The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
St. Francis of Assisi: God’s Paradox
As many perceptions exist about St. Francis of Assisi as there are stone statues of him
tending to birds and squirrels in family gardens. “St. Francis” in our vernacular brings to mind
dozens of images, stories, stereotypes and clichés. The varied images of Francis may exist
because it seems that every belief, behavior, teaching and legacy of his consists of multiple
paradoxes. The man Francis gave up all possessions yet appreciated and celebrated all creation.
He coveted solitude yet preached to the crowds and met no person that he did not consider his
friend. He lived carefree, joyously, cheerfully and foolishly, but simultaneously, he was deadly
serious about his devotion to the crucified and living Lord Jesus Christ. As Earnest Renan
writes, “He despises nothing; he is indifferent to nothing; he loves everything. For everything he
has a smile and a tear.” (Renan 135) He endeavored to wander on pilgrimage to identify with
Christ and ended up with a following that multiplied into thousands and spread across
Christendom and the centuries.
Francis comes through history with remarkable recommendations. Pope Pious IX called
Francis “the most perfect image of our Lord that ever lived.” (Arnold 115) With his first twelve
followers, Francis won approval from Pope Innocent III for initiating a new order of friars. Prior
to meeting with Francis, the Pope had a dream of a raggedly dressed peasant supporting the large
ancient temple of St. John Lateran where the Pope had walked that evening. Bonaventure
reports that when the Pope saw Francis enter his room he proclaimed that Francis was the man
from his dream. He writes, “[Pope Innocent III] has seen in a dream that a poor man,
insignificant and despised, was holding up on his back the Lateran basilica which was about to
collapse. ‘This is certainly the man,’ he said, ‘who by his work and teaching will hold up the
Church of Christ.’” (Bonaventure 206)
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
In his book, The Little Flowers of St. Francis, Brother Ugolino begins by writing, “First it
should be known that the glorious St. Francis was conformed to Christ in all the acts of his life.”
(Di Monte Santa Maria 41) Brother Ugolino then writes of numerous examples of that
conformity being acted out in the life of Francis.
Scholars attribute the ecumenical reverence and love of Francis to his focus on the gospel
and his love of all people. Chesterton writes of Francis, “He was a lover. He was a lover of God
and he was really and truly a lover of men; possibly a much rarer mystical vocation.” (Chesterton
7)
Francis was born Giovanni Bernadone in 1181 or 1182 in Assisi, Italy. His father, upon
returning from France, renamed him Francesco, “the little Frenchman.” His family was well-off
among their neighbors. His father was a successful merchant who planned for Francis to work in
his business and pursue worldly honors.
By accounts of his youth, Francis seemed to be a somewhat spoiled child with a soft and
generous heart. He sang French poetry and dreamed of going off to battle to gain glory. In
1202, he followed his dream and marched off with other gentlemen soldiers of Assisi to engage
the army of Perugia. His army was routed and Francis spent about a year in prison before being
ransomed.
While in prison, Francis seemed to develop a love and gentleness toward all his fellow
prisoners and to circulate among them freely offering kindness and friendship. Also while in
prison, Francis became sick and upon his return home spent nearly a year convalescing.
In the Spring of 1205, Francis, not fully recovered from his sickness, marched off to
another battle. Soon after their departure, Francis reportedly gave his armor and weaponry to an
impoverished knight who was lamenting missing the battle for his lack of equipment.
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
In the second of two dreams prior to the battle, Francis heard a voice asking, “Who do
you think can best reward you, the master or the servant?”
Francis answered, “The master.”
The voice responded to him, “Then why do you leave the master for the servant, the rich
Lord for the poor man?”
Francis immediately asked what God would have him do. After lying awake until
morning, Francis returned to Assisi and began his service to the Lord. (Arnold 35)
After alternating attendance at social events and wandering the countryside, Francis
pledged his love to “Lady Poverty” in response to the gospel of Luke, “Take care, and be on
your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions." (Luke 12:15 ESV)
Francis set out on a pilgrimage to Rome and there gave all his money away and
exchanged clothes with a beggar and began wandering Rome begging for alms. During his time
in Rome, he completely accepted a life betrothed to “Lady Poverty” and lost his fear of having
no possessions learning to rely on the Lord.
