Saint Francis of Assisi, The Poor Man Who Followed Christ

St. Francis of Assisi

Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182, the son of a prosperous cloth merchant. His youth included companionship, celebrations, and dreams of becoming a knight. In 1202, he fought in the war between Assisi and Perugia and was taken prisoner. Nearly a year of captivity, followed by illness, interrupted those ambitions. After returning home, the young man who had sought honor began the gradual conversion that would reshape his life.

In his own Testament, Francis traced the beginning of his penitential life to his encounters with people suffering from leprosy. Their appearance had once filled him with revulsion, but he began showing them mercy. He remembered that what had seemed bitter became “sweetness of soul and body.” Serving people he had previously avoided changed his understanding of what mattered. His conversion took shape through these concrete acts of compassion, drawing him toward a life centered on Christ.

Early Franciscan accounts also describe a call he received while praying before the crucifix in the neglected church of San Damiano. He understood Christ to be asking him to repair the church and began restoring ruined chapels near Assisi. His use of his father’s resources brought conflict. Before the bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his inheritance and returned even his clothing to his father. He had surrendered the security of his family’s wealth to embrace a life of poverty.

Hearing the Gospel account of Jesus sending out the apostles helped Francis recognize his calling to poverty and preaching. Companions joined him, and in 1209 they traveled to Rome, where Pope Innocent III approved their proposed way of life. The fraternity became the Order of Friars Minor. In 1212, Clare of Assisi embraced a similar vocation with Francis’s help. Her community at San Damiano became the beginning of the religious family later known as the Poor Clares.

Francis’s desire to proclaim Christ carried him beyond Italy. In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, he traveled to Egypt and met Sultan al Malik al Kamil. Christian accounts describe a courteous reception, although the encounter did not produce the sultan’s conversion. Francis approached him with the intention of preaching the Gospel. Centuries later, Pope Benedict XVI would point to this meeting as an example of faith expressed through humility, respectful conversation, and willingness to encounter another person amid conflict.

In November 1223, Pope Honorius III formally approved the Franciscan Rule. That Christmas, Francis arranged a celebration at Greccio to help people contemplate the poverty of Christ’s birth. A manger, hay, an ox, and a donkey brought the circumstances of Bethlehem before the gathered faithful. A priest celebrated Mass over the manger. This celebration became an enduring inspiration for the Christmas crib tradition, inviting Christians to consider the humility of the Son of God who entered the world as a child.

Francis’s devotion to Jesus also found deep expression in his reverence for the Eucharist. In his Testament, he asked that Christ’s Body and Blood be honored above all things, and he expressed respect for the priests who administered these mysteries. Franciscan accounts record that, while praying at La Verna in 1224, he received the stigmata, wounds resembling those of the crucified Christ. The Church remembers this event in connection with his profound desire to follow Jesus and share in his Passion.

His final years brought serious physical suffering, including worsening eye disease. Yet in 1225, amid illness, he composed the Canticle of the Creatures, praising God through the sun, moon, water, and other gifts of creation. His gratitude endured as his strength diminished. Near the end of his life, he dictated his Testament, recalling the mercy that had changed him and urging his brothers to remain faithful to their vocation. He asked to be taken to the Portiuncula, so closely associated with their beginnings.

Francis died there on the evening of October 3, 1226, surrounded by his brothers. Pope Gregory IX canonized him on July 16, 1228. His feast day is October 4. The merchant’s son who had once dreamed of knighthood left a different inheritance through his preaching, his writings, and the religious family that grew around him. His life continues to call Christians toward repentance, love for the poor, reverence for creation, and faithful communion with the Church, sustained by a deep and joyful love for Jesus Christ.

For a devotional image of St. Francis, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press