thought that the Lord wanted
him to repair it. So he left immediately and took a large
quantity of clothing from his father’s store and sold them along
with his horse. At once, he took the money to the poor priest
who was in charge of the church of San Damiano and asked him
permission to live with him. The good priest consented to allow
Francis to stay with him, but he did not accept the money. The
young man placed it on the windowsill. Upon finding out what his
son did, Peter Bernardone headed angrily to San Damiano, but
Francis was very careful to hide himself.
Renouncing of the Inheritance of his Father
At
the end of some days spent in prayer and fasting, Francis
reemerged back into society, but he was so disfigured and poorly
dressed that the people would make fun of him as if he was a
crazy person. Very taken aback by the behavior of his son, Pedro
Bernardone took him home, beat him furiously (Francis was 25
years old), placed grasshoppers on his feet, and locked him up
in a bedroom. Francis’ mother made sure to set him free when her
husband was away and, that way, Francis was able to return to
San Damiano. His father went again after him, hit him on the
head, and threatened him that if he did not return immediately
to his house then he would have to renounce all of his
inheritance and pay him the money from the clothing he had
taken. Francis did not have any difficulty renouncing his
inheritance, but he told his father that the money from the
clothing belonged to God and the poor.
His father forced him to appear before Bishop Guido of Assisi
who exhorted the young man to return the money and to trust in
God, “God does not desire that His Church enjoy goods that were
acquired unjustly.” Francis obeyed to the letter the bishop’s
order and added, “The clothing that I am wearing also belongs to
my father and so I have to return it to him.” At once he took
off his clothes and handed them over to his father, telling him
joyfully, “Up to now you have been my father on earth. But from
now on I could say, ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven’.” Pedro
Bernardone left the Episcopal palace “trembling from indignation
and profoundly wounded.”
The bishop gave Francis a worker’s used clothing that belonged
to one of his servants. Francis received the first alms very
gratefully; he traced the sign of the cross over his clothes
with a piece of chalk and put it on.
Call to Renouncing and Denial
Right
away, he left in search of a convenient site where he could
settle down. He was joyfully singing the divine praises on the
camino real, when he bumped into some bandits who asked him who
he was. He responded, “I am the herald of the Great King.” The
bandits beat him and dragged him into a ditch covered with snow.
Francis continued his path singing the divine praises. In a
monastery he obtained alms and work as if he was a beggar. When
he arrived in Gubbio, a person who knew him took him home and
gave him a tunic, a belt, and some pilgrim sandals. Francis used
them for two years at the end of which he returned to San
Damiano.
To
repair the church, he went to ask for alms in Assisi, where
everyone knew him as rich and, naturally, he had to put up with
the mockery and the rejection from many. He himself made sure to
transport the stones that were needed to repair the church and
he helped the construction workers. Once the reparations were
done in the church of San Damiano, Francis took on a work
similar to the early church of Saint Peter. After, he moved to a
small chapel named Porziuncula that belonged to the Benedictine
Abbey of Mount Subasio. It is probable that the name of the
small chapel referred to the fact that the chapel was built in a
reduced plot of land.
The
Porziuncula was located on a plain about four kilometers from
Assisi, and in that time, it was abandoned and almost in ruins.
The tranquility of the site pleased Francis as well as the title
of Our Lady of the Angels in whose honor the chapel had been
built. Francis repaired it and made it his residence. It is
there that on the feast of Saint Mathias in 1209 heaven showed
him what was expected of him.
At
that time, the gospel of the Mass for Saint Mathias’ feast day
said, “As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven
is at hand.'…Without cost you have received; without cost you
are to give... Do not take gold… or a second tunic, or sandals,
or walking stick…Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the
midst of wolves” (Mt 10: 7-18). These words penetrated to the
deepest part of Francis’ heart and taking these words literally,
he gave away his sandals, his walking stick, and his belt and he
was left with his tunic tied to a cord. Such was the habit he
gave his brothers a year later: a crude, wool tunic similar to
that of the shepherds and farmers of the region. Dressed in that
way, he began to exhort people to penance with so much energy
that his words penetrated the hearts of his listeners. When he
came across someone on his way, he would greet him with these
words, “The peace of our Lord be with you.”
Extraordinary Gifts
God
had granted him the gift of prophecy and the gift of miracles.