A remaining hindrance to his devotion to the ministry of Christ was his fear of disease
and disfigurement. Francis was repulsed by the lepers of his day and despite his affection and
concern for the poor, he would turn from lepers in his proximity. While returning from Rome,
Francis saw a leper along the road. In that moment, Francis’ fears and repulsion fought against
his desire to love as Jesus loved, and he jumped from his horse, ran to the man, knelt and kissed
the leper’s hand. In that moment of submission and imitation of Christ, Francis saw beyond the
diseased flesh and to the man made in the image of God and loved by God. In The Testament,
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
Francis writes, “that which seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body.”
(Francis 153)
This act may be indicative of what caused Chesterton to conclude after his study of
Francis that he “walked the world like the Pardon of God…his appearance marked the moment
when men could be reconciled not only to God but to nature and, most difficult of all, to
themselves.” (Chesterton 142) As the author Albert Camus writes, “He justifies those who have
a taste for happiness.” (Camus 135)
After riding down the road a ways, Francis looked back toward the leper and saw nobody
there. Bonaventure would later suppose that the leper was truly Christ appearing to Francis.
(Arnold 36) Francis saw this as a turning point in his life. He took up the garb of a hermit and
lived near a broken down and abandoned church on the edge of Assisi called San Damiano.
While praying and meditating upon the cross at this crumbling church, Francis heard a
voice say three times to him, “Francis, go and repair my house, which, as you see, is falling
completely into ruin.” (Bonaventure 191) Francis took the words literally and set out to repair
the chapel of San Damiano.
According to Chesterton, “To go and do something was one of the driving demands of his
nature.” (Chesterton 47) This soon led to a heightened conflict with his father from whom
Francis had taken cloth to sell to afford the rebuilding.
After attempting to keep Francis under “house arrest” and failing, his father dragged him
before the townspeople and then the Bishop of Assisi, Bishop Guido. To the Bishop, Francis’
father accused him of stealing the cloth and living irresponsibly. Before the Bishop could
respond, Francis vowed to restore all the money to his father, and further, Francis stripped
himself of his clothes, returned them to the father and announced, “Until now I have called you
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March 3, 2016
father here on earth. But now I can say without reservation, ‘Our Father who art in heaven,’
since I have placed all my treasure and all my hope in him.” (Bonaventure 194) The Bishop
wrapped Francis in his own robe and ordered clothes be brought to him, and he received him as a
son of the church.
Francis’ ministry would stretch from that time in 1207 to his death in 1226. In 1208,
while in mass at a small chapel called the church of St. Mary of the Angels he heard the words of
Matthew’s gospel, “And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give
without pay. (Matt 10:7-8 ESV) Francis took these words literally to apply to his life. He felt
called to abandon his life as a hermit and to begin to preach the gospel of Jesus everywhere he
went while living in absolute poverty.
A remarkable characteristic of Francis was his joy and frivolity that he carried into this
mission of poverty and preaching. Chesterton makes the following observation, “The whole
point about St. Francis of Assisi is that he certainly was ascetical and he certainly was not
gloomy.” Of Francis’ mission, he writes, “There was nothing negative about it; it was not a
regimen or a stoical simplicity of life. It was not self-denial merely in the sense of self-control.
It was as positive as a passion; it had all the air of being as positive as a pleasure. He devoured
fasting as a man devours food. He plunged after poverty as men have dug madly for gold.”
(Chesterton 74)
Stock writes of Francis’ unique ministry “it was the peculiar religious genius of St.
Francis that he could combine an utter seriousness with the following of Christ and a healthy
love for the world as a gift from God. (Stock 60)
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
By 1208, Francis had already attracted followers to his way of life. In Spring of 1209, he
wrote a brief rule for his order based on a few gospel passages divinely given to him that
espoused selling all possessions, living in poverty, and denying oneself and taking up the cross
and following Christ. He then took his rule to Rome where he received the Pope’s approval.
In 1212, Francis received Clare into his following and started the “Second Order” of
Franciscans for women. Clare would become Francis’ most trusted friend and companion and
whom he would call “the most Christlike person” he ever knew. (Arnold 50) Clare would also
go on to lead many women into the order that became known as the “Poor Clares.”
