The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

We were supposed to take Governor to church today to get him blessed, but somehow the time got away from us and we didn't. Poor guy. I suppose he will have to wait until next year. And I will just have to say extra prayers for him tonight.

If you want to see much of St. Francis of Assisi these days you need not go any further than your local gardening store. Or walk through your neighbor's back yard where they undoubtedly have a statue of St. Francis right next to the bird feeder and the hollyhocks. Today St. Francis seems to be regarded more as a hippie, being in touch with nature and having a great love for animals. While there is a certain truth to this notion, there is much more to this fascinating saint.

Francis was born to a family of cloth merchants in Assisi, Italy in 1181. His parents made a very respectable living at this trade, and Francis apparently did his best to squander it -- hanging out in the local taverns all hours of the night, boozing it up, and sharing very shady company. When the war broke out (something between the nobles and the merchant classes in Assisi and a neighboring village or so) Francis went to war. After a very brief stint he ended up a prisoner-of-war for a year, where he lived in filth and squalor and probably did not eat many enormous platefuls of pasta and chianti. Upon his release he made a mediocre attempt to return to his old ways. However, he found himself gravitating more and more to the church.

Sitting in church one afternoon Francis heard (and saw) Jesus speak directly to him. Jesus asked Francis to help rebuild this church, which was falling into tatters. He immediately jumped up, ran to his parents shop, grabbed all of the finest cloth he could, sold it, and made a rather generous donation to the church. His father found it rather annoying that his son would sell off their livelihood, unbeknownst to them, and so he sued the pants off of his son -- and won. The church readily gave the money back to Francis's parents.

Francis revolted after this incident and said that he didn't want anything that his father had ever given to him , including the clothes on his back. One day he stood in the public square and stripped down to his altogether, further illustrating this point. And this is when Francis's conversion began to really happen.

Francis embraced a form of extreme poverty. He stressed the humanity of Jesus, 'poor, abandoned, and crucified', and henceforth devoted himself to the lowest of the low, believing that he saw the face of Christ in all of them. He believed that he saw Christ in all living creatures -- from dogs, to donkeys, to earthworms. Francis wrote the Canticle of the Sun in 1224. In this song he praises all of nature and expresses his deep gratitude that we are taken care of by nature, as opposed to wealth and the many comforts that it provides. Francis was the founder of the Franciscan Order, but he never became a priest. Instead, he roamed the cities and countryside preaching God's message of love, humility, and poverty.

A few years before his death Francis developed the stigmata, which I personally hope I never get. Not only does it cause one to have to bandage their hands and feet all hours of the day, it is also terribly painful.

St. Francis died in 1226. On his deathbed he requested some sort of almond pastry, and I can happily tell you that Lady Jacoba de Settesoli brought one to him. I would love to know what this confection was exactly. Maybe next year, in honor of St. Francis, I'll try my hand at some sort of make-shift recipe. Surely there is a St. Francis almond pastry recipe to be found! And I'll make it right after we get back from bringing Governor to church for his blessing. In the meantime, he may get to hear a lovely rendition of the Canticle.

(Sources: Lives of the Saints, New Revised Edition, Catholic Book Publishing, Co., 1999. Saints Behaving Badly, Thomas J. Craughwell, Doubleday, 2006.)