When he would ask for alms to repair the church of San Damiano,
he would be accustomed to say, “Help me finish this church. One
day there will be a convent of religious sisters there in whose
good name the Lord and the universal Church will be glorified.”
The prophecy was verified five years later in Saint Clare and
her religious sisters. A resident of Espoleto suffered from
cancer that had horribly disfigured his face. On one occasion,
upon coming across Saint Francis, the man tried to throw himself
at his feet, but the saint stopped him from doing so and
instead, kissed him on his face. The sick man was instantly
healed. Saint Bonaventure would comment about this, “I do not
know which act one has to admire more, if the kiss or the
miracle.”
New Religious Order and Visit to the Pope
Francis quickly had numerous followers and some wanted to become
his disciples. The first one was Bernardo de Quintavalle, a rich
merchant from Assisi. At the beginning, Bernardo would observe
with curiosity the spiritual growth of Francis and he would
often invite him to his house where he always had lodging
available for Francis. Bernardo would pretend to be sleeping to
observe how the servant of God would quietly get up and spend a
long time in prayer, repeating these words, “Deus meus et omnia”
(My God and my all). He finally understood that Francis was
“truly a man of God” and at once he begged him to be admitted as
his disciple. From that moment on, they would attend Mass
together and studied Sacred Scripture to know the will of God.
Since the signs from the Bible coincided with their goals,
Bernardo sold everything and distributed the money amongst the
poor.
Pedro
de Cattaneo, a canon from the cathedral of Assisi, asked Francis
to be admitted as his disciple and Francis “granted them the
habit” together on the 16th of April 1209. The third companion
of Saint Francis was his brother Gil, famous for his simplicity
and spiritual wisdom.
In 1210 when the group consisted of 12 members, Francis composed
a brief and informal rule that entailed primarily the
evangelical counsels to attain perfection. They took it to Rome
to present it for approval from the Holy Father. They travelled
by foot, singing and praying, full of happiness, and living off
of the alms that people would give them.
Pope
Innocence III was opposed at first. On the other hand, many
cardinals thought that the existing religious orders needed to
be reformed, that new ones were not needed, and that the new
manner of understanding poverty could not be practiced. Rome did
not want to approve this community because it seemed too rigid
in reference to poverty, but at the end a cardinal said, “We
cannot prohibit them from living how Christ established it in
the Gospel.” They received the approval and they returned to
Assisi to live in poverty, prayer, holy happiness, and great
fraternity, together next to the church in the Porziuncula.
Cardinal John Colonna argued in favor of Francis and thought
that his rule expressed the same counsels the Gospel used to
exhort others to perfection. Later on, the Pope recounted to his
nephew, who in turn told Saint Bonaventure, that he had seen in
his dreams a palm tree that grew rapidly and afterwards, he had
seen Francis holding with his body the basilica of Saint John
Lateran that was about to fall down. Five years later, the same
Pope would have a similar dream about Saint Dominic. Innocence
III ordered that Francis be called and verbally approved his
rule; he then conferred the tonsure upon him along with his
companions and gave them as a mission to preach penance.
The Porziuncula
Saint
Francis and his companions transferred temporarily to a cabin of
Rivo Torto in the outskirts of Assisi from where they would
leave to go preach all over the region. Shortly after, they had
difficulties with a farmer who was claiming the cabin as his own
so that he may use it as a barn for his donkey. Francis
responded, “God has called us to prepare stables not donkeys,”
and he immediately left the place and headed towards the abbot
of Monte Subasio. In 1212, the abbot gave Francis the chapel of
the Porziuncula with the condition that he always conserve it as
the main church of the new order. The Saint refused to accept
the property of the small chapel and only consented to borrowing
it. As a proof that the Porziuncula would continue as property
of the Benedictines, Francis would send them every year, in
recompense for the loan, a basket of fish taken from the
neighboring stream.
On their part, the Benedictines would, in turn, send them a
barrel of oil. This same custom exists today between the
Franciscans of Saint Mary of the Angels and the Benedictines of
Saint Peter of Assisi.
Around the Porziuncula the friars built various primitive cabins
because Saint Francis did not allow the order in general or the
convents in particular to own any temporal goods. They had made
poverty the base of their Order and their love for poverty would
manifest itself in their way of dressing, in the utensils used,
and in each one of their acts. They were used to calling their
body “brother donkey” because they considered it as something
made to transport loads, to receive beatings, and to eat little
and poorly. When Francis would notice a friar being idle, he
would call him “brother fly” because instead of cooperating with
others he would ruin the jobs of others and bother them. Shortly
before dying, considering that man is required to treat his body
with charity, Francis asked forgiveness from his body for having
treated him perhaps with too much rigor.
