Francis of Assisi

For the opera by Olivier Messiaen, see Saint-François d'Assise.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis by Cimabue Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi.
Confessor
Born	1181/1182 Assisi, Italy
Died	October 3, 1226 Assisi, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church
Canonized	July 16, 1228, Assisi by Pope Gregory IX
Major shrine	Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
Feast	September 17 October 4
Attributes	Cross, Dove, Pax et Bonum, Poor Franciscan habit, Stigmata
Patronage	animals, Catholic Action, environment, merchants, Meycauayan, Italy, Brgy. San Francisco, San Pablo City, Philippines, stowaways

Francis of Assisi (Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; born 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was a friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.

He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and Italy, and it is customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies honoring animals around his feast day of 4 October.

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As a youth, Francesco—or Francis in English—became a troubadour and yearned to become a writer of French poetry. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the cardinal bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next day. After several days, the pope agreed to informally admit the group, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured and Francis was ordained as a deacon, allowing him to read Gospels in the church.

Feast day

Saint Francis' feast day is observed on October 4. In addition to this feast, a secondary feast is still observed amongst Traditional Roman Catholics and Franciscans world-wide in honor of the stigmata received by St Francis celebrated on September 17 called "The Impression of the Stigmata of St Francis, Confessor" (see the General Roman Calendar as in 1954, the General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII, and the General Roman Calendar of 1962). On 5 May 1940 Pope Pius XII named him a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Catherine of Siena.

Saint Francis, nature and the environment

A garden statue of Francis of Assisi with birds

Many of the stories that surround the life of St. Francis deal with his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates the Saint's humility towards nature is recounted in the "Fioretti" ("Little Flowers"), a collection of legends and folklore that sprang up after the Saint's death. It is said that, one day, while Francis was traveling with some companions, they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds". The birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew away. Francis spoke to them:

My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you... you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore... always seek to praise God.

Main article: Wolf of Gubbio

Another legend from the Fioretti tells that in the city of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, was a wolf "terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals". Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk, and went up into the hills to find the wolf. Soon, fear of the animal had caused all his companions to flee, though the saint pressed on. When he found the wolf, he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously the wolf closed his jaws and lay down at the feet of St. Francis. "Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil...", said Francis. "All these people accuse you and curse you... But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people". Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had “done evil out of hunger”, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly, and in return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this manner Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator. Francis, ever the lover of animals, even made a pact on behalf of the town dogs, that they would not bother the wolf again. It is also said that Francis, to show the townspeople that they would not be harmed baptised the wolf.

These legends exemplify the Franciscan mode of charity and poverty as well as the saint's love of the natural world. Part of his appreciation of the environment is expressed in his Canticle of the Sun, a poem written in Umbrian Italian in perhaps 1224 which expresses a love and appreciation of Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Mother Earth, Brother Fire, etc. and all of God's creations personified in their fundamental forms. In "Canticle of the Creatures," he wrote: "All praise to you, Oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures."

Francis's attitude towards the natural world, while poetically expressed, was conventionally Christian. He believed that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of the primordial sin of man. He preached to man and beast the universal ability and duty of all creatures to praise God (a common theme in the Psalms) and the duty of men to protect and enjoy nature as both the stewards of God's creation and as creatures ourselves.

Legend has it that St. Francis on his deathbed thanked his donkey for carrying and helping him throughout his life, and his donkey wept.

