History Focus
October 3

Italian mystic, preacher and founder of the Franciscan order. Died on October 3, 1226.

St. Francis was born at Assisi, in central Italy, in 1182. He was baptized Giovanni Francesco Bernardone. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant, yet Francis had little formal education. He spent his carefree youth seeking fun and going to parties with friends.

Following a battle between Assisi and Perugia, he was held as a prisoner of war in Perugia for over a year. While imprisoned, he suffered a severe illness during which he resolved to alter his way of life. When he was released in 1202 he sold his property and gave the money to the church. Francis began to tend the poor and the sick, even caring for lepers. His change of character and his gifts to charity angered his father, who legally disinherited him. Francis supported himself by repairing chapels around Assisi. In 1208, one day during Mass, he heard a call telling him to go out into the world and, according to the text of Matthew 10:5-14, to possess nothing, but to do good everywhere. At last, throwing aside even his shoes, he lived in absolute poverty.

He began to attract followers. In ragged gray gowns, barefoot, and without money, the "begging brothers" went forth two by two to spread the gospel of service and poverty. Members of the brotherhood were sent to preach in France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and England. In 1212 Francis set out for the Holy Land, but a shipwreck forced him to return. He went to Spain to preach to the Moors. In 1219 he was in Egypt, where he succeeded in preaching to, but not in converting, the sultan. Francis then went on to the Holy Land, staying there until 1220.

In September 1224, after 40 days of fasting upon Monte Alverno, Francis felt pain mingled with joy, and received the stigmata. Francis was carried back to Assisi, where his remaining years were marked by physical pain and almost total blindness. He died on October 3, 1226. He was canonized in 1228. In 1980, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the patron saint of ecologists. The Franciscan order is still active today in missions, education, and care for the sick and needy.

Sources: Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) | Compton’s Encyclopedia