St. Francis of Assisi

Feast Day: October 4

Francis had everything a young man could want.

His father was a wealthy cloth merchant.

Francis enjoyed fine clothes, parties, friends, and dreams of becoming a knight.

He wanted glory.

He wanted adventure.

He wanted people to admire him.

Then his life began to fall apart.

Francis went to war, was captured, and spent months as a prisoner.

After returning home, the life he once loved no longer satisfied him.

He began spending more time in prayer.

He visited the poor.

He cared for lepers, people he had once feared.

And one day, while praying before a crucifix in the ruined church of San Damiano, Francis believed Christ spoke to him:

“Francis, go and repair my house.”

At first, Francis thought Jesus meant the crumbling church building.

Only later did he understand that God was asking for much more.

Francis gave up wealth, status, and comfort.

He chose poverty.

He preached repentance.

He served the poor.

And his life became one of the great renewal movements in the history of the Church.

The young man who once wanted worldly glory became known simply as the Poor Man of Assisi.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Who Was St. Francis of Assisi?

St. Francis was born around 1181 or 1182 in Assisi, Italy.

His baptismal name was Giovanni, but his father began calling him Francesco, or Francis.

Francis grew up in a comfortable merchant family.

As a young man, he was outgoing, generous, and attracted to the romantic ideals of knighthood.

He dreamed of military glory.

But war would become one of the events God used to change him.

War, Captivity, and Conversion

Francis fought in a conflict between Assisi and Perugia.

He was captured and imprisoned for about a year.

After his release, he returned home physically and spiritually changed.

He later attempted another military campaign but turned back.

Francis began to seek God more seriously.

The things that had once seemed important to him now seemed empty.

His conversion was gradual, but it became increasingly visible.

Meeting a Leper

One of the most important moments in Francis’s conversion came when he encountered a man suffering from leprosy.

Francis had always been repulsed by lepers.

But instead of riding away, he approached the man.

He embraced him and gave him alms.

Francis later looked back on experiences like this as moments when God changed what had once seemed bitter into sweetness.

His conversion was not merely about giving up money.

It was about learning to love the people he once avoided.

“Repair My Church”

While praying in the small church of San Damiano, Francis heard Christ calling him to repair His Church.

Francis began rebuilding the ruined chapel stone by stone.

He sold goods from his father’s business to help fund the work, which led to serious conflict with his father.

Eventually, Francis publicly renounced his inheritance.

He gave up his claim to family wealth and chose a life of radical poverty.

From that point forward, he wanted God alone to be his security.

The Birth of the Franciscan Movement

Francis began preaching repentance and living very simply.

Other men were drawn to his example.

Soon, a small community formed around him.

They became known as the Friars Minor, or Lesser Brothers.

Francis wanted them to own as little as possible, preach the Gospel, serve the poor, and live in fraternity.

Their life was centered on following Jesus Christ as literally and simply as they could.

The movement spread rapidly.

St. Clare and the Poor Clares

Francis’s example also inspired a young woman from Assisi named Clare.

She left behind a wealthy life and embraced poverty and religious life.

With Francis’s support, she founded the community that became known as the Poor Clares.

Together, Francis and Clare became two of the most influential saints of the Middle Ages.

Both believed that freedom came from giving everything to Christ.

Francis and Creation

Francis is famous for his love of creation.

He called the sun his brother and the moon his sister.

He preached about the goodness of the world God had made.

But Francis did not worship nature.

He loved creation because it reflected the goodness of the Creator.

Birds, animals, the sun, water, and the earth all reminded him to praise God.

His Canticle of the Creatures expresses this beautifully.

Francis saw creation as a family of creatures all dependent on the same Father.

The Christmas Crèche

St. Francis also played an important role in popularizing the Christmas Nativity scene.

In 1223, at Greccio, he arranged a living representation of the birth of Jesus.

He wanted people to see and feel the poverty and humility of Bethlehem.

There was a manger.

There was hay.

There were animals.

The scene helped ordinary Christians meditate more deeply on the mystery of the Incarnation.

The Christmas crèche remains one of the most beloved Catholic traditions today.

Francis and the Sultan

During the Fifth Crusade, Francis traveled to Egypt.

Rather than remaining safely behind Christian lines, he crossed into the Muslim camp and met Sultan al-Kamil.

The exact details of their conversation are not fully known.

But Francis went peacefully and with the intention of bearing witness to Christ.

He returned alive.

The meeting remains one of the most remarkable episodes of his life and shows both his courage and his missionary desire.

The Stigmata

Near the end of his life, Francis received the stigmata, wounds resembling those of Christ crucified.

This happened in 1224 while he was praying on Mount La Verna.

Francis had spent years trying to imitate Christ in poverty, humility, and suffering.

Now even his body bore signs of the Passion.

He became the first widely recognized saint in Christian history to receive the stigmata.

His Final Years

Francis’s health deteriorated badly.

He suffered from illness, poor eyesight, and pain.

Yet he continued to praise God.

In the final period of his life, he composed the Canticle of the Creatures.

Francis died on October 3, 1226.

Pope Gregory IX canonized him less than two years later.

What St. Francis Teaches Us

St. Francis teaches us that conversion changes what we love.

At first, Francis loved comfort, status, and glory.

Later, he loved Christ, the poor, and the Gospel.

He also teaches us that poverty is not simply having less.

It is refusing to let possessions control us.

Francis wanted to be free enough to go wherever Christ sent him.

And he reminds us that care for creation should always lead to worship of the Creator.

The world is good because God made it.

The poor have dignity because they bear His image.

And true freedom comes from belonging completely to Christ.

When Is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi?

The Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4.

He is especially remembered as the founder of the Franciscan movement, a lover of poverty, a servant of the poor, and a man deeply devoted to Jesus Christ.

Prayer Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi

Lord Jesus Christ,

give us the simplicity and courage of St. Francis.

Free us from attachment to wealth, status, and comfort.

Teach us to love the poor, to care for Your creation, and to follow You with generous hearts.

Help us to repair what is broken in our lives and in Your Church.

Make us instruments of peace and witnesses to the joy of the Gospel.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us. Amen.