Saint Francis in other media

• Franco Zeffirelli's film Brother Sun, Sister Moon
• Olivier Messiaen's opera Saint-François d'Assise
• Francesco (1990), a film by Liliana Cavani, somewhat slow moving film which follows Francis of Assisi's evolution from rich man's son to religious humanitarian and eventually to full-fledged self-tortured saint. This movie was inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel Peter Camenzind. St. Francis is played by Mickey Rourke, and the woman who later became Saint Clare, is played by Helena Bonham Carter
• Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi a book by Donald Spoto (2002)
• Flowers for St Francis (2005), a book by Raj Arumugam
• Saint Francis et His Four Ladies (1970) a book by Joan Mowat Erikson
• Brother, Sister (2006), third full-length album by indie rock band MewithoutYou, featuring the song "The Sun and Moon"
• Sant Francesc (Saint Francis, 1895), a book of forty-three Saint Francis poems by Catalan poet-priest Jacint Verdaguer, three of which are included in English translation in Selected Poems of Jacint Verdaguer: A Bilingual Edition, edited and translated by Ronald Puppo, with an introduction by Ramon Pinyol i Torrents (University of Chicago, 2007). The three poems are "The Turtledoves", "Preaching to Birds" and "The Pilgrim".
• Frank McCourt's autobiography Angela's Ashes contains some references to St. Francis.
• In Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov,' Ivan Karamazov invokes the name of 'Pater Seraphicus,' an epithet applied to St. Francis, to describe Alyshosha's spiritual guide Zosima. The reference is also found in Goethe's "Faust," Part 2, Act 5, lines 11918–25.
• The song "Fifty Gallon Drum" from the album Talkin Honky Blues by Buck 65 contains the lyric "I've got a Francis of Assisi keychain, and a wallet made of Corinthian leather."
• Chasing Francis by Ian Cron. NavPress, 2006.
• St. Francis preaches to the birds (2005), chamber concerto for violin by composer Lewis Nielson

Main writings by St. Francis

• Canticum Fratris Solis or Laudes Creaturarum, Canticle of the Sun.
• Prayer before the Crucifix, 1205 (extant in the original Umbrian dialect as well as in a contemporary Latin translation).
• Regula non bullata, the Earlier Rule, 1221.
• Regula bullata, the Later Rule, 1223.
• Testament, 1226.
• Admonitions.

For a complete list, see [1].

Primary sources for the life of Saint Francis

Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi

• Friar Elias, Epistola Encyclica de Transitu Sancti Francisci, 1226.
• Pope Gregory IX, Bulla "Mira circa nos" for the canonization of St. Francis, 19 July 1228.
• Friar Tommaso da Celano: Vita Prima Sancti Francisci, 1228; Vita Secunda Sancti Francisci, 1246 – 1247; Tractatus de Miraculis Sancti Francisci, 1252 – 1253.
• Friar Julian of Speyer, Vita Sancti Francisci, 1232 – 1239.
• St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior Sancti Francisci, 1260 – 1263.
• Ugolino da Montegiorgio, Actus Beati Francisci et sociorum eius, 1327 – 1342.
• Fioretti di San Francesco, the "Little Flowers of St. Francis", end of the 14th century: an anonymous Italian version of the Actus; the most popular of the sources, but very late and therefore not the best authority by any means.
• The Little Flowers of Saint Francis (Translated by Raphael Brown), Doubleday, 1998. ISBN 978-0-385-07544-2

For an exhaustive list of sources, see [2].

See also

• Fraticelli

• Saint Juniper, one of Francis' original followers.
• Saint David
• St. Bonaventure University, a school founded in the Franciscan tradition inspired by St. Francis of Assisi.
• Franciscan University of Steubenville, a school run by Franciscan TOR's in Southeastern Ohio.
• University of Saint Francis (Illinois), a school founded in the tradition of St. Francis of Assisi.
• Saint Francis University (Pennsylvania)
• List of people on stamps of Ireland
• Saint Margaret of Cortona
• Saint-François d'Assise, an opera by Olivier Messiaen
• Society of Saint Francis
• The Flowers of St. Francis (1950), a film by Roberto Rossellini
• Christian mystics
• Siena College
• Saint-François (places called for Francis of Assisi in French-speaking countries)
• Lynn Townsend White, Jr.
• San Francisco, California, a major city named for this saint

External links

• ORDO FRATRUM MINORUM — OFM — The homepage of the first order of Franciscans, Friars Minor.
• Franciscans International
• The Capuchin-Franciscan Friars
• The Third Order Regular, founded by Francis
• The Franciscan Archive
• Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier at Project Gutenberg
• Opuscula omnia Sancti Francisci Assisiensis Writings of St. Francis, in Latin
• The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi
• Template:Worldcat id
• Biography of St. Francis of Assissi
• Art of the States: St. Francis preaches to the birds musical work inspired by Francis of Assisi