The saint had always opposed the indiscrete and exaggerated
austerities. On one occasion, seeing that a friar had lost sleep
due to excessive fasting, Francis took him some food and ate
with him so that he would feel less mortified.
Subjection of the Flesh to Thorns; God Grants Him Wisdom
At the beginning of his conversion, upon seeing himself attacked
by violent temptations of impurity, he would roll over naked
over the snow. When the temptation was still more violent than
ordinary, the saint furiously disciplined himself. Since this
was not enough to drive it away, he ended up rolling over
brambles.
His
humility did not simply consist in a sentimental rejection of
himself, but rather in the conviction that “before the eyes of
God man’s worth comes from who he is and nothing else.”
Considering himself unworthy of the priesthood, Francis only
reached becoming a deacon. He detested with all his heart
peculiarities. When he was informed that one of the friars loved
silence so much that he confessed his sins using signs, he
responded with disgust, “That does not come from the spirit of
God but from the devil; it is a temptation and not an act of
virtue.” God illuminated the intelligence of his servant with a
light of wisdom that is not found in the books. When a certain
friar asked him permission to study, Francis answered that if he
repeated with devotion the “Gloria Patri” he would become wise
in the eyes of God.
In reference to poverty of spirit, Francis would say, “There are
many who by habit multiply pleas and practices of devotion,
worrying their bodies with numerous fastings and abstinences,
but when they hear one small word that sounds injurious to their
person or when one tiny thing is taken away from them, they
immediately are offended and irritated. These are not poor in
spirit because the one who is truly poor in spirit loathes
himself and loves those who hit him on the cheek.”
Nature
His contemporaries speak with frequency of the care Francis had
for animals and the power he had over them. For example, there
is a famous story about when he reprimanded the swallows when he
went to preach in Alviano, “Sister swallows, now it is my turn
to talk; you have talked enough.” What are also famous are the
anecdotes of the birds that would come to listen to him when he
sang about the greatness of the Creator, of the rabbit that did
not want to separate himself from him in the Trasimeno River,
and of the wolf of Gubbio that was tamed by the saint. Some
authors considered such anecdotes as simple allegories and
others attributed to them a historic value.
Adventure of Love with God
The
first years of the Order in Saint Mary of the Angels were a
period of training in poverty and fraternal charity. The friars
worked in their duties and in the neighboring fields to earn
their daily bread. When there was no sufficient work, they would
ask for alms door to door, but the founder had
prohibited them
from accepting money. They were always prompt in serving
everyone, particularly the lepers and the maids.
Saint
Francis insisted that lepers be called “my Christian brothers”
and the sick did not cease to appreciate this profound
delicateness. He would tell the friars, “All of the brothers
should try to practice good works because it is written ‘Always
do good things so that the devil finds you occupied.’ Also,
‘Idleness is the enemy of the soul.’ That is why the servants of
God should dedicate themselves continually to prayer or any good
activity.”
The
number of companions of the saint increased. Amongst them is the
famous “juggler of God,” friar Juniper. Because of the
simplicity of the brother, Francis would repeat, “I would like
to have a forest full of Junipers.” Once when the people of Rome
had gathered to receive friar Juniper, his companions found him
playing peacefully with the children outside the city walls.
Saint Clare would call him “the toy of God.”
Saint Clare
Clare
had left Assisi to follow Francis in the spring of 1212 after
having heard him preach. The saint was able to establish Saint
Clare and her companions in San Damiano, and the community of
religious sisters soon became for the Franciscans what the nuns
of Prouille were to the Dominicans: a wall of feminine strength,
a hidden flower and fruit garden of prayer that made fruitful
the work of the friars.
Evangelization of the Muslims
In
the autumn of 1212, Francis, unhappy with everything he had
suffered and worked for the souls in Italy, he was resolved to
go evangelize the Muslims. He set sail in Ancon with a
companion and headed for Syria, but a storm caused the boat to
shipwreck on the Dalmatian coast. Since the friars had no money
to continue their trip, they were forced to hide inside a ship
to return to Ancon. After preaching for a year in central Italy
(a man of Chiusi put at the friars’ disposal a retreat center in
the mountain of La Verna in Toscana), Saint Francis decided to
leave again to preach the Muslims in Morocco. God, however,
wanted them to never arrive at their destination: the saint fell
ill in Spain and he then had to return to Italy. There he
dedicated himself to passionately preach the Gospel to the
Christians.
