Carol Kelly-Gangi - Saint Francis of Assisi: His Essential Wisdom

To Mom and Dad Gangi with love.

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S t. Francis of Assisi spent the first twenty-four years of his life in an unremarkable way. He was born in 1181 to a wealthy cloth merchant, Pietro Bernardone, and his wife Pica. Pietro was away on business in France when their child was born, so Pica had him baptized Giovanni, after John the Baptist. Upon his return, Pietro was enraged by her choice of name. A name that recalled the poor, wild herald of Christ was certainly not suitable for the son of a respectable merchant. Instead, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco, possibly to celebrate his successful business dealings in France.

By all accounts, Francis grew up to be an amiable young man, albeit a wastrel, who enjoyed fashionable clothes, parties with friends, and all of the amusements available to a young man of his class in Assisi. Yet several key events in Franciss life set him on a dramatically different course. Among these is the time he spent in prison.

At the age of twenty, Francis fought in a war between Assisi and neighboring Perugia. When Assisi was defeated, Francis was taken prisoner by the Perugian forces, and he spent a year imprisoned in a damp dungeon, in almost total darkness, subsisting on a diet of stale bread and foul water. For the first time in his privileged life, he suffered deprivations and misery. Yet, despite the deplorable conditions, he retained his good nature, and the concern he displayed for the less fortunate among them became apparent to his fellow prisoners. During his imprisonment he contracted an illness, possibly malaria or tuberculosis, and returned to Assisi in a weakened condition.

Within two years, however, still aspiring to a career as a knight, Francis embarked on yet another military campaign, this time with the papal forces led by Walter de Brienne. He stopped for the night twenty miles outside of Assisi and his illness returned. During the night, he had a startling vision that moved him to return to Assisi and try to ascertain his true vocation. Having lost interest in business, his friends and their former pursuits, Francis started to search for some deeper meaning to his life.

In the spring of 1206 Francis stopped at a dilapidated church in San Damiano to pray. While kneeling and contemplating the crucifix, Francis heard the voice of God imploring him, Francis, dont you see that my house has collapsed? Go and repair it for me. Francis accepted Gods challenge and immediately went about selling his horse, his clothes, and bolts of his fathers cloth and gave the proceeds to the priest at San Damiano. Knowing his father would be outraged, Francis hid in a cave for weeks.

Eventually he returned to Assisi, looking wild and haggard, to face his fathers wrath. Pietro dragged Francis home and locked him in the cellar, but Pica released him while Pietro was away.

Finally, Pietro turned to the bishop for a judgment against his son. In a dramatic public trial in front of the bishop, Francis agreed to give his father back the money that belonged to him, and summarily stripped off all of his clothes and laid them at his fathers feet, announcing for all to hear, Up until now I have always called Pietro Bernardone my father. In the future I will only acknowledge our Father who is in heaven. This is said to be the moment of Franciss final conversion.

The bishop gave Francis some rough clothes and he soon returned to San Damiano to continue his work on the church. He begged for stones for the repairs, singing the praises of God, and began to preach his new way of life based on the Gospel. His first follower, Bernard of Quintavalle, a respected businessman, joined Francis in 1208. Others soon followed, including Brother Giles (later St. Giles of Assisi) and Peter of Cattaneo. Their habit was a simple tunic made of the coarsest, cheapest material tied at the waist with a rope. Living in poverty and humility, they begged for food and preached the Gospel. In 1210 Francis and his eleven followers met with Pope Innocent III and were granted permission to form the Order of the Friars Minor. Astoundingly, within a few years, the original number of friars had grown to more than five thousand. They wandered the globe, two by two, continuing their mission of preaching, begging, and acting as servants to all.

Two years before his death, St. Francis received the gift of the stigmatahis hands and feet pierced as though with nails and an open wound on his sidemirroring the wounds that Christ received during the crucifixion. Suffering from a dreadful eye disease he had contracted in Egypt when he attempted to convert the sultan, he was nearly blind and gravely ill by the time of his death. And on October 3, 1226, surrounded by his brothers and whispering his prayers, St. Francis died peacefully. He was forty-five years old. Less than two years later, St. Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, who broke down in tears during his eulogy of the great saint.

In testament to his enduring legacy, millions of people make the pilgrimage every year to Assisi to visit the tomb of St. Francis and to feel the presence of this universally beloved saint.

Saint Francis of Assisi: His Essential Wisdom is a collection of more than 300 quotations by and about St. Francis. Many of these selections are drawn from the saints own writings and those he dictated to his brothers. In simple yet profound language, St. Francis wrote rules and exhortations for his brothers, letters to priests, ministers, and his lay followers, directives to St. Clare and her sisters, as well as heartfelt prayers and blessings. Evident in every word is his deep and abiding love of God and his fervent desire to serve Him and all of creation. His passion is palpable as he praises his Creator, guides his brothers and followers, and sets forth the rules to govern them in their daily lives. Fundamental to these are poverty, which leads them to God; holy humility, which infuses their every action; and absolute obedience and charity to all of humanity. The pinnacle of his praise for the Creator is The Canticle of Brother Sun, in which he joyfully praises God and all of His creation even in the midst of his own great personal suffering.

Also included are many selections from the early biographies of St. Francis written by Thomas of Celano and St. Bonaventure, as well as excerpts from well-known early Franciscan works such as The Legend of the Three Companions, which are the memoirs of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Rufino, and The Little Flowers of St. Francis, which may have been written by a colleague of one of Brother Leos disciples in the first half of the fourteenth century. In these charming selections, many of St. Franciss miracles are revealed, especially those involving birds, fish, and wild animals, as well as his love and respect for all of nature. Finally, there are excerpts from modern biographies of St. Francis, that help to put his life and works into context for todays readers.