Francis of Assisi, << uh SEE zee, >> Saint (1181 or 1182-1226), founded the Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious order. The Franciscans devote themselves to preaching and to caring for the poor and the sick. Francis’s deep respect for nature and love of animals led Pope John Paul II to name him the patron saint of ecology in 1979.
Francis combined an absolute dedication to poverty with a joyful affirmation of creation. He wrote “Canticle of the Sun” in 1225, while he was in intense physical pain. This poem nevertheless praises God through the gifts of creation, including Brother Sun and Sister Earth.
Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182. His real name was Giovanni Bernardone. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant. As a young man, Francis led a happy and frivolous life and dreamed of heroic exploits. In 1202, he joined the young men of Assisi in a battle against the neighboring city of Perugia. He was captured and endured a year in prison. About 1205, Francis began a process of religious conversion. This process was marked by an encounter with a leper and a call Francis believed he heard from God to repair a ruined church standing near Assisi.
By 1208, Francis had renounced all his belongings, including the clothes he was wearing, and accepted total poverty in imitation of Jesus Christ. Francis’s remarkable spirit and commitment to Christ soon attracted followers. In 1209, Francis formulated a rule (program of life) for the Franciscan order, which was approved by Pope Innocent III in 1210. In 1212, Francis and his friend Saint Clare founded the Poor Clares, a Franciscan order for women. See Franciscans.
Because the Franciscans were not attached to a place or to possessions, they could travel freely as missionaries. Francis himself traveled throughout Italy and to Spain. He even went to Egypt during a military expedition called the Fifth Crusade, to try to convert the Muslim sultan to Christianity.
In 1220, Francis returned to Italy from his missionary travels and resigned as head of the Franciscans. Disappointed that many of his followers were unwilling to practice total poverty, Francis spent his final years in prayer and solitude. In 1224, Francis experienced a mystical vision while praying and was said to have received the stigmata, five wounds resembling those Christ suffered during the Crucifixion. Francis died on Oct. 3, 1226, and was canonized (declared a saint) in 1228. His feast day is October 4.
