Saint Francis of Assisi 

As he was riding near Assisi one day, Francis met a leper covered in sores. Despite his initial repulsion, Francis dismounted his horse and approached the disease-ridden man. When the leper reached out his hand to receive alms, Francis not only filled his hands with money but also leaned in to embrace him. This encounter inspired Francis to tend to the sick, and he began to visit nearby hospitals to provide money and clothing for the indigent patients there and to minister to their spiritual needs.

While praying at a church outside of Assisi called San Damiano, Francis heard a voice coming from the crucifix, saying, “Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down.” Francis thought Christ was ordering him to repair the dilapidated church building around him. Obediently, Francis began to collect funds to repair the church building, took a horse and cart, and loaded it with rich cloth from his father’s warehouse. He sold the entire cartful of cloth, as well as the cart and horse that carried them, and gave the money to the poor priest who was living at San Damiano.

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Pietro di Bernadone was outraged and forcefully retrieved Francis from the dilapidated church. Pietro beat Francis and put him in chains, demanding that Francis either stay at home or renounce his inheritance and pay back what he had taken. Francis was quite ready to forfeit his own inheritance, but he insisted that the money he had gathered from selling the cloth belonged to God and the poor. Frustrated with his stubborn son, Pietro brought Francis to an audience with the bishop of Assisi in the piazza of the town, and the bishop agreed that Francis must return the money to his father.

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Francis obeyed, and, in typical Francis-fashion, went the extra mile. He insisted that he would return everything to his father, and, in front of the crowd gathered in the piazza, Francis stripped off all his clothing. Standing naked in front of the crowd, Francis turned to Pietro: “Up until now I have called you father here on earth, but now I say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’” Pietro was both furious and full of sorrow—he turned and left the square with a heavy heart. A man who worked for the bishop gave Francis a simple frock; Francis marked it with the sign of the cross in chalk, and this became his first habit. Francis began to travel around the countryside like a troubadour.

 

Possessing nothing, Francis relied solely on the generosity of others for food, clothing, and shelter.

Eventually, Francis returned to Assisi and began to rebuild the church of San Damiano himself. He begged for money in the streets of Assisi and hauled stones from a nearby quarry by himself. He went about repairing several other churches in the region until he heard one day a reading from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus sends the disciples to preach the kingdom of God without shoes or staff. Following the commands of the Gospel wholeheartedly, Francis took off his shoes, gave away the few clothes he wore, and started preaching repentance.

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Towards the end of his life, Francis gave himself over increasingly to prayer. On several occasions, he was observed levitating while in contemplation. Francis spent a month in intense solitude and prayer in September of 1224 on the mountain of Verna. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Francis received the signs of Christ’s stigmata, which are the physical wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side.

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After receiving the stigmata, Francis lived two more years, but the immense suffering from the stigmata hastened the failure of his already weak health. Francis welcomed death warmly, calling her “Sister Bodily Death,” and died peacefully on the evening of October 3, 1226.

Some of Francis’ relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame’s campus, and an image of Francis in ecstasy, shown above, makes up a part of the ceiling murals in the Basilica.