Synopsis
FRANCIS OF ASSISI, St., was b. at
Assisi, 1182; d. there Oct. 4, 1226. His true name was Giovanni Francesco
Bernardone. His father was a rich merchant. Handsome, bright, and adventurous,
with a keen relish of beauty in all its manifestations, but disinclined to
serious work of any description, he grew up without learning any thing, became
the leader of a club (corti) of the gay youths of Assisi, served in a
campaign against Perugia, and was taken prisoner, etc. But a heavy sickness
which befell him brought a change into his life. He retired into solitude; and
when again he appeared in the world it was as a nurse to the sick, selecting
such as suffered from contagious or disgusting diseases. He made a pilgrimage
to Rome; and, while there, a voice from above seemed to say to him that he
should go and restore the ruined house of God. He took the words in their
literal meaning; and, with the money which he begged together, he rebuilt a
small decayed church in his native city (the Portiuncula), which ever after
remained his favorite residence. A sermon he heard on Matt. x. 9, 10, opened up
a new channel to his energy. He determined to become a preacher, to restore the
ruined house of God in a higher sense of the word; and fitted out like one of
the apostles, without shoes, and with no staff (for he had already some time
ago disinherited himself), he began to preach penitence in the streets of
Assisi. He made an impression. Other young men joined him; and in 1210 he lived
with ten followers in hermitages near the Portiuncula Church. For these ten
followers ho wrote a set of rules containing the common monastic vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, but emphasizing the first point with
particular stress. lie then repaired to Rome, to have his rules confirmed, and
his society recognized, by the Pope; but he obtained only the verbal assent of
Innocent III. Shortly after his return from
Rome, however, he was joined by Clara Sciffi, the
foundress of the order of the Clarisses... and this
circumstance threw great lustre both over his person and his enterprise. In
1212 he sent out the brethren, two and two, to reform the world by preaching
penitence. He went himself to Tuscany. In Perugia, Pisa, and Florence he found
many followers; in Cortona he was able to found the first
Franciscan monastery; from the Count of Casentino
he received Monte Alberno as a present. But the five brethren he had sent to
Morocco to preach the gospel to the Mohammedans1
were martyred; and he now determined to go thither himself. In Spain, however,
through which he took his way, he was detained by sickness, and compelled to
return. Meanwhile, the order grew steadily and rapidly in Italy. At the general
assembly of the order, in 1219, no less than five thousand members came
together; and brethren were sent to Spain, Egypt, Africa, Greece, England, and
Hungary. Hitherto every attempt the order had made to penetrate into Germany
had failed. But in 1221, Cæsarius of Spires, with twelve other brethren
of German descent, went to Germany; and from that moment the order took root in
the country. in the same year Francis himself set out for Egypt, and actually preached before the Sultan, though with.
out any effect. The success of the order was now fully assured; and the
Pope was consequently willing to transform his verbal assent into official
acknowledgment. By a bull of 1223 Honorius III. confirmed the rules, and
sanctioned the order, and Francis was made its first general. In the very next
year, however, he left the government of the order to Elias of Cartona, and
retired to the Portiuncula Church, where he died. he was canonized in 1228 by
Gregory IX.
1 An
inaccurate, offensive and obsolete name for Muslims. It should not be used by
modern writers.
Engelhardt, "Francis of Assisi,"
Philip Schaff, ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical,
Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 2. Toronto,
New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. p.830.
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 Regis J. Armstrong, Francis
of Assisi Early Documents Index. New City Press, 2002. Hbk. ISBN:
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 Regis J. Armstrong, ed.,
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 Regis J. Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellmann
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{CBD}
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 Regis Armstrong, Bill Short
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John
R.H. Moorman, The Sources for the Life of St. Francis of Assisi.
Publications of the University of Manchester, 274. Historical Series, 29. Gregg
International, 1967. Hbk. ISBN: 0576992232. |
|
Regis
J. Armstrong, St. Francis of Assisi. St Pauls Publishing, 1994. Pbk.
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Leonardo
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1985. Pbk. ISBN: 0334020077. |
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Ignatius Brady, ed. &
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Assisi. Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1958. |
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R.B.
Brooke, Early Franciscan Government, Elias to Bonaventure. Cambridge:
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David Burr, "Bonaventura,
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|
Pierre Brunette, "Francis
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12.1 (1989): 6-20. |
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David
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Controversy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. Hbk.
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 Lavinia Byrne, ed., The Life and Wisdom of Francis of
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Lawrence
Cunningham, ed. Brother Francis: An Anthology of Writings by and about S.
Francis of Assisi. New York: Our Sunday Visitor, U.S., 1980. Pbk. ISBN:
0879737689. pp.240. {Amazon.com} |
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Omer Englebert, Saint
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616. |
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Chiara
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 Mark Galli, Francis of Assisi and His World. IVP
Histories. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2002. Pbk. ISBN:
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 Julien Green & Peter Heinegg, God's
Fool: The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi. Harper San Francisco, 1987.
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Marion
A. Habig, St Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies. Chicago,
IL: Franscican Herald Press / London: SPCK, 1979. Hbk. ISBN: 0281037469.
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 Adrian House, Francis of
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Galen K. Johnson, "St
Francis and the Sultan: An Historical and Cultural Reassessment," Mission
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N.
Kazantzakis, God's Pauper: St Francis of Assisi. Faber & Faber,
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 F. Donald Logan, A History of the Church
in the Middle Ages. London & New York: Routledge, 2002. Pbk. ISBN:
0415132894. pp.213-220. {Amazon.com} |
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 Susan McMichaels, Journey
Out of the Garden: St. Francis of Assisi & the Process of
Individuation. New York: Paulist Press, 1997. ISBN: 0809137267. {CBD}
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Mary Walsh Meany, "Choose
to Live According to the Perfection of the Holy Gospel: Saint Francis and Saint
Clare as Spiritual Guides," Chicago Studies 38.1 (1999):
50-59. |
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E.
E. Reynolds, The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Anthony Clarke
Publishers, 1983. Pbk. ISBN: 0856500615. pp.128. |
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 Michael Robson, St. Francis of Assisi.
Continuum International Publishing Group - Geoffrey Chapman, 1998. Hbk. ISBN:
0225667363. pp.304. {Amazon.com} |
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Paul Sabatier, Life of
St Francis of Assisi. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1927. |
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Walter W.
Seton, ed. St. Francis of Assisi,1226-1926: Essays in Commemoration.
London: University of London Press, 1926. pp. xii + 332. |
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M.W. Sheehan,
OFM Cap., ed. St. Francis of Assisi: Essays in Commemoration, 1982. St.
Bonadeventure, NY, 1982. |
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 Roger D. Sorrell, St Francis
of Assisi and Nature. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1989. Hbk.
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