Saint Francis of Assisi

Passion, Poverty & the Man Who Transformed the Church

Bret Thoman

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781618907516
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

All Christians know his name. Few truly know the man.Francis of Assisi was not even five feet tall. He was not well educated. And yet he is the one saint commonly recognized as Alter Christus, the "other Christ." Francis is not just any saint—he's a saint for everyone, whatever your place or position in life. But do we really know him?Who was this man at his core? What was it that thrust this little man from a little town to the heights of sanctity, into a place of high honor among the celestial court?In this riveting biography, author Bret Thoman accomplishes what few biographers have. He pierces the inner life of Francis, revealing his deepest passions, his unquenchable love for poverty, and his unshakable grip on the core of the Gospel. The life of Francis, so often festooned with spectacle and miracle, is in reality the story of a soul yearning for God in every moment and glimpsing His presence in all creation.If you want to see the hidden life of the greatest saint, if you want to hear his thoughts, if you want to feel the fervor that blazed within his soul, you must readSt. Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man who Transformed the Catholic Church.

1

NATIVITY

And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

LUKE 2:6–7

PICA was nearing the end of her term. Her friends and the women of the neighborhood tended to her in her home joyfully as they all looked forward to the birth of her first child. Her husband, Pietro, was away in France on business. Yet when the expected day arrived and passed, the women became anxious and began to fear for Pica’s health.

Then a strange pilgrim came to the door of her house with a mysterious message for the young expectant mother from Provençal, France: she would be able to give birth only in a stable.1 So Pica was taken to the family horse stable next to the house where, among an ox and a donkey, she immediately gave birth to a son.2

When Pica, a pious and gentle woman, looked at her son, she immediately knew what to name him. A child’s name in that era was very important, as a name would influence one’s entire life. Pica was attuned to the ways of God and she knew in her heart that her son would do great things for God.

She would name her firstborn son after the Baptist—an ascetic and herald of the messiah. As if a prophecy, she gave him the name John, which means “God is gracious.”3 Pica took her son to the cathedral of Assisi near the remains of Assisi’s patron saint, San Rufino, and had him baptized there at the baptistery.4 Francis would be baptized within a particular local church in the line of great saints.5

However, when Pica’s husband came back from France, he refused to call his son after a desert preacher-hermit who dressed in a tunic, drank from streams, and ate locusts and wild honey (see Mt 3:4). Pietro was religious, but he was accustomed more to the ways of the world than to the ways of God. He declared, instead, that his firstborn son would be named Francis after his favorite country, France.6

In this way, his son’s name would pay homage to the great country where he had made his fortune buying extravagant clothes and garments. His son would not bear the name of a poor penitent; instead, he would be named in honor of wealth, grandiosity, and commerce. His father, too, believed that his son would do great things; however, his son would be a worldly prince, not a spiritual one.

Francis indeed grew up intelligent and was given numerous natural talents and gifts. Yet his character was proud and he was known to be self-serving. He was crowned “Lord of the Merrymakers” and he often caroused about the city of Assisi reveling and singing with his boisterous companions late into the night without a care in the world.

Francis often presided over great festivals and banquets for his friends, offering everyone fine foods and wines, sensual perfumes, magnificent clothes, expensive decorations, charming music, and dancing. He was a spendthrift, always buying and dressing in the best clothes.7 Sometimes his father remonstrated with his son for his extravagant ways and the townspeople criticized him for spending more than his social position should have permitted.

Francis followed his father in his business profession as a merchant. However, he was more good-natured and generous with others, unlike his father, who was known to be miserly. In fact, Francis believed that his family had more than enough, which is why he was always giving wealth away with an open hand to the poor who asked.8

He was often magnanimous, courteous, generous, and elegant. In fact, at times, the townspeople recognized his greatness of spirit and good manners. Indeed, young Francis’ popularity spread throughout the city so much that everyone who knew him believed that he would one day be something great—like a prince.

His mother, however, knew in her heart that he was destined to greatness of spirit. She said, as another prophecy, “What do you think this son of mine shall become? You will see that he shall merit to become a son of God.”9

One day, it happened that a poor man was going through the streets of Assisi begging when he came upon Francis. Beggars were everywhere then, as it did not take much to become poor. It only took a serious fall or injury, disease, one’s shop burning down, or a bad harvest. As soon as this man saw Francis, he spread his garment on the ground before him and exclaimed to all who were within earshot, “Francis is worthy of reverence and he is destined to do great things in the near future. He will be magnificently honored by all!”10

Francis was not yet attuned to the ways of God, and he did not understand the meaning of this poor man’s prophecy. He had been told his entire life that he would do great things. Francis believed this prophecy was a fulfillment of his childhood dream—to become a knight.

1 Today, a church known as the Chiesa Nuova (New Church) is built over the site believed to be the birth home of St. Francis. Located just off the Piazza del Commune, the church was constructed in 1615 by the king of Spain, and is still the most recently built church within the ancient city walls—hence its name. A tradition dating from the thirteenth century placed this site as the home and shop of Pietro di Bernardone, although there is little historical evidence to support it.

In the rear of the church is a cell commemorating Francis’ brief imprisonment by his father. To the left of the main altar is an exit leading to the street level below, where the family shop would have been. Regardless of the authenticity of this tradition, we can imagine Francis playing here as a child and later carousing through the streets with his friends. After his conversion, we can envision Francis begging for stones, singing praises to God, and blessing the townspeople here.

