St. Francis of Assisi
“I have been all things
unholy. If God can work
through me, he can work
through anyone. “
• Founder of the
Franciscan Order
• Born at Assisi in Italy
(Umbria) circa 11811182
• Died there, 3 October,
1226
• Giotto
1267-1337
• Approval of
Rule of
Francis
• Basilica of
St. Francis,
Assisi
Biography
• Father: Pietro Bernardone, wealthy cloth
merchant.
• Francis was one of several children.
• At Baptism in the Church of San Ruffino
(Patron Saint of Assisi), he received the
name of Giovanni, which his father
afterwards altered to Francesco
• San Ruffino
• Assisi
• Architectural
Style:
Romanesque
• Francis showed little liking for a merchant's
career. He was spoiled by his parents
• No one loved pleasure more than Francis:
witty, sang merrily, wore fine clothes, and
enjoyed showy display.
• Very popular among the young nobles
• A “party animal”, Francis showed a sympathy
with the poor and gave much to charity
• At about 20, Francis went to war with the
Perugians . Assisi was defeated and
Francis was taken prisoner for more than
a year
• A fever which he received turned his
thoughts to the things divine – he saw an
emptiness to the life he had been leading
• When healthy his eagerness after glory
reawakened and his fancy wandered in
search of victories
If you have men who will
exclude any of God's
creatures from the shelter of
compassion and pity, you
will have men who will deal
likewise with their fellow
men.
• He yearned for the life of the Spirit
• His friends asked him if he would get
married and he said
"Yes, I am about to take a wife of
surpassing fairness."
• She was no other than Lady Poverty
whom even now he had begun to love
• After a period of uncertainty he began to
seek in prayer and solitude the answer to
his call;
• One day Francis drew near a leper
that filled him with disgust
• he dismounted, embraced the leper,
and gave him all the money he had.
• Made a pilgrimage to Rome and was
pained at the cheap offerings he saw
at the tomb of St Peter and emptied
his purse
• Exchanged clothes with a beggar &
stood for the rest of the day fasting
among the beggars at the door of the
basilica
St. Peter’s Basilica in St. Francis’ Time
• Not long after, while Francis was praying before an
ancient crucifix in the chapel of St. Damian's
• he heard a voice saying:
Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see
is falling into ruin." He took the command literally
• Gave wealth to the priest in charge of the church
• His father, a miserly man was angry at his son's
conduct, and to avert his father’s wrath, Francis hid
himself in a cave near St. Damian's for a month.
• When he returned to the town, emaciated with
hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis was followed
by a hooting rabble, pelted with mud and stones,
and otherwise mocked as a nut
• he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound,
and locked in a dark closet.
San Damiano, Assisi
• San
Damiano,
Assisi
• Replica of
Cross
• Cross to
which
Francis was
praying is
housed in
Santa Clara
San Damiano Cross
• Freed by his mother, Francis returned to St.
Damian's, where he found shelter & renounced
his inheritance and family ties
• He stripped himself of the clothes he wore, and
gave them to his father saying:
"Hitherto I have called you my father on earth;
henceforth I desire to say only “Our father who
art in heaven”
• surrender of all worldly goods and honors
• Francis wandered into the hills improvising
hymns
• Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city
begging stones for the restoration of St.
Damian's.
• Francis restored two other deserted
chapels: St. Peter's, some distance from
the city, and St. Mary of the Angels.
• Meantime he redoubled his zeal in works
of charity more so in nursing lepers
Portiuncula and St. Mary’s
• In 1208, probably 2/24, Francis was hearing
Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels,
near which he had then built himself a hut;
• The Gospel told how the disciples of Christ were
to possess neither gold, silver, scrip for their
journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff,
and exhort sinners to repentance & announce
the Kingdom of God
• Again he took these words as if spoken directly
to himself, and threw away the poor fragment left
him of the world’s goods--shoes, cloak, pilgrim
staff, and empty wallet.
• At last he had found his vocation
• Obtaining a coarse woolen tunic of "beast
color", the dress then worn by the poorest
peasants, he tied it round him with a
knotted rope,
• Francis went forth at once exhorting the
people of the country-side to penance,
brotherly love, and peace.
