There are few saints who have such widespread popularity as Francis. His simple, absolute devotion to the Gospel and to poverty has indelibly shaped Christian spirituality and his work to renew the church has borne fruit far beyond the limits of his life on earth.
Francis was born in Assisi, Italy in 1181, and was baptized Giovanni di Bernardone. His father, Pietro di Bernadone was a successful silk merchant, and the Bernadone family was very wealthy. Pietro's trade often brought him to France, indeed, he was in France when his son was born. Thus, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco, “the Frenchman.”
Twelfth-century Italy was populated with troubadours, poets who would travel around, reciting popular courtly poetry and love songs. As a young man, Francis was captivated by these troubadours and enamored with the romantic, chivalric ideals that were enshrined in these courtly love poems. Francis spent his parents’ money lavishly on friends and parties—creating his own ersatz court. Francis' love of munificence and luxury was not selfish but rather stemmed from a natural disposition of generosity. One famous anecdote from his youth is when a beggar appeared at, according to some accounts, his father's stall in the marketplace or, according to others, at a gathering of Francis and his friends, begging for alms. Francis followed after him and gave him everything he had in his pockets.
Around 1202, Francis was part of a military campaign against the neighboring city-state of Perugia and was taken captive. In captivity, Francis suffered from illness, and it seems that in the crucible of this year of suffering Francis' focus shifted radically. He began to reconcile his ideals of winning honor and glory in battle with a deeply-felt call to give away everything he had in order to follow Christ. When Francis took up with his friends again, he was noticeably distracted and distant. People would remark that Francis must be very deeply in love. “Yes,” he would reply, “I am going to take a wife more beautiful and worthy than any you know.”
As he was riding near Assisi one day, Francis met a leper covered in sores. Despite his initial repulsion, Francis dismounted his horse and approached the disease-ridden man. When the leper reached out his hand to receive alms, Francis not only filled his hands with money but also leaned in to embrace him. This encounter inspired Francis to tend to the sick, and he began to visit nearby hospitals to provide money and clothing for the indigent patients there and to minister to their spiritual needs.
While praying at a church outside of Assisi called San Damiano, Francis heard a voice coming from the crucifix, saying, “Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down.” Francis thought Christ was ordering him to repair the dilapidated church building around him. Obediently, Francis began to collect funds to repair the church building, took a horse and cart and loaded it with rich cloth from his father’s warehouse. He sold the entire cartful of cloth, as well as the cart and horse that carried them, and gave the money to the poor priest who was living at San Damiano.
Pietro di Bernadone was outraged and forcefully retrieved Francis from the dilapidated church. Pietro beat Francis and put him in chains, demanding that Francis either stay at home or renounce his inheritance and pay back what he had taken. Francis was quite ready to forfeit his own inheritance, but he insisted that the money he had gathered from selling the cloth belonged to God and the poor. Frustrated with his stubborn son, Pietro brought Francis to an audience with the bishop of Assisi in the piazza of the town, and the bishop agreed that Francis must return the money to his father.
Francis obeyed, and, in typical Francis-fashion, went the extra mile. He insisted that he would return everything to his father, and, in front of the crowd gathered in the piazza, Francis stripped off all his clothing. Standing naked in front of the crowd, Francis turned to Pietro: “Up until now I have called you father here on earth, but now I say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’”
Pietro was both furious and full of sorrow—he turned and left the square with a heavy heart. A man who worked for the bishop gave Francis a simple frock, Francis marked it with the sign of the cross in chalk and this became his first habit. Francis began to travel around the countryside, like a troubadour. Possessing nothing Francis relied solely on the generosity of others for food, clothing, and shelter.
Eventually, Francis returned to Assisi and began to rebuild the church of San Damiano himself. He begged for money in the streets of Assisi and hauled stones from a nearby quarry by himself. He went about repairing several other churches in the region until he heard one day a reading from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus sends the disciples to preach the kingdom of God without shoes or staff.
Following the commands of the Gospel wholeheartedly, Francis took off his shoes, gave away the few clothes he wore, and started preaching repentance. Very quickly, his passionate words and remarkable example touched the hearts of people he encountered, and soon other young men started to join his way of life. As their small society began to grow, Francis made simplicity the foundational rule of his order. In 1209, when Francis drew up the first simple rule, he enjoined the friars to, in their every action, display their love for poverty—from what they wore to the food they ate. One year later, after Francis convinced Pope Innocent III to grant their eclectic band of mendicants the church's approval, the Franciscan Order was officially born.
And, of course, Francis' love of and gentle command over animals is legendary. Once, when preaching, Francis commanded the birds to be quiet and they flocked around him to listen. Various stories have circulated of his befriending a rabbit and his taming of a wolf that plagued the city of Gubbio.
Francis and the first men who became the Franciscans worked for their daily bread by laboring in the field. When this supply of food was not enough to provide what they needed, they begged door-to-door for food, but never accepted money. The Franciscan community always received others with hospitality, especially the poor and the sick, including lepers.
Francis continued to shape the community of followers that had gathered around him, which now numbered in the thousands and had grown to include an order of women under the leadership of the daughter of another prominent Assisi family, Clare Offreduccio. Franciscan communities had begun to extend into Europe, as orders of Franciscans were founded in Spain and France. Today, the Franciscans are comprised of three branches of women, men, and lay Franciscans, and all together they form the largest religious community in the world.
St. Bonaventure's life of Francis includes fantastic accounts of Francis' travels in the Middle East. Francis purportedly traveled to Morocco, Egypt, and finally to Jerusalem. The dates of Francis' journey to the Holy Land are somewhat in dispute, but he left Franciscan friars behind him to care for the Christians of Palestine. These friars became the Custodia Terrae Sanctae, and, for over 700 years, have served as guardians both of the holy places of Galilee and Jerusalem, and have also cared for the local Christian congregations.
Towards the end of his life, Francis gave himself over increasingly to prayer. On several occasions, he was observed levitating while in contemplation. Francis spent a month in intense solitude and prayer in September of 1224 on the mountain of Verna. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Francis received the signs of Christ's stigmata, which are the physical wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side.
After receiving the stigmata, Francis lived two more years, but the immense suffering from the stigmata hastened the failure of his already weak health. Francis welcomed death as sister and died peacefully on the evening of October 3, 1226.
Some of Francis' relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus, and an image of Francis in ecstasy, shown above, makes up a part of the ceiling murals in the Basilica. His image decorates several other chapels on campus, including the chapel in Breen Phillips Hall, which is dedicated to him, and a stained glass window in the Dillon Hall chapel. Ivan Mestrovic, former artist-in-residence at Notre Dame, painted the painting to the right of Francis receiving the stigmata, which hangs in Moreau Seminary. Francis is the patron saint of the environment and environmental activism, families, and those who work in trade and finance. To join in St. Francis' prayer for creation, visit our prayercard site.
St. Francis, whose love for God in Creation and in the poor continues to renew the church today—pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Francis of Assisi, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.