By 1217, Francis had followers in Italy, France, Spain, Bohemia, Germany, England and
the Holy Land. Missionaries were sent to Hungary and Northern Africa. Francis created the
“Third Order” of Franciscans. This order was for lay people who wished to share the life of
Franciscans but also continue their family and vocational lives. They had a modified rule for life
and consisted of people across classes and countries revealing Francis’ remarkable ability to
connect to all people to whom he spoke, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, rulers and
peasants. Some scholars credit Francis’ charge to members of the Third Order against bearing
arms with helping to end the feudal system and feudal wars of Western Europe. (Harvey 65)
Chesterton discusses his ability to connect in a meaningful way to each person he met
and addressed. He writes, “He always went right to the point; he always seemed at once more
right and more simple than the person he was speaking to. He seemed at once to be laying open
his guard and yet lunging at the heart. Something in his attitude disarmed the world as it has
never been disarmed again…The world came into church by a newer and nearer door; and by
friendship it learnt faith.” (Chesterton 99)
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March 3, 2016
Another aspect of Francis’ preaching that may have helped endear him to the public and
everyone he met was his avoidance of the doctrinal arguments of the day. He focused on
spiritually benefiting his audience and praising God. Ian Cron writes, “his preaching was more
autobiographical than intellectual, more performative than argumentative, more spontaneous
than scripted, more genuine than contrived, more about transformation than information.” (Cron
236)
Francis sought to preach to Muslims in Spain and beyond. In 1219, he finally succeeded
in arriving where the crusading army was battling Muslims. For four months, Francis stayed in a
Crusader camp and ministered. He went with the army as it assaulted the Muslim held city of
Damietta. When he witnessed the Crusaders sacking the town, Francis was nauseated at their
behavior as they raped, murdered and enslaved the people.
When the Sultan’s army blocked the way to Cairo, Francis gained permission to walk to
the Muslim lines in hopes of making peace by converting the Sultan. Francis was able to gain
audience with the sultan and preach the gospel to him. Although he could have quickly been
killed, he was welcomed before the sultan, as Chesterton claims, “In all his leaps in the dark,
Francis had an extraordinary faculty of falling on his feet.” (Chesterton 115) The sultan gave
Francis a gift and commanded a guard to take Francis to the holy sites in Muslim territory before
he returned to Italy in late 1220.
He struggled in dealing with the state of his order. Many friars had not held steadfast to
the rule of poverty and lack of possessions. Some held university positions, owned homes and
had income. Francis preached in Rome to the Pope and Cardinals and spoke with them about the
rule of his order that he later slightly modified. Francis continually emphasized evangelical
poverty and habits of prayer for those called Franciscans.
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
In September 1221, he called a general meeting of his order and announced his
resignation as its head. He left to pursue more solitude and to carry on as God’s Fool. He
continually exhorted his followers to maintain the rule of life that he chose to follow from the
day God called him. In his last days, he reaffirmed his commitment and charge to his followers
to maintain his rule. He writes in The Testament,
The Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the form of
the Holy Gospel. And I had this written down simply and in a few words and the
Lord Pope confirmed it for me. And those who came to receive life gave to the
poor everything which they were capable of possessing and they were content
with one tunic, patched inside and out, with a cord and short trousers. And we
had no desire for anything more…And I, little brother Francis, your servant,
inasmuch as I can, confirm for you this most holy blessing both within and
without. (Francis 153)
Arnold writes of the tension between his public life and desire for solitude, “There is a
paradox about this period in the life of Francis of Assisi. Never before had he been more
involved in the world witnessing to his faith in many countries and testifying before kings. Yet
never before was he to be so alone.” (Arnold 59) Merton writes of the paradox of Francis’
solitude and life of preaching, “As always, in the Franciscan tradition, the idea of solitude is not
self-sufficient. Solitude opens out to the world and bears fruit in preaching.” (Merton 47) For
Francis, God’s ministry to him in solitude bore fruit to those he would come in contact with or
who would hear of his mystical relationship with God.
Although he was only in his forties, Francis sought to retire from public life. He was
afflicted with several maladies including an eye disease that would lead nearly to blindness at the
end of his life.
In the fall of 1224, Francis retreated to an isolated hermitage on Mount Alverna that had
been provided for him by a wealthy Count. Francis had to be carried to the cliff on a donkey, as
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March 3, 2016
he was unable to walk. He asked his companions to bring him bread and water once a day but
otherwise to leave him in solitude.
Soon after his arrival while deep in prayer, Francis saw a vision of an angel with six
wings hovering before him. In the midst of the wings he saw a crucified man aglow in light.
Bonaventure reports that “when Francis saw this, he was overwhelmed and his heart was flooded
with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced because of the gracious way Christ looked upon
him under the appearance of the Seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his
soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow.” (Bonaventure 305) He fell unconscious and when
he awoke he had the marks of Christ’s wounds on his body and his heart was ablaze.