Humility and Obedience
Saint
Francis gave his Order the name “Friars Minor” out of humility
since he wanted his brothers to be the servants of all and to
always seek the most humble places. With frequency he would
exhort his companions to manual labor and if he allowed them to
ask for alms, he prohibited them from accepting money. Asking
for alms did not represent something shameful since it was a way
of imitating the poverty of Christ. Concerning the excellent
virtue of humility, he would say, “Blessed is the servant who is
found amongst his inferiors with the same humility as if he was
amongst his superiors. Blessed is the servant who always remains
under the rod of correction. He is a faithful and prudent
servant who for each fault he commits he hurries to make amends:
interiorly through contrition and exteriorly through confession
and completing the penance.” The saint did not allow his
brothers to preach in a diocese without the expressed permission
of the Bishop. Among other things, he stipulated that “if one of
the friars became separated himself from the Catholic faith in
works or words and did not correct himself, he should be
expelled from the Association.” All of the cities wanted to have
the privilege of housing the new friars and the communities
multiplied in Umbria, Toscana, Lombardia, and Ancon.
Growth of the New Order
It is
told that in 1216, Francis solicited from Pope Honorius III the
indulgence of the Porziuncula or the “forgiveness of Assisi.”
The following year he met Saint Dominic in Rome who had preached
the faith and penance in southern France at the time Francis was
“a gentleman of Assisi.” Saint Francis also had the intention of
going to preach in France, but since cardinal Ugolino (who later
became Pope Gregory IX) discourage him from doing so, he sent in
his place brothers Pacific and Agnelo who would later introduce
the Order of the Friars Minor in England. The wise and giving
cardinal Ugolino exercised a great influence in the development
of the Order. The companions of Saint Francis were so numerous
that a certain form of systematic organization and common
discipline would forcibly be imposed. Thus, the Order was
divided into provinces, at the head of each a minister was
placed who was “in charge of the spiritual good of the brothers;
if any one of them would become lost due to the bad example of
the minister, he would have to respond for him before Jesus
Christ.” The friars had already crossed the Alps and had
missions in Spain, Germany, and Hungary.
The first general chapter met in the Porziuncula in Pentecost of
the year 1217. In 1219, the chapter “of the mats” took place; it
was so called because the cabins needed to be built in a hurry
with mats to accommodate the delegates. It was told that around
five thousand friars gathered. It is not at all strange that in
such a large community the spirit of the founder would have
diluted itself slightly. The delegates found that Saint Francis
would offer himself excessively to adventure and they demanded a
more practical spirit. What seemed to them as an adventure was
in reality a great trust in God. The saint became profoundly
indignant and replied, “My dear brothers, the Lord called me to
the path of simplicity and humility and it is through that path
He persists in guiding me, not only me but all those who are
prepared to follow me... The Lord told me that we should be poor
and crazy in this world and may that one and no other be the
path through which He takes us. May God confuse your wisdom and
science and make you return to your primitive vocation even if
it is against your will and if you find it defective.” Francis
insisted that they love Jesus Christ and Holy Catholic Church
and that they live with the greatest detachment possible from
the material goods, and he did not tire of recommending them to
fulfill as exactly as possible everything the Gospel commands.
Greatest Privilege: Not enjoying any privilege
He
would travel through fields and towns inviting the people to
love Jesus Christ more, and he would always repeat, “Love is not
loved.” The people would listen to him with special care and he
would be amazed at how much his words influenced their hearts to
motivate them for Christ and his Truth. His words were a
reflection of his life in imitation of Jesus. He would say:
“He
who truly loves his enemy is not ashamed of the injuries his
enemy provokes, but rather he suffers out of love of God due to
the sin that drags the soul who offended him, and he manifests
his love to his enemy with works.”
To
those who proposed that he ask the Pope permission for the
friars to preach in all parts without authorization of the
bishop, Francis stated, “When the bishops see that you live holy
lives and that you have no intentions of attempting against his
authority, you will be the first to beg that you work for the
good of souls entrusted to him. Consider how the greatest of all
privileges is enjoying no privilege….” When the chapter ended,
Saint Francis sent some friars to the first mission in Tunisia
and Morroco, and he reserved for himself the mission with the
Sarracenes in Egypt and Siria. In 1215, during the Council of
Lateran, Pope Innocence III had preached a new crusade, but such
a crusade had reduced simply to reinforce the Latin Kingdom in
the East. Francis wanted to brandish the sword of God.
