Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi was born at Assisi in Umbria in either 1181 or 1182, the exact year of his birth is uncertain, and died there October 3, 1226 (Saint pp). One of several children, he was born into a wealthy family (Saint pp). His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a successful cloth merchant and his mother, Pica is said to have come from a noble family of Provence (Saint pp). Francis was baptized Giovanni, later however, his father altered his name to Francesco (Saint pp).

Francis grew up as a privileged citizen by indulgent parents who satisfied his every whim (Saint pp). He was handsome and gallant and so enjoyed the finer offerings in life that one biographer referred to him as "the very king of frolic" (Saint pp). Francis was around twenty years of age when he was captured prisoner during a skirmish with the Perugians, and while held in captivity it is said that he became gravely ill and began to reflect on his life (Saint pp).

When he regained his health, he embraced the military career and was to accompany Walter of Brienne, into battle when the night before he was to leave he had a dream in which he saw a long hallway hung with armor marked with the Cross (Saint pp). In the dream a voice said, "These are for you and your soldiers," and believing that this meant he would be a military great, he eagerly left for battle (Saint pp).

However, he fell ill again and during the illness he had another dream in which the same voice urged him to go back to Assisi, which he did (Saint pp).

When Francis returned to Assisi, it was obvious to his friends that he had changed somehow, and when asked if he planned to marry, he replied, "Yes, I am about to take a wife of surpassing fairness," meaning the Lady Poverty "whom Dante and Giotto have wedded to his name, and whom even now he had begun to love" (Saint pp).

Francis began to pray, meditate, and reflect upon his life, and one day he unexpectedly came upon a leper, and the sight of this poor soul so repulsed Francis that he at first retreated, but then returned to embrace the man and give him all the money he had (Saint pp). He also made a pilgrimage to Rome where he emptied his purse at the tomb of St.

Peter, and exchanged clothes with a beggar and spent the remainder of the day fasting with the other beggars at the door of the basilica (Saint pp). Shortly after his return to Assisi, Francis was praying at the chapel of St. Damian, when again he heard a voice saying, "Go Francis, and repair my house, which as you can see is falling into ruin" (Saint pp). Believing that the voice referred to the church of St.

Damian, Francis used the money from the sale of some of his father's cloth as well as a horse to give to the church, however, when the priest learned how the money was gotten, he refused it, and when his father found out he was so enraged that Francis hid in a cave near the church for a month (Saint pp). When he finally emerged, emaciated and filthy, he was scorned by townspeople and dragged home by his father, who beat, bound, and locked him in a closet (Saint pp).

When Francis escaped with the help of his mother and returned to St. Damian, his father legally disinherited him, to which Francis replied that he had entered the service of God and therefore was no longer under civil jurisdiction, then stripped off his clothes and gave them to his father (Saint pp). Francis then wondered the countryside begging for stones, that he laid in place himself, to rebuild St. Damian's, and eventually restored two other chapels, all the while continuing his charity work with the lepers (Saint pp).

Then one day during Mass, in 1208, upon hearing the Gospel of the day tell of Christ's lecture to his disciples that they should neither possess gold nor silver, nor shoes, nor a staff and that they should exhort sinners to repentance and announce the Kingdom of God, Francis felt the words directly (Saint pp). Barefoot, dressed in the poorest Umbrian dress tied with a rope, he set out.