He is probably the best known and most popular saint, who still fascinates many people today, especially poets and painters; those who are dedicated to the poor and to protecting the natural environment.
Giovanni Bernardone-this was his real first and last name-was born in Assisi in 1181 or 1182, while his father Pietro Bernardone, a wealthy textile merchant, was, by reason of interests, in France. As soon as he returned, perhaps to commemorate his trip to France, the father named his son “Francis.” Destined for mercantile work, Francis, from his childhood, attended school at the church of St. George in Assisi and, thanks to the education he received there, learned the art of reading and writing, as well as also knowing the Bible, especially the Gospel and the Psalms. Francis spent the years of his youth in carefree companionship with peers, having fun, attending dances and dinners, and practicing trade in his father’s store. He sought to acquire the dignity of knighthood, which for many wealthy bourgeois was the height of ambition. For this, in 1198, he participated in the insurrection of the citizens of Assisi against the power of Prince Conrad of Urslingen, and in 1202 in the war between Assisi and Perugia. In the latter, in the battle at Collestrada, he was captured and imprisoned for almost a year. He then thought of putting himself in the retinue of Count Gentile who, at the urging of Pope Innocent III, was to travel to southern Italy and Sicily to put an end to the anarchy that was spreading there. At the last moment, however, he withdrew from that campaign, it is said, under the influence, of a mysterious dream in which he allegedly heard this question, “Who is better to serve, the servant or the master?”
We must look for the beginnings of Francis’ conversion around the year 1202. He himself speaks of it soberly and clearly: “The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in this way: when I was in sins, it seemed to me too bitter a thing to see lepers; and the Lord himself led me among them and I used mercy with them. And turning away from them, what seemed bitter to me was changed to sweetness of mind and body. And afterward, I stood a little while and went out of the world” (Testament, 1-4). According to St. Bonaventure, a special moment in Francis’ conversion was the mysterious vision of Christ, who would command him from the cross to rebuild the church that was falling into ruin. Both events, the encounter with the leper and the vision of the Crucified One, do not contradict each other, but constitute successive stages in the conversion process. The call of the Crucifix was seized by Francis in a literal way: he thus embarked, around 1206, on a hermitic life by taking charge of rebuilding the ruined little churches he encountered near Assisi. He used money from his father’s workshop to cover the costs of reconstructions. His father’s violent resistance against that change of life, especially against the use of money, from trade, for helping the poor and rebuilding churches, ended in a trial before the bishop of Assisi, when Francis publicly renounced his right to the patrimony, even returning to his father the clothes he had on. Abandoning Assisi, he initially took up manual labor in the kitchen of the Benedictine abbey at San Verecondo, and then serving lepers in Gubbio. After his return to his hometown, very important for him was February 24, 1208 (the probable date) when he heard the words of the Gospel about the sending of the Apostles and took them as addressed to him personally. He then began a life of extreme poverty, dedicated to the itinerant proclamation of the Gospel, feeling called, in a special way, to penance. He lived on the offerings of the people of Assisi whom he begged by going from door to door.
He had no intention of founding any new structure in the Church, and he sought neither followers nor companions, but they came to him just a few months later (1208/1209). All were from Assisi or nearby and witnessed the transformation of Francis’ life: the citizen of Assisi Bernardo da Quintavalle, the jurist Pietro Cattani, Egidio da Assisi, the priest Silvestro, the peasant Egidio, an impoverished nobleman Morico, Sabatino, Giovanni dalla Cappella, then the others. All social classes of the time are represented in the first companions. Francis sent them two by two on a mission to preach more by example than by word. The fraternity, settled around 1209 in the hovel at Rivotorto, moved a few months later to the Portiuncula-a small church dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels, which Francis received from the Benedictines, and which was the first to be rebuilt. The Portiuncula became a sign of Francis’ poverty: he did not want to receive it on his own, but to rent it.
The nascent fraternity needed a rule. It was to consist of a few sentences from the Gospel about proclaiming the Good News, the duty to carry one’s cross, following Christ, and the renunciation of all property. When the number of brothers increased to twelve, they went to Rome, where Francis personally applied to Pope Innocent III to confirm that kind of life. The question, in many cardinals, raised serious doubts because of the radical way of living poverty and the fear of being faced with another heresy. Eventually Pope Innocent III, in 1209, orally approved this life. By Francis’ will, the fraternity took the name “Order of Friars Minor,” although other names were initially in use, such as “Penitents of Assisi.” Since the fraternity was growing in numbers very fast (around 1220 there were already more than 3,000 brothers), and life was always bringing new questions and interrogatives for which the rule, very general in content, gave no answer, during the annual meetings of all the brothers, i.e. in chapters, directions and norms were added, which eventually grew to become a fairly full-bodied document (24 chapters), codified in 1221. As disagreements have arisen among the brothers regarding the purpose and tasks of the fraternity (foreign missions? Preaching? Life dedicated exclusively to prayer and contemplation?), Francis did not seek to resolve these difficulties on his own, but counted on the help of the Holy Spirit who-as he deeply believed-would “grant the brothers to know what they should do and how to proceed.” Eventually, with the help of Cardinal Ugolino da Segni and a number of friars skilled in the art of writing (Cesario da Spira, Bonizio da Bologna), he composed the final version of the rule, which was approved by Pope Honorius III with the bull Solet annuere of November 29, 1223. This Rule to this day constitutes the foundation of the life of all branches of the Order of Friars Minor. On the night of Dec. 24-25, 1223, in Greccio, Francis set up a nativity scene for the first time in history-a custom that in the following years spread throughout Europe, and then throughout the world.
The last period of his life was very painful for Francis.An inflammation of the eyes, which had struck him in the Holy Land, where he had gone in the years 1219 -1220, constantly tormented him. Very painful eye care (with hot iron) does not bring satisfactory results. And then the stigmata, received during prolonged prayer in solitude at La Verna, in September 1224 when he had a vision of Christ in the form of a Seraphim with six wings piercing his hands, feet and side. The stigmata were a sign of God’s special election, but they evidently involved physical pain that hindered him from walking and holding anything in his hands. And to top it all off, there were also moral sufferings: Francis felt unable to serve the growing number of friars who, as he believed, either became less and less zealous because of him or did not understand the Gospel life. Presenting the end, Francis asked to be taken to the Portiuncula. It was there that surrounded by his brothers he ended his earthly life on the evening of October 3, 1226. In his last hour before he died, he asked to be placed on the bare earth, stripped naked-he wanted to die absolutely poor, having nothing of his own. Just two years after his death in 1228, Pope Gregory IX (formerly Cardinal Ugolino da Segni) proclaimed him a saint. Initially his body was laid to rest in the church of St. George in Assisi, and in 1230 it was transferred to the basilica dedicated to St. Francis, built specifically for this purpose in Assisi, where it remains to this day.
Francis authored the following writings: the Rule (both in the unapproved version – 1221, and in the approved version – 1223, along with other fragments drafted the different times), the Testament, some letters (among others: To the whole Order, To the faithful, To Brother Leo), many prayers, especially of praise, and a collection of short teachings called Admonitions.
Br. Roland Prejs OFMCap