St. Francis was born Francesco Bernardone in 1182 in Assisi, Umbria, Italy. His father, Pietro Bernardone was a wealthy cloth merchant and his mother was a French noblewoman. Francis was a gentle, likable and fun-loving boy who grew up to be a handsome and popular young man.
Assisi in the 12th century was a time of much violence. Frequent skirmishes broke out with the town of Perugia and Francis enthusiastically joined in the battle. Assisi was defeated, resulting in Francis’s imprisonment for over a year. During this time Francis became sick due to the poor conditions of the prison.
In 1204, Francis arrived back in Assisi and was bedridden for the entire year. After his recovery, he was no longer the same. He wandered the hills of Assisi disconsolate, as the world had lost its splendor. It is during this time that Francis began to hear the voices and see the visions that transformed his life.
The first voice came to Francis when he was in Spoleto where he entertained the hope of going off to war as a knight. Misinterpreting the voice as a prophecy of knighthood, another voice came to him and it is then that Francis asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” The Lord replied, “Return to Assisi. There it shall be revealed to you what you are to do, and you will come to understand the meaning of this vision.” From that point on, Francis began to listen to God instead of following his hopes and desires for glory on the battlefield.
After he returned to Assisi, Francis spent an entire year in a cave outside the town trying to understand God’s will and allowing Him to purify his heart. One day, while praying before the crucifix in the run down chapel of San Damiano, he heard a voice say “Francis, go and repair My house which, as you see, is falling into ruins.” At first, Francis interpreted the Lord’s words to mean physically repairing the old chapel, but the Lord’s will was for Francis to repair the entire Church through prayer, poverty and peace.
Soon after, in the presence of the Bishop of Assisi, his own father and a crowd that had gathered at the Bishop’s courtyard, Francis took his clothes off and declared that henceforth, his only father was God in heaven. Francis had found his vocation. He began to preach through the narrow streets of Assisi, though he was constantly ridiculed. One day Francis met a man with leprosy and was so appalled by the disease that he turned away. Then he realized that Christ is present in the poorest person, so he turned back to the man and embraced and kissed him. From then on, Francis gave his life to the poor and marginalized. He slept outdoors and in caves, served those who were hungry and sick, led prayer services, and fixed broken churches. Others soon joined him, and the order of “Friars Minor” eventually was formed.
Francis did far more than love animals, preach to the birds, and build the first nativity crèche. He renounced violence and war, and announced that he and his followers would be people of peace. In his most dramatic episode, he joined the crusades, not as a warrior but this time as a practitioner of Gospel nonviolence. In 1219, he began a year-long, unarmed walk through a war zone from Italy to northern Africa, where he managed to meet the Sultan, Melek-el-Kamel, the leading Muslim of the time. The Sultan was so impressed by Francis’ kindness and gentleness, that he announced, “If all Christians are like this, I would not hesitate to become one.”
Francis and his brothers obtained a permanent foothold near Assisi through the generosity of the Benedictines of Monte Subasio, who gave the Franciscans the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels or the Portiuncula (Little Portion). Francis and the brothers erected huts and this settlement became the cradle of the Franciscan Order. Throughout the region they went out, two by two, preaching to everyone.
During Lent of 1212, a great and unexpected joy came into Francis’s life. Clare, a young heiress of Assisi, moved by Francis’s preaching, decided she wanted to embrace his way of life. Soon her sister, Agnes, and other women joined her, and Francis gave them an adjoining dwelling at the church of San Damiano, which became the first monastery of the Second Order in the Franciscan family, the Poor Clares.
His preaching captivated many. One day in the town of Cannara, a small village near Assisi, the entire congregation was moved by Francis’s words. Afterwards, they presented themselves as one body to be admitted to his order. To accommodate such a request, Francis instituted the “Brothers and Sisters of Penance,” or the Third Order (later known as the Order of Franciscans Secular). As not everyone could join religious life, Francis instituted this order so that those desiring to follow his way of life could do so in their secular state.
In 1224, Francis retired to Mt. La Verna to pray, and it was there that he received the stigmata. After this experience, Francis’s health steadily deteriorated. He asked to be taken to San Damiano, and there in a small hut next to the convent of St. Clare, Francis spent his last fifty days.
On the night of October 3, 1226 with his brothers around him, Francis’s life on earth ended. He was 44 years old. Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228. His feast day is October 4 and the Church celebrates the impression of his stigmata on September 17. The death of St. Francis, the Transitus, is celebrated on October 3 by the entire Franciscan family.