Saint Francis

Once upon a time there was an elderly man who wore a brown cloth and a frayed white rope around his waist. When the birds began to chirp, the dogs began to whimper, and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, you knew the man was approaching. This mystery man was known as Saint Francis. Saint Francis was a man of only kindness and love. His sole mission on this earth was to spread joy to all he encountered. Saint Francis had no enemies and was a friend to all.

Meanwhile Saint Francis had this void that he couldn’t seem to fill. One day he fell to his knees begging God to give him some sort of sign on how to get rid of this void. After that day, as each day passed Saint Francis started becoming weak and brittle. Every time the sun set it would take little pieces of Saint Francis’ joy with it until there was hardly anything left.

After months and months of prayers, a miracle happened. One morning Saint Francis woke up with a dove sitting on his arm. The dove began to coo loudly and tug on Saint Francis's clothes. Startled by the bird's actions, Saint Francis let the dove lead him. Along the way Saint Francis became very short of breath and attempted to sit down but the dove did not allow this to happen. Instead the dove continued to nudge Saint Francis closer to town.

Saint Francis, desperately following the dove towards town, noticed a young boy rapidly approaching him. The boy, knowing he could trust Saint Francis begged, “Francis Francis boy am I glad to see you” huffing for air in-between sentences, “I have been waiting for you. I have someone I want you to meet.” St. Francis, tripping on a couple stones along the way, confusedly followed the young boy to a fruit stand where an elderly lady kindly greeted them, “Good morning. My name is Clare. What can I help you with?” Saint Francis, taken back by her beauty, was at a lost for words. Saint Francis saw joy when he looked at Clare. Her joy was contagious, something he hadn’t felt or seen in a long time. The young boy intervened by claiming he was very hungry and needed all the strawberries and oranges she had. The boy began to panic as he realized he had left his allowance back at his house which was two miles away from the fruit stand. Quickly the boy pushed Saint Francis towards the stand and said, “I’ll be back. Keep her company," as his voice slowly faded into the distance.

Although Saint Francis had little money to no money to spare, he collected all he had and reached his dry hand out to give to Clare. Clare gently touched Saint Francis’s hand to collect the money, and the rest is history. The start of a great love story and a void no more. Saint Francis spent the rest of his life choosing joy.

St. Francis (photo by Catholic Online)

Author’s Note

I started this story by describing the traditional Saint Francis but then created a major plot twist. St. Francis was this perfect man traditionally and, in my story. I felt like he needed to share it with someone. Traditionally Clare was one of St. Francis' first followers. Sister Clare had heard him preach during the season of Lent in 1212 when she was 18, and followed him ever since. In my story I wanted to create the start of a great love and the moment they first laid eyes on each other. I wanted to briefly touch on the idea that you can have everything but if you have no one to share it with then you have nothing. Whether that’s family, animals, brothers and sisters in the monastic life, or even God, you need someone. St. Francis devoted his entire life to God . This message can also be seen in the traditional story “Saint Francis of Assisi." The story is about the wolf of Gubbio. St. Francis was able to tame the fierce wolf by making the sign of the Cross and commanding the wolf to cease its attacks in the name of God. The wolf then lay at the feet of St. Francis and never hurt anyone again. I believe without trust and without love there is no joy. St. Francis was someone who loved others so deeply and when he had no place to sleep or no food to eat he never took his eyes off of Jesus and that is something that we can all learn from.

Bibliography

“Saint Francis of Assisi” from The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown