Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone was born in Assisi,
Italy, to Pietro di Bernardone, a wealthy cloth
merchant, and Madonna Pica di Bernardone. At
the grammar school in Assisi, Francis learned only
enough Latin to read the Psalter. The lively young
man’s imagination was aroused more by chansons
de geste like the SONG OF ROLAND and the works of
the TROUBADOURS.
Francis hoped to find glory as a knight, but in
his first battle, with the neighboring town of Perugia,
he was captured and imprisoned. Released
after a year, he fell ill and almost died.When he recovered,
he began to question his previous life and
started caring for the lepers he had previously
shunned. Finally he gave up all his possessions and
began to serve God. In 1209, Francis and a few
companions obtained Pope Innocent III’s permission
for their way of life, and they became known
as the Order of the Friars Minor (“Lesser Brothers”),
or the Franciscan Order. Inspired by hearing
Francis preach, Clare of Assisi, the daughter of a
count, left her home, took religious vows, and
founded the Order of the Poor Clares, the sister
order to the Franciscans.
Francis loved all nature and even preached to
the birds, but most of all he pleaded for peace
among the feuding factions in the Italian cities.He
particularly stressed that greed for riches was the
root cause of war. In 1219, he visited Egypt during
the Fifth Crusade (see CRUSADES) in hopes of making
peace between Christians and Muslims. Ill on
his return, he devoted his last years to prayer. In
1224, while he was meditating on Mt. Alverna in
Tuscany, the stigmata, or the marks of the passion
of Christ, reportedly appeared on his body.
Francis believed that actions were more important
than words. In his Admonitions to the friars,
he said: “The saints have accomplished great things
and we want only to receive glory and honor by recounting
them.”This may be why he left only a few
short writings, most of which were dictated to
scribes. His Latin works include the two rules for
his order, Admonitions, some letters and prayers,
his Testament, and a poem for Clare (later Saint
Clare) and her sisters.
All of Francis’s works are marked by poetic imagery,
deep knowledge of the Bible and the courteous
language of CHIVALRY. His most famous
work, the Canticle of the Sun, is one of the earliest
lyric poems in the Italian language. Francis wrote it
in 1225, when he was dying and almost blind, yet it
is the most joyous of his works.Written in his native
Umbrian dialect, it is based on an irregular
rhythm and has much assonance (the use of words
with similar vowel sounds but different consonants)
and rhyme. In Canticle of the Sun, Francis
declares that humanity is not worthy of the goodness
and power of God, who is to be praised instead
through all His creation:
especially my Lord Brother Sun,
who is the day and through whom You give us
light.
Francis also calls for praise through Sister Moon,
Brother Fire, Sister Water, and “Our sister,Mother
Earth.”He later added a stanza praising those who
pardon others, and this was sung at his request to the
quarreling bishop and mayor of Assisi, who immediately
reconciled. A stanza written when he learned
he was about to die adds “Sister Death” to the things
that praise God. The principle of the song is mediation:
God’s praise extends from Himself and His
own glory throughout creation, and is returned to
Him by humanity through all created things.
Francis was so widely loved that only two years
after his death at Portiuncula, Italy, he was canonized as a Catholic saint. His life and works were
widely taught, and a collection of popular legends
began to grow up about him, written down as the
“Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assissi” in the early
14th century. By stressing the brotherhood of all
men and women and all things created under God,
Francis offered a corrective to the excesses of medieval
asceticism and instead returned to the
theme of the love of creation found in the Hebrew
BIBLE. Partly because of his winsome biography,
and partly because his teachings are primarily
moral rather than doctrinal, which makes them
easier to understand and identify with, Francis is
one of the best-remembered saints in the Catholic
calendar.
An English Version of Works by
Saint Francis of Assisi
Armstrong, Regis J., O.F.M. Cap.; A.Wayne Hellman,
O.F.M. Conv.; and William J. Short,O.F.M. Francis
of Assisi: Early Documents. Vol. 1: The Saint. New
York: New City Press, 1999.
Works about Saint Francis of Assisi
Chesterton, G. K. St. Francis of Assisi; The Everlasting
Man; St. Thomas Aquinas. San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 1986.
Fortini, Arnaldo. Francis of Assisi. New York: Crossroad,
1992.