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He was born in Assisi, Italy in 1182. Born to a wealthy merchant, Giovanni Francesco Bernardone who later became Saint Francis of Assisi received little formal education. Just like many young men of his time, Francis led a reckless and worldly life. He later became a victim to the long standing feud between Assisi and Perugia and was captured and held captive in Perugia for over a year. While imprisoned, he suffered a severe illness during which he resolved to alter his way of life. When he was released, he returned to Assisi in 1205 and began to perform charities among the lepers, and rebuilt dilapidated churches in Assisi and its environs. His father was not happy with his new way of life; the way he spent money for charity, rebuilt churches as a result of his repentance and change of mind. When all his father’s efforts to stop him from his newly discovered way of life failed, he (his father) legally disowned him and Francis retaliated by discarding his affluent background and facing his religious and charity works.
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Saint Francis embraced his calling fully and devoted the next three years to the care of outcasts and lepers in the woods of Mount Subasio. After rebuilding the ruined chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli on Mount Subasio, he set out for a missionary journey in 1208. This mission was necessitated by a call which he claimed he heard during a mass service mandating him to go into the world to do good without seeking for selfish aggrandizements as written in Matthew 10: 5 – 14. Saint Francis returned back to Assisi that same year and intensified his ministry. His sermons won the hearts of many and he gathered his twelve disciples who became the original brothers of his order and later he renamed them, ‘the First Order’. No doubt, Saint Francis supposedly copied the formation of his twelve disciples from that of Christ. As his influence continues to wax stronger in Assisi and its environs, more followers were attracted to him. One of such devotees was the young nun of Assisi named Clare who joined the Franciscan fellowship in 1212. Clare necessitated the establishment of the Order of the Poor Ladies (the Poor Clares), which later became the ‘Second Order’ of Franciscans. However, Francis was elected the superior leader of the Order.
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Sometime in the late 1212, Saint Francis set out for the Holy Land, but his journey was aborted by a shipwreck which forced him to return. His missionary zeal took him to many nations. He went to Spain to preach to the Moors, though it was not much successful. He also went to Egypt in 1219 where he succeeded in preaching to the Sultan, though he could not convert him. He was a strong willed Christian who was ready to be martyred for his faith. While in Egypt, five of his followers were killed in Morocco while discharging their duties yet he strengthened the rest and encouraged them to continue in the faith. From Egypt, he proceeded to the Holy Land where he stayed till 1220. He returned home that same year to discover rancor and dissension in the ranks of the Friars. He resigned as the superior of the Order and later established the ‘Third Order’ of Franciscans.
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After a forty days fasting and prayer in September 1224, Saint Francis was praying upon Monte Alverno when he felt pain mingled with joy, and the marks of the crucifixion of Christ, the stigmata, appeared on his body. The appearances on his body looked like knobs protruding out of the flesh, like the heads of nails and this brought much pains to him. He was carried back to Assisi by his followers and he lived a painful life till his death in 1226. He was canonized in 1228 and in 1980 was proclaimed the patron saint of ecologists by Pope John Paul II. His feast day is October 4 and his emblems are the wolf, the lamb, the fish, birds, and the stigmata.
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