Saint Francis of Assisi

Francis was born in Assisi to Pietro Bernardone (a wealthy cloth merchant) and Lady Pica, a member of the Provençal nobility. At the time of his birth, his father was in France selling fabrics; his mother named him John at his baptism. The name Francis, which was uncommon at the time, was given to him by his father on his return, in honor of France, the land of his commercial activities.

Francis initially lived a wild youth, going from party to party, which left him feeling increasingly empty inside. He was expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a cloth merchant and aspired to great glory and success. In fact, he wanted to become a knight.

As nobility was earned on the battlefield, he took part in the war between Assisi and Perugia, but was taken prisoner. Upon his release, he wanted to return to battle, but he heard a voice in a dream in Spoleto saying to him, "Why do you serve the servant and not the master? " This was the beginning of a journey of conversion that led him to leave everything behind and create three religious orders (Friars Minor, Poor Clares, and Third Order).

Back in Assisi, he gradually abandoned his lifestyle and his fellow revelers. In 1205, while praying before the crucifix in the chapel of San Damiano, Francis heard a voice asking him to "repair his Church." Taking this call literally, he spent his father's money on repairing the chapel. His father, furious, summoned him before the bishop. Francis then decided to renounce his entire inheritance and symbolically handed his clothes back to his father. The bishop, judging the situation, covered Francis' nakedness, and from then on Francis could say with confidence: "Our Father who art in Heaven, for it is to Him that I have entrusted my treasure and given my faith."

In 1208, at Santa Maria degli Angeli, he heard the Gospel passage about the sending of the disciples on mission. Overcome with joy, he exclaimed: "This is what I want! This is what my whole soul desires!" " Obeying the Word, he undertook an itinerant apostolate in Italy and even went as far as Egypt, where he preached to the Sultan, who was impressed by his courage and simplicity. This lifestyle quickly attracted other young people from Assisi, including former companions of revelry. Among them were Bernard, Peter, Gilles, Massée, and Leon. A first community of brothers thus formed around him. He wrote them a Rule based on passages from the Gospel. When there were twelve of them, they went to Rome to have it approved by Pope Innocent III. The latter, who had seen Francis in a dream supporting the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Rome's cathedral in ruins, verbally validated this first rule in 1210. The final rule, still written by Francis, was approved in 1223.

In 1212, he founded, with Clare Offreducio, the future Saint Clare of Assisi, the more contemplative order of the Poor Ladies, known today as the Poor Clares. Finally, for the laity, he founded a third order, known today as the "Third Order" or "Secular Fraternity," whose rule was approved in 1221. This Third Order is made up of lay people, young and old, who bear witness to the Franciscan ideal in society. These three Orders continue to exercise their charism of evangelization throughout the world today.

In 1224, Francis retired to the monastery of La Verna. It was there that he received the stigmata on September 17, three days after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Francis was thus the first Christian in the history of the Church to receive the gift of the stigmata, signs of the crucifixion of Jesus. He bore them until his joyful encounter with "Sister Bodily Death," celebrated on the evening of October 3, 1226, at Santa Maria degli Angeli. Thus, having become like Christ in his evangelical life and physical resemblance, he was called "Alter Christus." He left a will in which he professed his attachment to evangelical poverty and the Rule. At his death, the Franciscan order had between 3,000 and 5,000 brothers. Pope Gregory IX proclaimed him a saint on July 16, 1228, barely two years after his death. Saint Francis is the patron saint of ecology. He is also considered the precursor of interreligious dialogue because of his meeting with the Sultan.