St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi was born as Giovanni di Bernardone in 1182, in Assisi, Central Italy. He is the founder of the Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare (the Poor Clares), and he sponsored the Franciscan Tertiaries (Third Order of St. Francis). Moreover, he was a leader of the movement of evangelical poverty in the early 13^th century.

Pietro di Bernardone, Francis’ father, was a successful cloth merchant. Francis attended a school that was part of the Church of Saint Giorgio of Assisi. He joined the war between Assisi and Perugia and was taken prisoner for nearly a year. After his release he got ill and later on, sobered from jail and sickness, he had several religious experiences. The most important one was while he was praying in the ruin chapel of San Damiano, outside of Assisi, when he heard a voice from the crucifix command him, "Francis, go repair my house, which is falling in ruins."

Francis took that literally, went home, sold his horse and some cloth from his father's shop, and came back and wanted to give the money to the Priest of Saint Damiano. Francis’ father felt provoked and took him before the bishop of Assisi. Before the hearing began, Francis took off all his clothes and from that point on lived a life in poverty and without family ties.

He preached to the people and found followers, who were attracted by his way of living. He went with some fellers to Rome to present their ideas to Pope Innocent III and received his approval. In 1212 he wanted to go to the Holy Land, but he had to return with the ship because of bad weather. Seven years later he went to Egypt and preached to the sultan, who was impressed by his ideas and gave him permission to continue and visit the Holy Land. Trouble among his followers in Italy caused him to go back and he set up new, stricter rules and let them approve by Pope Honorius III in 1223.

He returned to Assisi and spent more time on his prayers. In 1224 he went to Mt. Alvernia to pray and during his praying he had a vision of a figure looking like an angel, and as it disappeared, it left him with the stigmata of the Crucified. Francis did not want to show the stigmata, but some of his friends reported about them after his death. He lived his last two years in constant pain and almost blind and died in October 1226. Two years later he was canonized a saint by his former protector and friend Pope Gregory IX.

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