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.“
• The people had ceased to scoff at Francis; they
now paused in wonderment;
• his example even drew others to him. First three
being: Bernard, Peter, Giles
• In a spirit of religious fervor, Francis repaired to
the church of St. Nicholas and sought to learn
God’s will by thrice opening at random the book
of the Gospels.
• Each time it opened at passages where Christ
told his disciples to leave all things and follow
Him. "This shall be our rule of life", exclaimed
Francis
• After this they procured rough habits like that of
Francis, and built themselves small huts near his
at the Little Portion (Porziuncola)
Is religious life habit forming???
Franciscan
Habit
• The Franciscan habit is a simple long gown
(brown, black, or grey) with a detached “capuch”
(hood) and a white, knotted wool cord.
• The cord has three knots symbolizing the three
religious vows of Poverty Chastity and
Obedience.
• When the number of his companions had
increased to eleven, Francis found it
expedient to draw up a written rule for
them.
• This first rule of the Friars Minor has not
come down to us in its original form, but it
appears to have been very short and
simple, a mere adaptation of the Gospel
precepts already selected by Francis for
the guidance of his first companions, and
which he desired to practice in all their
perfection
If God can work through me,
he can work through anyone
• Francis and his followers set out for Rome to
seek the approval of the Holy See (vatican)
• It seems that Guido, Bishop of Assisi, who was
in Rome, sent Francis to Cardinal John of St.
Paul, and that at the instance of the latter, the
pope recalled Francis whose first overtures he
had rejected.
• It is said innocent was moved by a dream in
which he beheld the Poor Man of Assisi
upholding the tottering Lateran basilica and then
gave a verbal sanction to the rule submitted by
Francis and granted him and his followers leave
to preach repentence everywhere.
• Before leaving, they all received the tonsure,
• Francis himself being ordained deacon later
• Dream of
innocent
III
• Basilica of
St. Francis
• Giotto
• The followers adopted the Roman Rite as
their mass which would become the
predominant Catholic mass
• The Friars Minor -- for thus Francis had
named his brethren, either after the
minores, or lower classes, as some
think, or as others believe, with reference
to the Gospel (Matthew 25:40-45) and as
a perpetual reminder of their humility
Mt.25:40-45, the Last Judgement
And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to
you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers
of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on
his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I
was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty
and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave
me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then
they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in
prison, and not minister to your needs?' He will
answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not
do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'
While you are proclaiming
peace with your lips, be
careful to have it even more
fully in your heart.
• During Lent of 1212, Clare came to Francis.
• Clare, a young heiress of Assisi, moved by the saint’s preaching,
sought him out, and begged to be allowed to embrace the new
manner of life he had founded.
• By his advice, Clare, who was then 18, left her home on the night
following Palm Sunday, and with two companions went to the
Porziuncola, where the friars met her in procession, carrying lighted
torches.
• Then Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in the Minorite
habit and thus received her to a life of poverty, penance, and
seclusion.
• until Francis could provide a suitable retreat for her, and for St.
Agnes, her sister, and the other pious women who had joined her,
he eventually established them at St. Damian's
• Francis eventually established the sisters at St. Damian's, and which
thus became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order of
Poor Ladies, now known as Poor Clares
St. Clare’s, Assisi
• About 1213 Francis received from Count
Orlando of Chiusi the mountain of La
Verna, rising some 4000 feet above the
valley of the Casentino, as a retreat,
• "especially favourable for contemplation",
to which he might retire from time to time
for prayer and rest.
• For Francis never altogether separated the
contemplative from the active life
• 1217-18 he visited Rome and was apparently
the occasion of Francis's meeting with St.
Dominic
• The year 1218 Francis devoted to missionary
tours in Italy
• He usually preached out of doors, in the marketplaces, from church steps, from the walls of
castle court-yards.
• Allured by the spell of his presence, crowds,
unused to preaching in the vernacular, followed
Francis from place to place; church bells rang at
his approach; processions of clergy and people
went to meet him with music and singing; they
brought the sick to him to bless and heal, and
kissed the very ground on which he trod, and
even sought to cut away pieces of his tunic
• While preaching at Camara, a small village near
Assisi, the congregation was so moved by his
"words of spirit and life" that they presented
themselves to him in a body and begged to be
admitted into his order.
