Francis of Assisi
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Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226) was a Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans. He is known as the patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment, and it is customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies honoring animals around his feast day of October 4.
Francis was a complex figure, a man who contemporaries claimed lived out the Sermon on the Mount better than anyone else, except of course, the man who first preached it. If that's even close to the truth, it's a bit easier to see why he left such an impression on his age and every age since. He was born in Assisi, Italy, as Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, son of a wealthy merchant. As a young man, Francis led a worldly, carefree life. An early biographer said, "He squandered his time terribly. Indeed, he outshone all his friends in trivialities." In 1202 he marched off to battle against the city of Perugia, full of a young man's dreams of military glory. But he was taken prisoner during the battle, and a year passed before his father could arrange ransom. That was followed by a year's convalescence in Assisi, a year in which Francis, now in his early twenties, was slowly transformed.During his illness, he experienced dreams and visions. One day as he prayed in a dilapidated church in San Damiano, at the edge of Assisi, he heard Christ say three times from the crucifix: "Francis, go repair my house, which, as you can see, is falling completely to ruin." Francis understood that he was to repair the church he prayed in (though his followers later would see this as his call to reform the church), so he proceeded to sell off family goods to raise money for repairs. When his father caught wind of this, he was furious. He dragged Francis before the local bishop to force his son into changing his unseemly behavior and to pay him back. In the course of the interview, Francis took off his clothes and laid them neatly in a pile before his father. "Up to today I called you 'father,'" he said to him, "but now I can say in all honesty, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" He walked out of the cathedral to become a hermit—to "be alone in solitude and silence," a biographer noted, "to hear the secrets which God could reveal to him.” In his last years, Francis popularized the living creche to highlight the poverty into which Christ was born. In 1224, on a mountaintop retreat, Francis had a mystical encounter that left him with bleeding wounds in his feet, hands, and side—the first recorded instance of stigmata. As he entered his mid-forties, illness racked his body, finally taking his eyesight completely. In his last years, he composed his famous Canticle of Brother Sun. From this poem Francis gets his deserved reputation as one who reveled in God's creation: Quotes"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
-Francis of Assisi "Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing you have received, fading symbols of honor, trappings of power, but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage." -Francis of Assisi "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace! Where there is hatred…let me sow love. Where there is injury…pardon. Where there is doubt…faith. Where there is despair…hope. Where there is darkness…light. Where there is sadness…joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek-to be consoled…as to console. To be understood…as to understand. To be loved…as to love; For it is in giving…that we receive; It is in pardoning…that we are pardoned; It is in dying…that we are born to eternal life." -Francis of Assisi Francis’s rejection of the body and the pleasure of the flesh is extreme, yet his indulgence of the flesh had been extreme, too, and fleshly temptations tormented him all his life. He had to be extreme in recognition of his sins and his repentance, or he could easily have slipped back into the old ways. -Francis of Assisi "Overcoming his deep aversion to and fear of disease, Francis kissed the hand of a leper he met outside the walls of Assisi. At that moment, he identified himself with the poor." -Francis of Assisi "A servant of God cannot know the extent of his patience and humility so long as all goes well with him. But when a time comes that those who should treat him well do the opposite, then he shows the true extent of his patience and humility, and no more. Blessed is the servant who does not esteem himself as better when he is praised and promoted by men than when they look on him as vile, stupid and contemptible; for whatever a man is in the sight of God, that he is, and no more. Blessed is the servant who accepts rebuke with courtesy, obeys respectfully, confesses humbly, and makes amends gladly. Blessed is the servant who is not in a hurry to excuse himself, but humbly accepts shame and reproach for a fault even when he is not to blame." -Francis of Assisi "Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt. Where the fear of the Lord stands guard, there the enemy finds no entry. Where there is mercy and moderation, there is neither indulgence nor harshness." -Francis of Assisi “Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me a right faith, a sure hope, a perfect charity” -Francis of Assisi “I have done my duty now may Christ teach you yours” -Francis of Assisi "You should not let a single person in the world, whatever sin that person may have committed, come before your eyes and depart without having found mercy with you. And should that person not ask for mercy from you, then you must ask it of him. And were that person to come to you a thousand times, continue to love them so as to lead them back to the right path. Always have compassion, for all of us have sinned." -Francis of Assisi "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless we preach as we walk" -Francis of Assisi "Pleased be you, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom you give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendors and bears likeness of you, Most High One." -Francis of Assisi "Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, grant us in our misery and grace to do for you alone what we know you want us to do, and always to desire what pleases you. Thus, inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened, and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to follow in the footprints of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And, by your grace alone, may we make our way to you, Most High, who live and rule in perfect Trinity and simple Unity, and are glorified, God all-powerful, forever and ever". Amen -Francis of Assisi Source: Letters to an Entire Order "If we owned anything, we should have to have weapons to protect ourselves. That is what gives rise to contentions and lawsuits, and so often causes the love of God and neighbor to be interfered with. For ourselves, we are resolved to possess nothing temporal in this world.” -Francis of Assisi “Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ gives to His friends is that of conquering oneself and willingly enduring sufferings, insults, humiliations and hardships for the love of Christ” -St Francis of Assisi Source: St. Francis of Assisi: Omnibus of Sources “Perfect joy is not in doing miracles or raising the dead; it is not in prophecy or in speaking all languages. Rather, it consists in being prepared to endure insults even from brothers in the monastery while maintaining charity.” -Francis of Assisi "It pleases me that you teach sacred theology to the brothers, as long as—in the words of the Rule—you 'do not extinguish the Spirit of prayer and devotion' with study of this kind.” -Francis of Assisi “If we owned anything, we should have to have weapons to protect ourselves. That is what gives rise to contentions and lawsuits, and so often causes the love of God and neighbor to be interfered with. For ourselves, we are resolved to possess nothing temporal in this world.” -Francis of Assisi Source: The Legend of the Three Companions |
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