Taken from Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints:
Saint Francis, the son of a merchant of Assisi, was born in the year 1182
in a poor stable, his birth already prophesying the Saint who would preach
poverty to a world seduced by luxury. Though chosen by God to be for the
world a living manifestation of Christ’s poor and suffering life on earth,
in his youth he was generous, always of equal humor, and much appreciated by
his friends; he was fond of splendors, fine clothing, and good company, and
easily won the affection of all who knew him. More than once various holy
persons foretold for him a future of glory, but in veiled terms. Francis did
not understand these predictions, and supposed he would become the leader of
a large militia.
The military life he had adopted ended when Jesus told him he was
destined to fight another kind of combat, one against the demon and sin;
that the grandeurs predicted were spiritual, not temporal — and to return
home. He became inspired with a great esteem for poverty and humiliation.
The thought of the Man of Sorrows, who had nowhere to lay His head, filled
him with holy envy of the poor, and constrained him to renounce the wealth
and the worldly station which he had come to abhor. One day, while on
horseback, he met a leper begging alms who inspired him with repugnance, and
he took a path to avoid him. Then, repenting, he turned his horse around and
returned to embrace him and give him a generous alms, as was his custom for
all beggars. He continued on his way, but looked back, and nowhere on the
plain could the stranger be seen, though there were no trees, no refuges
anywhere. He was from that day a completely transformed person.
He decided to use his wealth to care for the poor and the sick, and
dedicate himself in person to the same works. When he prayed one day in the
little chapel to do only what God willed of him, the Saviour spoke again to
him, repeating three times the mysterious words: “Go, Francis, and repair My
house which is falling into ruin.” He then undertook to repair the old
church of San Damiano where he had heard these words, retiring for refuge to
a grotto. He was regarded as a fool by the people, when he returned to the
city in the clothing of a poor beggar. This was indeed the folly of the
Cross.
Francis renounced his heritage definitively, to beg thereafter his daily
sustenance and what he needed for the repair of the church, and left the
city singing the praises of God. He repaired two other churches. The love of
God which was burning brightly in the poor man of Assisi began to give light
and warmth to many others also, and it was not long before several came to
join him. One of them was a very wealthy man of Assisi, the second a Canon
of the Assisi cathedral, and the third the now Blessed Brother Gilles. They
adopted the absolute poverty of Francis, and the foundations of the
Franciscan Order were laid. They were first called the “penitents of
Assisi.” No counsels could make Francis change his resolution to possess
nothing at all. God revealed to him then that he was to found a religious
Order.
Pope Innocent III, when Francis with his first twelve companions
journeyed to Rome, after first rebuffing them, recognized him as the monk
God showed him in a vision, supporting on his shoulders the Church of Saint
John Latran, which was growing decrepit. He received the profession of
Francis and his twelve companions, and in 1215 they were formally
constituted as a religious Order, which then spread rapidly throughout
Christendom.
In 1216, Saint Francis after assembling his religious, sent them out to
preach in France, Spain, England and Germany, where they established
monasteries, lasting proofs of the efficacy of their missions. A second
general Chapter was held in 1219 on the feast of Pentecost, and the little
Brothers gathered from all over the world at Saint Mary of the Angels, the
church which Francis and his first twelve disciples had received only nine
years earlier. Cabins of reeds and tents were put up all over the
countryside. The Cardinal who visited them exclaimed, with tears in his
eyes, “O Brother, truly this is the camp of the Lord!” They were more than
5,000 in number. Saint Francis exhorted his brethren: “My Brothers, above
all, let us love the Holy Church; let us pray for her exaltation, and never
abandon poverty. Is it not written, ‘Trust in the Lord, and He Himself will
sustain you’ ”?
Francis, after visiting the Orient in a vain quest for martyrdom, spent
his life like his Divine Master — now in preaching to the multitudes, now
amid the desert solitudes in fasting and contemplation. His constant prayer
was “My God and my All!” During one of these retreats on Mount Alverno, he
received on his hands, feet, and side the imprints of the five wounds of
Jesus. With the cry, “Welcome, sister Death!” he passed to the glory of his
God, October 4, 1226, at the age of 44 years.
Reflection: The prayer of Saint Francis,
“My God and my All!” explains both his poverty and his wealth.
Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by
Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12; Little Pictorial
Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and
other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
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