Francis of Assisi
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Saint Francis of Assisi (born in Assisi, Italy, 1181; died there on October 4, 1226) founded the Franciscan Order or "Friars Minor". He is the patron saint of animals, merchants, Catholic action and the environment.
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Boyhood and early manhood
Born Giovanni Bernardone, commonly known as Francesco. His father, Pietro, was a wealthy cloth merchant. Of his mother, Pica, little is known. Francis was one of several children.
The name of Francesco ("the French-man"), by which his baptismal name was soon altogether replaced, has many conflicting explanations to its origin. One claims it to have been given him soon after his birth by his father, returning to Assisi from a trip to France; according to another account it was due to his early acquisition of the French language (possibly because his mother is believed to have been French). But perhaps the most probable explanation comes from his infatuation with French literature, particularly with the Troubadors. It is interesting to note the similarity between the lifestyle of the troubadors, free of all worldly possessions, the antithesis of the life his father wanted for him--and that which he would one day follow himself in his ministry.
Rebellious toward his father's business and pursuit of wealth, Francis would spend most of his youth lost in books (ironically his father's wealth did afford his son an excellent education, and he became fluent in reading several languages including Latin). He was also known for drinking and enjoying the company of his many friends, who were usually the sons of nobles. His displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him became evident fairly early, one of which is shown in the story of the beggar. In this account, he found himself yet again out having fun with his friends one day when a beggar came along and asked for alms. While his friends ignored the beggar's cries, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his stupidity, and when he got home, his father scolded him in a rage.
In 1201 he joined a military expedition against Perugia, was taken prisoner, and spent a year as a captive. It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience.
It is said that when he began to avoid the sports of his former companions, and they asked him laughingly if he was thinking of marrying, he answered "Yes, a fairer bride than any you have ever seen" - meaning his "lady poverty", as he afterward used to say.
He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi.
After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he had a vision in which he heard a voice calling upon him to restore the Church of God which had fallen into decay. He thought this to mean the ruined church of St. Damian near Assisi and sold his horse together with some cloth from his father's store, giving the proceeds to the priest for this purpose.
Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to bring him to his senses, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced all expectations from his father, laying aside even the garments received from him, and for a while was a homeless wanderer in the hills around Assisi.
Returning to the town where he spent two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, Assisi, just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.
The beginning of the Brotherhood
At the end of this period (according to Jordanus, in 1209), a sermon which he heard on the Gospel of Matthew 10:9, where Christ tells his followers that they should go forth and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is upon them, and that they should take no money with them, that they should take no walking stick for the road, and that they should wear no shoes -- made such an impression on him that he decided to devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty.
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work, and by other companions, who are said to have reached the number of eleven within a year, whom he called the "fratres minores", in Latin, "the little brothers". The Franciscans are sometimes called Friars, and this is a term derived from "fratres", or "brothers" in Latin.
The brothers lived in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time traveling through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations.
Their life was extremely ascetic, though such practises were apparently not prescribed by the first rule which Francis gave them (probably as early as 1209), which seems to have been nothing more than a collection of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty.
In 1209 Francis led his followers to Rome and asked the Pope's permission to found a new religious order. In spite of the obvious similarity between Francis' principles and the fundamental ideas of the followers of Peter Waldo whose similar request had previously been rejected by the Pope, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III. The reason for this unlikely approval is because after the Pope's rejection of Waldo, his group had paradoxically become more popular than ever. Realizing this, the Pope wished to avoid repeating that mistake in an attempt to fight heresy, which had become an increasing problem for the Church. Therefore, the Pope believed he could prevent the spread of the Franciscans, or at least control it, by granting them official recognition.
Many legends have clustered around the decisive audience of Francis with the Pope. The account in Matthew of Paris, according to which the Pope originally sent the shabby saint off to keep swine, and only recognized his real worth by his ready obedience, has, in spite of its improbability, a certain historical interest, since it shows the natural antipathy of the older Benedictine monasticism to the plebeian mendicant orders.
Work and extension of the Brotherhood
It was not, however, a life of idle mendicancy into which the brothers entered when they set out in 1210 with the papal approbation, but one of diligent labor. Their work embraced devoted service in the abodes of sickness and poverty, earnest preaching by both priests and lay brothers, and missions in an ever widening circle, which finally included heretics and muslims.
They came together every year at Pentecost in the little church of the Portiuncula at Assisi, to report on their experiences and strengthen themselves for fresh efforts.
There is considerable uncertainty as to the chronological and historical details of the last fifteen years of the founder's life.
But to these years belong the accounts of the origin of the first houses in Perugia, Cortona, Pisa, Florence, and elsewhere (1211-1213); the first attempts at a Muslim mission, in the sending of five brothers, soon to be martyrs, to Morocco, as well as in a journey undertaken by Francis himself to Spain, from which he was forced by illness to return without accomplishing his objective; the first settlements in the Spanish peninsula and in France; and the attempts, unsuccessful at first, to gain a foothold in Germany. The alleged meeting of Francis and St. Dominic in Rome at the time of the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215) belongs to the domain of legend; even Sabatier's argument to show that such a meeting actually took place in 1218 is open to serious objection.