Saint
Francis went on a devote pilgrimage to the Holy Land to visit
the Holy Places where Jesus was born, lived, and died:
Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, etc. As a remembrance of this
pious visit, the Franciscans are in charge since centuries ago
of being custodians of the Holy Places of Holy Land.
Mission before the Sultan
On
June of 1219, he embarked in Ancon with 12 friars. The ship took
them to Damietta at the mouth of the Nile. The crusaders had
established in the city and Francis suffered much upon seeing
the selfishness and the dissolute habits of the soldiers of the
cross. Consumed by zeal for the salvation of the Saracens, he
decided to cross over to the enemy’s camp, even as much as the
crusaders told him that the head of the Christians came at a
price. Having obtained the authorization of the pontifical
delegate, Francis and brother Illuminated approached the enemy’s
camp, screaming “Sultan! Sultan!” When they took them before the
presence of Malek-al-Kamil, Francis declared daringly, “It is
not men who have sent me, but almighty God. I come to show you,
you and your people, the path of salvation; I come to announce
the truths of the Gospel.” The Sultan was left impressed and
begged Francis to remain with him. The saint replied, “If you
and your people are willing to listen to the word of God I will
gladly stay with you. And if you still waver between Christ and
Mahoma, order that a bonfire be lit; I will go inside it with
your priests and you will see which one is the true faith.” The
Sultan answered that probably none of the priests wanted to go
inside the bonfire and he could not subject them to that trial
so as not to cause a revolt.
It is
told that the Sultan went to say: “If all the Christians were
like him, then it would be worth it to be a Christian.” But the
Sultan, Malek-al-Kamil ordered Francis to return to the camp of
the Christians.
Discouraged by seeing the reduced success of his preaching
amongst the Saracens and Christians, the Saint went to visit the
Holy Places. There he received a letter in which his brothers
urgently asked him to return to Italy.
Crisis of Adapting Leads to Clarification of the Rule
During the absence of Francis, his two vicars, Mathew of Narni
and Gregory of Naples, had introduced certain innovations that
tended to standardize the Friars Minor with the other religious
orders and frame the Franciscan spirit within the rigid scheme
of monastic observances and ascetic rules. The religious sisters
of San Damiano already had their own constitution drawn by
Cardinal Ugolino using the rule of Saint Benedict as a base.
Upon arriving in Bolonia, Francis had the unpleasant surprise of
finding his brothers lodged in a magnificent convent. The saint
refused to place his feet inside it and so stayed with the
preacher friars. At once he called for the guardian of the
Franciscan convent, reprimanded him, and ordered the friars to
leave that house.
Such events had according to the vision of the saint the
dimensions of a true betrayal: it dealt with a crisis out of
which the Order had to leave either sublime or destroyed. Saint
Francis moved to Rome where he obtained from Honorius III the
naming of Cardinal Ugolino as protector and advisor of the
Franciscans since he had deposited a blind faith in the founder
and he possessed a great experience of the matters of the
Church. At the same time, Francis offered himself ardently to
the task of revising the rule. For this he summoned a new
general chapter that met in the Porziuncula in 1221. The saint
presented the delegates the revised rule.
As for poverty, humility, and evangelical freedom, which are all
the characteristics of the Order, they remained intact. They
represented a challenge from the founder to the dissidents and
legalists who behind his back plotted a true revolution of the
Franciscan spirit. The head of the opposition was brother Eli of
Cortona. The founder had already renounced being director of the
Order, such that his vicar, Friar Eli, was practically the
general minister. However, he did not dare oppose the founder
whom he respected sincerely. In reality, the Order was already
too large, as Saint Francis himself said it, “If there were
fewer friars the world would see them less and would desire that
there be more.”
At the end of two years during which he had to move each time
stronger against a current that was tending towards moving the
order in a direction that he had not foreseen and that seemed to
jeopardize the Franciscan spirit, the saint took on a new
revision of the Rule. Afterwards, he transmitted it to Brother
Eli so that he may hand it down to the ministers. The document,
however, got lost and the saint had to dictate the revision
again to Brother Leo amidst the clamor of the friars who
affirmed that the prohibition of possessing goods in common
could not be practiced.
