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Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is October 4, remains one of Catholicism’s most popular saints.
Statues and pictures of him abound, especially in gardens and fields, and young people often choose him as their Confirmation saint.
He captures the imagination of artists, writers, poets, intellectuals, and common folk alike.
It is easy to romanticize his story, but like all saints, Francis shows us what happens when an individual gives everything to Christ.Life and experiences
Born in Assisi in 1182, the son of a prosperous cloth merchant, Francis was an only child in a wealthy household.
Growing up, he was the most popular young man in town, the life of the party who dreamed of knighthood and chivalry.
Wounded and imprisoned during a battle with a neighboring city-state, Francis came home to face a long convalescence in bed.
This time of deep suffering awakened his heart to the love and mercy of God, and as he recovered, a very different man emerged, more serious, more faith-filled, more attentive to the needs and sufferings of those around him.
Legendary stories surrounding the saint from Assisi abound.
How he kissed a leper who turned into Christ. The time when he heard Christ speak from the crucifix in a broken-down chapel, telling him to rebuild the Church. The moment in the town square when Francis stripped off his clothes and gave them back to his father in an act of radical renunciation.
Francis preaching to the birds, receiving the stigmata, going to proclaim Christ to the Muslim Sultan, seeking permission from the pope for his new Order.
Throughout his short life, Francis embraced symbolic actions which spoke profoundly of the love of God and the glory of the Lord revealed in the human person and the beauty of nature.
Burning love
In the many revisions of Francis’ legendary life, some view him as a sort of Catholic hippie, a glorified nature lover, a rebel against society and the Church.
No such characterization captures the heart of this extraordinary saint.
To understand Francis, we must know his burning love for the crucified Christ and his tender devotion both to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Spending long hours in prayer, he was completely transformed by the humility and self-emptying of Jesus Christ, in His Incarnation, ministry, death, and Resurrection.
This absolute identification with the Lord freed Francis to love everyone and everything that God created, seeing all living creatures as an expression and extension of the beauty, truth and goodness of God.
Francis loved poverty, lived it radically and called it his Lady.
Viewing his gray, patched, rough habit gives me chills when I perceive the absolute nature of his renunciation.
Poverty, for him, was both a means to an end, a way of freeing up one’s spiritual landscape in order to gain the liberation of detachment, but also a sure and certain way to draw closer to the poor Christ.
Francis gave up possessions, not because material things are bad, but so that he would have the liberty to love others completely without being bogged down with stuff.
Living a simple life allows us to give our money, clothing, and resources to those who really need it and gives us the spiritual space to draw closer to God.
His famous, poetic “Canticle of the Sun,” a hymn of praise to God who has made all of creation in its wonder and beauty, shows Francis’ deep love for all that God has made.
He principally lived outside in the Umbrian hills of Italy, and anyone who has visited there knows how such a remarkable physical landscape could shape an integrated spiritual vision of the unity and harmony of all creation.
Nature is sane, following its patterns of harmony and order.
When we immerse ourselves in it, we easily see the hand and the breath of the Creator who calls us to live in His purpose and plan.
If we only live in the city of man, we will never know the wonder of looking up to the glory of the heavens or examining the complexity of a flower.
Embracing the poor
Francis lived with and served the poor, knowing that God has a special affection and concern for those living on the margins of society — the sick, the elderly, the leprous, the abandoned.
He knew well that the Kingdom of God was unfolding more eloquently in the lives of the little ones than in the palaces of the powerful.
Those who lack self-sufficiency, who know how much they need God, who are solely reliant on Divine Providence become very familiar with the ways of the Lord.
Francis cast his lot in with the poor and the lowly, knowing that God was calling him to live solely for Christ and His holy Gospel.
In the end, Francis was completely blind and dependent on his Brothers for care.
He died on October 3, 1226, and was canonized only two years later, so clear was his sanctity.
He will stand for all time as a transformational saint, one who brought the Gospel to the people, who lived the joy of Christ, embracing a poverty and humility beyond our comprehension.
His legacy stands as a challenge to us whenever we seek to let comfort, security, the good opinion of others, possessions or power take primacy over God in our lives.
In a legendary conversation with one of his brothers, Francis waxed eloquent about the nature of perfect joy, stating that absolute bliss is possible only when we embrace poverty, suffering, and rejection, because in that moment, we are most in union with the crucified Jesus.
Only a soul who had lived the dark night of the cross could make such an astonishing assertion.