Historical in the main are the accounts relating to the journey of Francis to Egypt and Palestine, during the Fifth Crusade, where he attempted to convert the Sultan Al-Kamil and gave fearless proofs of his readiness to suffer for his faith; the internal discord, which he found existing in the order on his return to Italy in 1220; the origin of his second and considerably enlarged rule, which was replaced two years later by the final form, drawn up by Cardinal Ugolino; and possibly the granting by Pope Honorius III (in 1223) of the Indulgence of the Portiuncula - a document which Sabatier, who formerly rejected it, later pronounced authentic.
The last years
Francis had to suffer from the dissensions just alluded to and the transformation which they produced in the originally simple constitution of the brotherhood, making it a regular order under strict supervision from Rome.
Especially after Cardinal Ugolino had been assigned as protector of the order by Honorius III - it is said, at Francis' own request - he saw himself forced further and further away from his original plan. Even the independent direction of his brotherhood was, it seems, finally withdrawn from him; at least after about 1223 it was practically in the hands of Brother Elias of Crotona, an ambitious politician who seconded the attempts of the cardinal-protector to transform the character of the order.
However, in the external successes of the brothers, as they were reported at the yearly general chapters, there was much to encourage Francis. Caesarius of Speyer, the first German provincial, a zealous advocate of the founder's strict principle of poverty, began in 1221 from Augsburg, with twenty-five companions, to win for the order some lands watered by the Rhine and the Danube; and a few years later the Franciscan propaganda, starting from Cambridge, embraced the principal towns of England.
But none of these cheering reports could wholly drive away from the mind of Francis the gloom which covered his last years.
He spent much of his time in solitude, praying or singing praise to God for his wonderful works. The canticle known as Laudes creaturarum, with its childlike invocations to Brother Sun, Sister Moon with the stars, Brother Wind, Sister Water, Brother Fire, and finally Sister Death, to raise their voices to the glory of God (influenced by The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children), dates from this period of his life.
The hermit stage which opened the career of many monastic founders was reserved for the end of his, who had once been so restless in his activity.
He spent the short remainder of his life partly on Monte Alverno on the upper Arno, where he fasted forty days and longed for union with God, to be demonstrated by the impression on his body of the wounds of Christ (see Stigmata); partly at Rieti under medical treatment; and partly in his beloved Portiuncula at Assisi waiting for his deliverance from the flesh. It is believed by some historians that his last days drew huge crowds of people wanting to bask in his presence, as well as those who awaited his death for the dividing up of his body for the purpose of relics.
He died October 3, 1226, at Assisi, and was canonized two years later by Pope Gregory IX, the former cardinal-protector of the order.
St. Francis, Nature and the Environment
Legend has it that St. Francis preached to the birds and other creatures as well as to humans. He is known today as the patron saint of animals and the environment. His image is often placed in gardens in respect for his interest in all things natural. His feast day is October 4.
In 1967 historian Lynn Townsend White, Jr nominated Francis as the patron saint of ecologists and environmenalists, arguing that his approach to the natural world was one of unusual and anachronistic respect, harmony and conservationism. (White generally considered the doctrines of the Christian Church as dominant factors in the ecological crisis of the 20th century.) In 1980, the Pope gave an environmental address in which he also praised St. Francis for keeping "fraternity" with the "good and beautiful of creation" as well as respecting and caring for all men and animals.
Certainly, posthumous legends and stories promulgated by his medieval biographers claim that St. Francis preached to the birds and other creatures as well as to humans, eliciting positive responses from them. He is even said to have tamed the man-eating wolf of Gubbio with words and faith alone, transforming the vicious predator into a penitent, dependent on the charity of humans for its food. His own Canticle of Brother Sun appears to suggest a profound respect and love of natural phenomena.
However, the academic establishment agrees that St. Francis actually had a rather conventional attitude towards his worldly environment. He did believe that the external world was inherently good as a sign and revelation of God's providence and goodness, its purpose being to inspire our respect and love, but this was not an unusual philosophy in the thirteenth century. His belief in the universal ability and duty of all animals to praise God is more unusual; however, it is far from the "sentimental pantheism" (G. K. Chesterton) suggested by Lynn White, and certainly bears no relation to current ecological or environmental sentiment.
Related articles
- Prayer of Saint Francis, Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
- Santa Chiara d'Assisi
References
- Parts of the text are originally from the Schaff-Herzog Encyc of Religion
External links
- St Francis of Assisi (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=50)
- St Francis of Assisi - Patron Saint of Animals and the Environment (http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/default.asp)
- Francis of Assisi (http://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/saint_francis_of_assisi.asp) Pictures, and selected poems
- St Francis of Assisi (http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/christian/st__francis_of_asissi/poems/) - Poems and Prayersbe:Францішак з Асізі
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