2 About fifty yards away from the New Church, down an alley alongside the church, is a chapel known as San Francesco Piccolino. According to tradition (also dating from the thirteenth century), this was formerly an animal stall where Francis was born. A Latin inscription above the archway reads: “This oratory [chapel] was a stable of ox and donkey, where St. Francis, wonder of the world, was born.” Today people come here to pray for their children and healthy pregnancies.

3 The original sources refer to Francis’ baptismal name as Giovanni (John). See Thomas of Celano, “The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul,” in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, ed. and trans. Regis J. Armstrong, vol. 2, The Founder (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000), chap. 1, 3; and “The Legend of the Three Companions,” in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, The Founder, chap. 1, 2. All the early sources refer to Pica, Francis’ mother, as being a pious woman.

4 The actual baptistery where Francis was baptized can still be seen in Assisi. What is known about St. Rufinus comes from the apocryphal legends. It appears that he was a bishop from Asia Minor who came to Italy in the fourth century to preach and evangelize. The local pagan authorities resisted, he was beaten, weights were chained to his neck, and he was thrown into the Chiascio River in Costano five miles southwest of Assisi. His remains were recovered by local Christians and entombed in a chapel near Costano until the eleventh century. Then they were brought inside the city walls of Assisi and placed in the present church, which was completely rebuilt in the twelfth century.

5 It may seem somewhat ironic that St. Francis is the patron saint of the country of Italy, while the patron saint of his birth town, Assisi, is still St. Rufinus, as he was in the time of Francis himself.

6 The Italian name given by his father was Francesco. His given name at that time was less a proper name and more an adjective for the country, France. A more accurate translation of the name would be “French-ish” or “Frenchy.” In all actuality, his name, Francis, was more a nickname than an actual name. His real name remained his baptismal name, John.

7 “Francis was intent on games and songs; and day and night he roamed about the city of Assisi.” “Three Companions,” chap. 1, 2. Before his conversion, he is described as “lavish, vain, worldly, proud, a spendthrift.”

8 See “Three Companions,” chap. 1, 2. Cf. “Even as a young man Francis had an openhanded sympathy for the poor which God had inspired in his heart.” Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, “The Major Legend of Saint Francis,” in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, ed. and trans. Regis J. Armstrong, vol. 2, The Founder (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000), chap. 1, 1.

9 See Celano, “Remembrance,” chap. 1, 3; and “Three Companions,” chap. 1, 2–3.

10 This prophecy is only recorded in Bonaventure, “Major Legend,” chap. 1, 1. It is not in the other early sources. Giotto included the scene in his cycle of frescoes in the Upper Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

2

WAR

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

ISAIAH 2:4

IT was November 1202. The sun was just rising behind Mount Subasio in the east.1 Francis—Assisi’s most promising citizen—was already awake before the bells rang. He had hardly slept, so great was his excitement.

The drums of war were beating, and Assisi was at it again with neighboring Perugia. The twenty-year-old son of Pietro di Bernardone heard that drumbeat, too, and was thrilled to be part of it. That day he would take up arms and fight in the Assisian army against Perugia, prove his valor on the battlefield, and become a knight!

Francis got out of bed and splashed water quietly on his arms and face as he tried not to wake his younger brother, Angelo. He looked out the narrow window of his bedroom in his father’s middle-class home and gazed up the hill toward the Cathedral of San Rufino. He could see some of the great tower-like houses of the nobility still standing.

Known as the Majores (Majors) of Assisi, they lived up the slopes of Mount Subasio in upper Assisi. Most of their fortresses had been razed to the ground four years earlier during Assisi’s civil war when the Minores rose up against them. Francis had taken part in that battle, as well, when his father and brother—and the other middle-class merchant families known as the Minors—fought against them.

Francis had been looking up in that direction his entire life, dreaming of becoming a knight. Since the civil war, most of the knights were gone now. But as a boy, they had always fired Francis’ imagination with their proud coat of arms ostentatiously displaying their family heritage over the heavy, wooden doors. He had been impressed by the noblemen and knights decked out in their fine leather gloves, boots, cloaks, colorful hose, and swords. As they moved through the streets, people got out of their way.

He had observed the extraordinarily beautiful noble women who were always dressed in fine gowns and jewels. None of the nobility lifted a hand in their houses or fields; their servants and beasts did all the manual labor. Today it would finally happen. He was going to become one of them—a great prince!

As Francis descended the stairs, he glanced through the window on the opposite side of the house down toward the valley. In the distance, he could see the peasants hard at work in the fields. Francis’ grandfather, Bernard...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Nativity
• 2. War
• 3. From War to Obedience in Spoleto
• 4. Humility and San Damiano
• 5. Leprosy and Minority
• 6. The Crucifix Speaks
• 7. Spiritual Sword
• 8. Go Forth: Through Creation to Gubbio
• 9. Poverty and the Portiuncula
• 10. Evangelization and Brother Bernard
• 11. Community and Rivotorto
• 12. To Rome
• 13. Praying in the Hermitage
• 14. On Pilgrimage
• 15. Peace and the Sultan
• 16. Incarnation and Greccio
• 17. Stigmata and Laverna
• 18. Transitus
• The Canticle of the Creatures
• About the Author
• Index
• Photos