The rule, as it was approved by Honorius III in 122, represented
substantially the spirit and the way of life for which Saint
Francis had struggled since the moment he stripped himself of
all his rich clothing before the bishop of Assisi.
Third Order
About
two years prior Saint Francis and Cardinal Ugolino had composed
a rule for the association of laypeople who had associated
themselves to the Friars Minor and who belonged to what we now
call the Third Order, built in a spirit of the “Letter to the
Corinthians” which Francis had written during the beginning
years of his conversion. The association, which was formed by
laypeople dedicated to penance and who led a life very much
different to the one accustomed to back then, became a great
religious strength in the Middle Ages. In current canon law, the
terciaries of the diverse orders still enjoy a status
specifically different from the members of the associations and
Marian congregations.
Representation of the Birth of Jesus
Saint
Francis spent the Christmas of 1223 in Grecehio in the valley of
Rieti. In such an occasion he had told his friend John of
Vellita, “I would like to make a kind of living representation
of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem so as to witness, so to say,
with the eyes of the body the humility of the Incarnation and
see Him lying on the manger between the ox and the donkey.”
Indeed, the saint built in the hermitage a kind of cave and the
neighboring farmers attended the Midnight Mass in which Francis
participated as deacon and preached about the mystery of
Christmas. It is attributed to him to have begun the tradition
of “Bethlehem” or “birth.” Thomas of Celano tells us in his
biography of the saint, “The Incarnation was a key component in
the spirituality of Francis. He wanted to celebrate the
Incarnation in a special way. He wanted to do something to help
people remember the Child Jesus and how he was born in
Bethlehem.”
Saint Francis remained various months in the retreat of
Grecehio, consecrated in prayer, but jealously hidden to the
eyes of men the most special graces that God transmitted to him
in contemplation. Brother Leo, who was his secretary and
confessor, affirmed that he had often seen him during prayer be
elevated so high above the ground that he could barely reach his
feet and on some occasions he could not even do that.
Stigmatas
Around the Feast of the Assumption of 1224, the saint retired to
the mountain of La Verna and built a small cell there. He took
with him Brother Leo, but he prohibited anyone from coming to
visit him until after the feast of Saint Michael. It is there
where on or about September 14th, 1224, the feast of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the miracle of the stigmatas took
place. Francis tried to hide from the eyes of men the signs of
the Passion of the Lord he had printed on his body. Therefore,
he always had his hands inside the sleeves of the habit and he
used socks and shoes. Nevertheless, wanting the advice from his
brothers, he communicated to Brother Illuminated and some others
what had happened, but he added that certain things that had
been revealed to him no man on earth will ever discover.
One
time when he was sick, someone proposed reading a book to him to
distract him. The saint responded, “Nothing consoles me more
than the contemplation of the Life and Passion of our Lord.
Although I have to live until the end of the world, only that
book is enough.” Francis had fallen in love with holy poverty
meanwhile he contemplated Christ Crucified and meditated the new
crucifixion he suffered in the person of the poor.
The
saint did not reject science, but he did not desire it for his
disciples. Studies only made sense as means for an end and they
could benefit the Friars Minor if they did not prevent them from
dedicating a longer time of prayer and if they taught them to
preach themselves than to speak with others. Francis detested
studies that nourished vanity more than piety because they made
charity become lukewarm and dried the heart. Above all, he
feared that lady science would become the rival of lady poverty.
Seeing with how much anxiety they would go to school and look
for books for his brothers, Francis exclaimed one time,
“Impulsed by the bad spirit, my poor brothers will end up
abandoning the path of simplicity and poverty.”
In
his writings this is what the saint said about the vigilance of
the heart, “Let us protect ourselves from the malice and
astuteness of Satan who wants men not to have their minds and
hearts directed to God. He prowls around seeking to become the
owner of the heart of man and, under the appearance of some
recompense or aid, to drown in his memory the word and precepts
of the Lord, and he intends to blind the heart of man through
the worldly activities and worries, establishing his abode
there.”
Before leaving mountain La Verna, the saint composed the “Hymn
of praise to the Almighty.” Soon after the feast of Saint
Michael he finally descended to the valley, marked by the
stigmatas of the Passion, and cured the sick whom he encountered
on his way.
