Saint Francis of Assisi
Founder of the Franciscan Order
- Feast Day
- October 4
- Life
- 1181–1226
- Canonized
- 1228
- Order
- Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans)
- Born
- Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, called Francesco, was born at Assisi in 1181 or 1182, son of the prosperous cloth merchant Pietro Bernardone. After a year as a prisoner of war at Perugia (1202-1203) and a serious illness, he experienced a conversion that culminated in 1206 with his renunciation of his patrimony before Bishop Guido of Assisi. He gave his clothes to his father in the public square and embraced poverty.
Reading Matthew 10:7-10 at Mass at the Porziuncola in February 1208, he understood his vocation: Go, preach: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Take no gold, no silver, no copper. By 1209 he had eleven companions, with whom he obtained from Pope Innocent III oral approval for a brief Rule based on the Gospel. In 1212 Saint Clare of Assisi, embracing his way of life, founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares). In 1219 he sailed to the Crusade in Egypt and met the Sultan al-Kamil at Damietta. In 1223 the definitive Rule of the Friars Minor was approved by Pope Honorius III, and that Christmas at Greccio he created the first liturgical Christmas crèche.
In September 1224, on retreat at La Verna, he received the visible stigmata, the first recorded instance in the Church's history. Almost blind and ill, he composed the Canticle of the Creatures, the earliest poem in the Italian vernacular. He died at the Porziuncola on the evening of 3 October 1226 (the medieval reckoning of the day from sunset places his commemoration on 4 October). Pope Gregory IX canonized him at Assisi on 16 July 1228.
Pope Pius XII in 1939 named Francis principal patron of Italy, and Pope Saint John Paul II in 1979 named him patron of those who promote ecology. Pope Francis, in the encyclical Laudato si' (2015), drew the title and animating spirit of his teaching on the care of our common home from the Canticle of Brother Sun. Francis remains, in the words of Lateran IV, a perfect imitator of Christ.
Patronages
Italy · ecology · animals · merchants
From Saint Francis of Assisi
"Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom You give us light."
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Francis of Assisi
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Francis of Assisi's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- Agustinas (Francisco Salinas)
- St. Francis — Cypremort Point, LA
- St. Francis Xavier Nyakahoja — Mwanza
- Missa Matriz de São Francisco de Assis – Vl. Assis – Sorocaba — Sorocaba, SP
- St. Francis Xavier Mission, Empandeni — Plumtree
- St. Francis Xavier Nyakahoja — Mwanza
- Church of St. Francis de Sales Sitiawan — Sitiawan, PERAK
- St Francis de Sales Cathedral — Cape Coast
- St. Francis of Assisi Parish & Newman Center — Muncie, IN
- Saint Francis De Sales Church — Boston, MA
- St Francis Xavier's Church — East Bendigo, VIC
- Cathedral Parish - St Francis Xavier's Church, Railway Estate — Townsville, QLD
- St Francis Xavier Catholic Church — Mornington
- Diocese of Francistown — Francistown, BOTSWANA
- St Mary & St Francis de Sales Catholic Church — Rangiora
- St Francis de Sales, Yoxall — Yoxall, ENG
- St Francis of Assisi — Nailsea, ENG
- St. Francis Xavier University Chapel — Antigonish, NS
- Igreja de São Francisco
- St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church — Little Pond, PE
Sources