• To say yes to such requests, Francis devised his
Third Order of the Brothers and Sisters of
Penance, which he intended as a sort of middle
state between the world and the cloister
• Francis prescribed particular duties for these
tertiaries: not to carry arms, or take oaths, or
engage in lawsuits, etc.
• It is also said that he drew up a formal rule for
them, it is customary to assign 1221 as the year
of the foundation of this third order
• During Christmas (1223) Francis conceived the
idea of celebrating the Nativity "in a new
manner",
• he has thus come to be regarded as having
inaugurated the devotion of the Crèche
• Christmas appears indeed to have been the
favorite feast of Francis, and he wished to
persuade the emperor to make a special law
that people should provide well for the birds and
beasts, as well as for the poor, so that all might
have occasion to rejoice in the Lord
Where there is charity and
wisdom, there is neither fear
nor ignorance
• In August, 1224, Francis retired with three
companions to La Verna to keep a forty
days fast
• During this retreat the sufferings of Christ
became more than ever the burden of his
meditations
• In effect, he received the stigmata
• It was on or about the feast of the Exaltation of
the Cross (14 September) while praying on the
mountainside, that he beheld the marvellous
vision of the seraph, as a sequel of which there
appeared on his body the stigmata, the five
wounds of Christ.
• After the reception of the stigmata, Francis
suffered increasing pains throughout his frail
body, already broken by continual mortification.
• Sept 1225
• Francis paid a last visit to St. Clare and it
was in a little hut of reeds, made for him in
the garden there, that the saint composed
that "Canticle of the Sun", in which his
poetic genius expands itself so gloriously.
Canticle of the Sun
• Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, honor and blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong;
no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
• We praise You, Lord, for all Your creatures,
especially for Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
of You Most High, he bears your likeness.
• We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious
and fair.
• We praise You, Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air,
fair and stormy, all weather's moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.
• We praise You, Lord, for Sister Water,
so useful, humble, precious and pure.
• We praise You, Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night.
He is beautiful, playful, robust, and strong.
• We praise You, Lord, for Sister Earth,
who sustains us
with her fruits, colored flowers, and herbs.
• We praise You, Lord, for those who pardon,
for love of You bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
by You Most High, they will be crowned.
• We praise You, Lord, for Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in their sins!
Blessed are those that She finds doing
Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.
• We praise and bless You, Lord, and
give You thanks,
and serve You in all humility.
1226 AD
• Ina dying condition, Francis returned to Assisi
• In the early autumn Francis, feeling the hand of
death upon him, was carried to his beloved Little
Portion (Porziuncola) that he might breathe his
last sigh where his vocation had been revealed
to him
• His last days were passed at the Porziuncola in
a tiny hut, near the chapel, that served as an
infirmary.
"I have done my part, may
Christ teach you to do
yours."
• On the eve of his death, Francis, in
imitation of Christ, had bread brought to
him and broken.
• This he distributed among those present,
blessing Bernard, his first companion,
Elias, and all the others in order.
• "I have done my part," he said next, "may
Christ teach you to do yours."
• Wishing to give a last token of detachment and to show
he no longer had anything in common with the world,
Francis removed his habit and lay down on the bare
ground, covered with a borrowed cloth, rejoicing that he
was able to keep faith with his Lady Poverty to the end.
• After a while he asked to have read to him the Passion
from the Gospel of John, and then in faltering tones he
himself intoned Psalm 141.
• At the concluding verse, "Bring my soul out of prison", he
was led away from earth by "Sister Death“
• It was Saturday evening, 3 October, 1226, Francis being
then in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twentieth
from his perfect conversion to Christ
• Francis had, in his humilty, it is said,
expressed a wish to be buried on the Colle
d'Inferno, a hill where criminals were
executed and lepers buried.
• His body was, on October 4th, born in
triumphant procession to the city, a halt
being made at St. Damian's, that St. Clare
and her companions might venerate the
stigmata, now visible to all.
• Francis was canonized at St. George's by
Gregory IX on July 16, 1228.
• The next day, the pope laid the first stone
of the great double church of St. Francis,
erected in honor of St. Francis.
Preach the Gospel at all times
and when necessary use
words