Chesterton defends the verity of this episode in Francis’ life and emphasizes that “we
shall miss the whole point of St. Francis, especially of St. Francis after Alverno, if we do not
realize that he was living a supernatural life. And there is more and more of such
supernaturalism in his life as he approaches toward his death.” (Chesterton 133) Englebert also
defends the verity of the story of the wounds, “the stigmata never disappeared, a number of
persons were able to see them. Among them were Brother Leo, whom Francis took as his nurse
and who regularly bathed the oozing wound in the side; Brother Rufino and several others who
gave sworn testimony about them; and all those present at the death of the saint.” (Englebert
243)
In 1225, he collapsed at the convent of San Damiano while visiting Clare. There he
composed The Canticle of Brother Sun. During the next year, his health deteriorated and he was
taken on a stretcher back to Assisi to face death. In his final days he wrote The Testament and
added final verses to The Canticle. On October 3, 1226, Francis sang the Evening Office with
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March 3, 2016
his brothers and then said in a frail voice, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your
name” (Ps. 142:7) and breathed his last. (Arnold 64)
To think that Francis nonchalantly wandered the countryside is to underestimate
his devotion to scripture and sacraments. Arnold credits Francis with “renewing the
liturgical principles in the church because he restored the centrality of the sacramental
life” returning the people to the altar as participants in the Eucharist. (Arnold 73) Gerard
Straub writes that Francis “experienced the Eucharist as a Sacrament of Love in which
God became his spiritual food. He needed the refreshment of Love’s presence the way
his lungs needed air. Nourished by Love, Francis was able to love in turn all of creation.
As Christ’s Body and Blood became one with Francis’ body and blood, Francis was able
to become Christ to everyone he met.” (Straub 226) To Francis, receiving and giving the
Sacrament of Eucharist was as serious as his devotion upon the crucified Christ.
His preaching was purposeful and measured for the good of his listeners. His
worship and liturgy were disciplined and examined. He was cautious to not let worship
be used for any other means other than the adoration of God. Arnold emphasizes that
liturgy and worship of the church were central to Francis’ life. (Arnold 81) The seminal
events in his life were all associated with the worship of God and the word of God.
There was nothing haphazard about Francis’ vocation or way of life. His words to his
friends from his deathbed sum up his life and his message, “I have done my duty; may
Christ teach you yours.” (Bonaventure 317)
To follow Francis would not be to automatically imitate his way of life but his radical
faith in Christ. His advice to his friend Leo would probably be his advice to any seeking spiritual
direction from him, “In whatever way you think you will best please our Lord God and follow in
his footsteps and in poverty, take that way with the Lord God’s blessing.” (Arnold 79)
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The Rev. Craig Stephans
March 3, 2016
St. Francis of Assisi: God’s Paradox
References
Arnold, Duane and C. George Fry. Frances: A Call to Conversion. Grand Rapids: Cantilever
Books, 1988.
Bonaventure, Saint. “The Life of St. Francis.” Bonaventure. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
177-329.
Camus, Albert. “On Francis and Franciscans.” The Francis Book: 800 Years with the Saint from
Assisi. Ed. Roy M. Gasnick. New York: Collier Books, 1980. 135.
Chesterton, G. K. Saint Francis of Assisi. New York: Doubleday, 1957.
Cron, Ian Morgan. Chasing Francis. Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2006.
Di Monte Santa Maria, Brother Ugolino. The Little Flowers of St. Francis. Translated by
Raphael Brown. New York: Doubleday 1958.
Englebert, Omer. St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography. Ann Arbor: Franciscan Herald Press, 1965.
Francis, Saint. “The Testament.” Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol 1. Ed.
William Placher. Louisville: Westminister John Knox Press, 1988. 153-154.
Harvey, Rudolf. “A Third Order: Secular Franciscans.” The Francis Book: 800 Years with the
Saint from Assisi. Ed. Roy M. Gasnick. New York: Collier Books, 1980. 64-65.
Merton, Thomas. “Franciscan Eremitism.” The Francis Book: 800 Years with the Saint from
Assisi. Ed. Roy M. Gasnick. New York: Collier Books, 1980. 46-48
Renan, Ernst. “The Only Perfect Christian.” The Francis Book: 800 Years with the Saint from
Assisi. Ed. Roy M. Gasnick. New York: Collier Books, 1980. 135.
Straub, Gerard Thomas. “The Sun and Moon over Assisi: A Personal Encounter with Francis and
Clare.” Chasing Francis. Ian Morgan Cron. Colorado Springs: Navpress. 2006. 226.
Stock, Dennis and Lawrence Cunningham. Saint Francis of Assisi. New York: Harper & Row,
1981.
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