ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Patron saint of Secular Franciscan Order
INTRODUCTION
He was the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and it is customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.
Childhood: Francis was born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182. His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy Assisian cloth merchant. About his mother Pica, little is known, but she is said to have belonged to a noble family of Provence. Francis was one of several children. At baptism the saint received the name of Giovanni, which his father afterwards altered to Francesco. Francis received some elementary instruction from the priests of St. George's at Assisi Francis. Though he spent money lavishly still he showed an instinctive sympathy with the poor. When about twenty, Francis went out with the townsmen to fight the Perugians but was defeated.
His Mission: One day, while crossing the Umbrian plain on horseback, Francis unexpectedly drew near a poor leper. He dismounted, embraced the unfortunate man, and gave him all the money he had. After his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian's below the town, he heard a voice saying: "Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin." Francis went to his father's shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian's chapel. When he emerged from this place of concealment and returned to the town, emaciated with hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis was followed by a hooting rabble, pelted with mud and stones, and otherwise mocked as a madman. Finally, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a dark closet. Freed by his mother since he had entered the service of God he was no longer under civil jurisdiction. Having therefore been taken before the bishop, Francis stripped himself of the very clothes he wore, and gave them to his father, saying: "Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only 'Our Father who art in Heaven', he comprehended the total surrender of all worldly goods, honours, and privilege. At last he had found his vocation. Having obtained a coarse woolen tunic of "beast colour", the dress then worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants, and tied it round him with a knotted rope, Meantime he redoubled his zeal in works of charity, more especially in nursing the lepers. Each time it opened at passages where Christ told His disciples to leave all things and follow Him. "This shall be our rule of life", exclaimed Francis, and led his companions to the public square When this rule was ready the Penitents of Assisi, as Francis and his followers styled themselves, set out for Rome to seek the approval of the Holy See Pope Innocent gave a verbal sanction to the rule submitted by Francis and granted the saint and his companions leave to preach repentance everywhere.
Suffering from stigmata and from an eye disease, Francis received care in several cities to no avail. In the end, he was brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it, all began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life dictating his spiritual testament. He died on the evening of October 3, 1226, singing Psalm 141.
On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. The next day, the Pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.