Sister Death
The
really hot sand of the desert of Egypt affected the vision of
Francis to the point of being almost completely blind. The last
two years of the life of Francis were of great suffering that it
seemed that the cup had been filled and flowed over. Strong
pains due to the deterioration of many of his organs (stomach,
liver, and spleen) were consequences of the malaria he
contracted in Egypt. In the most terrible pains, Francis offered
to God everything as a penance and for the salvation of souls
since he considered himself a great sinner. It was during his
sickness and pain when he felt the greatest need to sing.
His
health progressively became worse. The stigmatas made him suffer
and weakened him, and he almost lost his sight. In the summer of
1225, he was so sick that Cardinal Ugolino and Brother Eli
forced him to go to the Pope’s doctor in Rieti. The saint obeyed
with simplicity. On his way to Rieti he went to visit Saint
Clare in the convent of San Damiano. There in the middle of his
most acute physical sufferings, he wrote the “Canticle of
Brother Sun” and adapted it to a popular tune so that his
brothers could sing it.
He then moved to the mountain of Rainerio where he submitted
himself to the brutal treatment that the doctor had prescribed
to him, but the improvement that it produced was only momentary.
His brothers took him then to Siena to consult other physicians,
but by then the saint was already dying. In the will he dictated
to his friars, he recommended fraternal charity, he exhorted
them to love and observe holy poverty, and to love and honor the
Church. Shortly before his death, he dictated a new will to
recommend that his brothers faithfully observe the rule and work
manually, not for the desire of luxuries, but to avoid idleness
and to give a good example. “If they do not pay us for our
labors, let us go to the table of the Lord, asking for alms door
to door.” When Francis returned to Assisi, the bishop gave him
accommodations in his own house. Francis begged the doctors to
tell him the truth, and they confessed that he only had a few
weeks to live. “Welcome, Sister Death!” he exclaimed and at
once, he asked to be transported to the Porziuncula. On the way,
when the procession was at the peak of a hill from which the
panorama of Assisi was visible, he asked those carrying the
stretcher to stop for a moment and so he turned his blind eyes
in the direction of the city and begged for the blessing of God
for the city and its residents.
He
then ordered the stretcher bearers to hurry up to arrive at the
Porziuncula. When he felt death approaching, Francis sent a
messenger to Rome to call the noblewoman Giacoma of Settesoli,
who had been his protectress, to beg her to bring with her some
candles and a sackcloth to wrap himself, as well as a piece of
cake he really liked. Happily, the lady came to the Porziuncula
before he died. Francis exclaimed, “Blessed be God who has sent
us our sister Giacoma! The rule that prohibits the entry of
women does not apply to our sister Giacoma. Tell her to
enter.”
The
saint sent his last message to Saint Clare and her religious and
asked his brothers to sing the verses of the “Canticle of the
Sun” in which death was praised. He immediately begged that they
bring him a piece of bread and he distributed it amongst those
present as a sign of peace and fraternal love saying, “I have
done my part, may Christ teach you to do your part.” His
brothers laid him down on the floor and covered him with an old
habit. Francis exhorted his brothers the love of God, of
poverty, and the Gospel “above all the rules,” and he blessed
all of his followers, both the present as well as those absent.
He
died on the 3rd of October of 1226, after listening to the
reading of the Passion of the Lord according to the Gospel of
Saint John. Francis had asked to be buried in the cemetery of
the criminals of Colle d’Inferno. Instead of doing it that way,
his brothers took the cadaver the next day in a solemn
procession to the church of Saint Jorge, in Assisi. He was
buried there until two years after his canonization. In 1230, he
was secretly transferred to the great basilica built by Brother
Elia.
The
cadaver disappeared from the site of men for six centuries until
1818. After 52 days of searching, it was discovered under the
high altar, many meters down below. The saint was no more than
44 or 45 years when he died. We cannot relate here not even in a
summary, the daring and brilliant story of the Order he founded.
Let us simply state its three branches, Friars Minor, Capuchin
Friars, and the Conventional Friars Minor; they form the largest
religious institute that currently exists in the Church.
According to the historian David Knowles, upon founding that
institute, Saint Francis “contributed more than anyone to save
the Church from the decadence and disorder in which it had
fallen during the Middle Ages.”
Saint Francis of Assisi, ask Jesus for us to love him as
intensely as you reached!
General Audience by H.H. Benedict XVI
about St. Francis...
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the Lives of the Saints...
