Francis of Assisi October 4

Francis of Assisi (Latin: Franciscus Asisiensis) was born in late 1181 or early 1182, one of several children of an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a prosperous silk merchant, and a French mother, Pica de Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman from Provence. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, and Pica had him baptized Giovanni. Upon his return to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco ("freeman," "Frenchman"), perhaps in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.

Spoiled by his parents, Francesco lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man. In his youth, Francesco became a follower of the troubadours and was fascinated by all things Italian. He was handsome, witty, gallant, and delighted in fine clothing. He spent money lavishly. Although many hagiographers note his brilliant clothes, wealthy friends, and love of pleasure, his signs of disillusionment with the world around him occurred quite early in his life, as evidenced by the "Story of the Beggar."

In this story, he was selling cloth and velvet in the market on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the end of his business contract, Francis abandoned his goods and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends mocked him for his charity; his father scolded him in rage.

Around 1202, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year in captivity. An illness led him to reevaluate his life. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. In 1205, Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. A strange vision caused him to return to Assisi and lose interest in worldly life.

According to hagiographic accounts, he subsequently began to avoid the sports and parties of his former companions. A friend asked him if he was considering marriage, to which he replied: "Yes, a wife more beautiful than you have ever seen," meaning his "Lady Poverty."

During a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica. He spent time in isolated places, asking God for spiritual enlightenment. He said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the abandoned country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the icon of the crucified Christ told him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair my church, which, as you can see, is falling into ruin."

He understood this to mean the ruined church where he was currently praying, and so he sold some cloth from his father's shop to help the priest there. When the priest refused to accept the ill-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the ground.

To avoid his father's anger, Francis hid in a cave near San Damiano for about a month. When he returned to the city, hungry and dirty, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, tied up, and locked in a small storage room. Freed by his mother during Bernardone's absence, Francis immediately returned to San Damiano, where he found refuge with the officiating priest, but was soon summoned before the city consuls by his father.

The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold of San Damiano, also sought to force his son to renounce his inheritance by way of restitution. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony. Some accounts report that he undressed as a sign of this renunciation and that the bishop covered him with his own cloak.

For the next two months, Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi. He spent some time in a nearby monastery working as a kitchen boy. He then went to Gubbio, where a friend gave him, as alms, the cloak, belt, and pilgrim's staff. Returning to Assisi, he traveled through the town begging for stones for the restoration of San Damiano. These he carried to the old chapel, set them in place himself, and thus rebuilt it at length.

For two years he embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them San Pietro in Spina (in the area of San Petrignano in the valley about a kilometer from Rivotorto, now on private property and again in ruins); and the Porziuncola, the small chapel of Saint Mary of the Angels in the plain just below the town. This later became his favorite home. Gradually, he began to care for lepers, in the lazarus houses near Assisi.

While praying on Mount Verna during a forty-day fast in preparation for Michaelmas (September 29), Francis is said to have had a vision on or around September 13, 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. Brother Leo, who was with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the event, the first definitive account of the phenomenon of the stigmata. "Suddenly, he had a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross.

This angel gave him the five wounds of Christ. " Suffering from these stigmata and trachoma, Francis was treated in several towns (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) in vain. Finally, he was taken back to a hut next to the Portiuncula, where he spent his last days dictating his spiritual testament, where he died on the evening of Saturday, October 3, 1226, singing Psalm 141, "Voce mea ad Dominum."

On July 16, 1228, he was declared a saint by Pope Gregory IX (the former Cardinal Ugolino di Conti, a friend of Francis and Cardinal Protector of the Order). The next day, the Pope laid the foundation stone of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Francis was buried on the 25th may 1230, under the lower basilica, but his tomb was soon hidden on the orders of Brother Elias, in order to protect it from Saracen invaders. His burial place remained unknown until it was rediscovered in 1818.

Pasquale Belli then built a crypt for the remains in the lower basilica. It was remodeled between 1927 and 1930 in its current form by Ugo Tarchi. In 1978, Francis's remains were examined and confirmed by a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul VI, and placed in a glass urn in the old stone tomb.

Francis set out to imitate Christ and literally carry out his work. This is important for understanding Francis's character, his affinity for the Eucharist, and his respect for the priests who performed the sacrament. He preached: "Your God is of your flesh, He dwells in your closest neighbor, in every man."

He and his followers celebrated and even venerated poverty, which was so central to his character that in his last written work, the Testament, he declared absolute personal and collective poverty to be the essential way of life for the members of his order.

He believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his "brothers" and "sisters," and even preached to the birds and supposedly persuaded a wolf in Gubbio to stop attacking certain locals if they agreed to feed the wolf. His deep sense of brotherhood under God embraced others, and he declared that "he did not consider himself a friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died."

Francis's visit to Egypt and his attempt at rapprochement with the Muslim world had far-reaching consequences, long after his own death, for after the fall of the Crusader kingdom, it would be the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who would be allowed to remain in the Holy Land and be recognized as "Guardians of the Holy Land" in the name of the Catholic Church.

In Greccio near Assisi, around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by installing the first known presepio or crèche (nativity scene). His nativity images mirrored the scene in traditional paintings. He used real animals to create a vivid scene so that the faithful could contemplate the birth of the baby Jesus directly, using their senses, especially sight.

Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure, Francis's biographers, recount that he used only a straw-filled manger (trough) placed between a real ox and a donkey. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity, the manger serving as an altar for Christmas Mass.

Francis preached the Christian doctrine that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of human sin. As someone who saw God reflected in nature, "Saint Francis was a great lover of God's creation..." In the Canticle of the Sun, he gives thanks to God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, all of which he considers praise to God.

Many stories surrounding Francis's life say that he had a great love for animals and the environment. The "Fioretti" ("Little Flowers"), is a collection of legends and folklore that arose after his death. One account describes how one day, while Francis was traveling with companions, they came across a spot on the road where birds filled the trees on either side.

Francis told his companions to "wait for me while I go and preach to my sisters the birds." The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the power of his voice, and none of them flew away. He is often depicted with a bird, usually in his hand.

Another one legend The Fioretti family recounts that in the town of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, there was a wolf that was "terrifying and ferocious, devouring men as well as animals." Francis went up into the hills and when he found the wolf, he made the sign of the cross and ordered the wolf to come to him and not harm anyone.

So Francis led the wolf into the town and, surrounded by surprised citizens, made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had "done evil out of hunger," the townspeople were to feed the wolf regularly. In return, the wolf would no longer attack them or their flocks. In this way, Gubbio was freed from the threat of the predator.

On November 29, 1979, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Francis patron of ecology. On March 28, 1982, John Paul II declared Francis's love and care for creation a challenge to contemporary Catholics and a reminder "not to behave as dissident predators toward nature, but to assume responsibility for it, ensuring that everything remains healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and convivial environment even to those who come after us."

The same Pope wrote on the occasion of the World Day of Peace, January 1, 1990, that Francis "invited all creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honor and praise to the Lord. The poor man of Assisi gives us a shining testimony that when we are at peace with God, we are better able to devote ourselves to building that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples.

It is a popular practice on his feast day, October 4, for people to bring their pets and other animals to church for a blessing.