By Leon Bent –
Saint Francis of Assisi, informally named as Francesco (1181/1182), was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon and preacher. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. He is regarded as the greatest of Saints, one who lived closest to the way Jesus did. He is regarded as one of the best-loved saints of all time. His feast is celebrated on 4th October.
He was designated Patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October. He is often remembered as the patron saint of animals. According to Christian tradition, in 1224 he received the stigmata during the apparition of Seraphic angels in a religious ecstasy, making him the first recorded person in Christian history to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion.
On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica. He spent some time in lonely places, asking God for spiritual enlightenment. He said he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, “Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.”
It was to be the most important moment of his life – a command that determined his future vision and direction. The church of his day was in desperate need of spiritual and moral transformation. In addition to being pre-occupied with war in the Middle East, it was also a period when the church’s affluence was enabling vast cathedrals and monasteries to be constructed throughout the Western world.
In his youth he had complete disdain for lepers and loathed their sight. Around the beginning of his conversion, however, Francis met a leper one day along the road and instead of turning away in disgust he dismounted his horse, gave the leper alms and kissed his hand. Care for the lepers became the centre of his life. Just as he realized that God humbly bends over in love to embrace us in Jesus Christ, so too, he realized that the suffering of humanity and all creation could only be lifted up through solidarity in love.
Francis and his followers were to provide a huge contrast to this. They recognised that Jesus’ way of life and ministry priorities needed recapturing as the essential foundation on which God’s kingdom must be built. Over the next twenty years, before this early death in 1226, the Franciscan revolution brought great spiritual refreshment and fresh vision to the church across Europe and more widely, with Francis even daring to cross the Mediterranean to be an agent for bringing peace to the Middle East. The visit established a trust between the Franciscans and the Saracens that lies behind the role of the Franciscans being the guardians of Christian holy sites today.
“Let every spirit praise the Lord”
However, the focus of his attention gradually changed as he experienced a series of personal encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ in dreams, in the silence of a cave, in prayer before the San Damiano crucifix, in hearing a passage from the Gospel and in meeting a leper on the road.
On turning his attention to God the Father, overwhelmed by His infinite love for him revealed in His incarnate Son, Jesus and in creation, Francis gave up his inheritance and devoted his life to following the poor and crucified Christ. Francis showed his love for God through his deep love and reverence for all of God’s creation. His prayers such as “The Canticle of the Creatures” express his brotherly relationship with all created things.
“Sing a new song to the Lord
Sing to the Lord all the earth”
Men and women joined him, and together they prayed and praised God in all His creation, and served Christ in people experiencing poverty and suffering. Eventually, Francis founded the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) for men, and along with St. Clare of Assisi, the Poor Clares, for women. He founded the Secular Franciscan Order for married, widowed and single people. Each of these groups tries to live the spirituality of St. Francis based on his life. The Franciscan Orders combined are the largest Congregation, by far, in the Catholic Church.
Due to his brotherly care for all creation, including nature, St. Francis was named Patron Saint of Ecology by Pope John Paul II.
“Praised be You, my Lord,
through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble
and precious and chaste.”
Francis has been described as a nature mystic, one who found God in the vast and beautiful fields of nature. Everything spoke to Francis of the infinite love of God. Trees, worms, lonely flowers by the side of the road—all were saints gazing up into the face of God. In this way, creation became the place to find God and, in finding God, he realized his intimate relationship to all of creation.
The poem, “Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon” is one of the highlights of St. Francis’ mysticism. The Canticle of the Sun, in its praise of God, thanks Him for such creations as “Brother Fire” and “Sister Water”. It is an affirmation of Francis’ personal theology, as he often referred to animals as brothers and sisters to Mankind, rejected material accumulation and sensual comforts in favour of “Lady Poverty”.
We live in days when the call Francis heard from God ‘Rebuild my Church, which is in ruins’ has immeasurable relevance for us today, when the Universal Catholic Church is rocked by sexual scandals and other perils. His passion to ensure that the example of Jesus must be the lens through which they understood discipleship is our passion, too.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.