The Story of St. Francis

St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1182. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis soon became deft in the ways of the world. Far from his saintly image, Francis began his life embracing the material world his father so generously provided and was quite fond of the "wild" life.

A source of pride to his father, who despised the people of "religion", Francis set off to attain fame and glory through the Fourth Crusade. Donning the armor of a true knight, Francis galloped off into the sunset…but God had other plans for Francis.

In a dream God told Francis that he was making a mistake and needed to return home. Francis obeyed, and from that point on, he surrendered his will to God. He began to spend more time in prayer. He wept for his past sins. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy.

One day while riding through the countryside, Francis, the man who loved beauty and hated deformity, came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. When his kiss was returned, Francis was filled with joy. As he rode off, he turned around for a last wave, and saw that the leper had disappeared.

One day while deep in prayer, he heard Christ speak to him, "Francis repair my church". Francis took this to mean the building he had grown to love. He begged for stones and soon rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands. Francis was unaware that Jesus had spoken of the present day Church. Scandal and avarice were working on the Church from the inside while outside heresies flourished by appealing to those longing for something different or adventurous.

Soon Francis started to preach. (He never was a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon.) He preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Slowly companions came to Francis, people wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat…and loving God. Francis and his companions went out to preach two by two teaching people about God's immense love and the joy of living material-free. Francis did not try to abolish poverty, he tried to make it holy. When his friars met someone poorer than they, they would eagerly rip off the sleeve of their habit to give to the person. They worked for all necessities and only begged if they had to. Possessing something was the death of love for Francis. Francis reasoned that without possessions, you were truly free.

Francis' brotherhood included all of God's creation. He believed that all God's creatures were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope. In one famous story a wolf stalked the small town that Francis resided in, eating humans and causing much devastation. Francis reportedly intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he had plenty to eat.

Francis is also attributed with creating the first creche. He conceived the idea that the celebration of the friars' Christmas should occur in a cave to recapture the atmosphere of the first Christmas. He created a manger scene with a donkey and ox on a piece of land donated by a wealthy landowner.

Years of wandering and acute poverty made Francis ill. He never recovered from his illness and died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders and the patron saint of ecologists and merchants.