MEMORIAL OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DEACON, FOUNDER OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER – FEAST DAY ~ OCTOBER 4TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, Deacon, Founder of the Franciscan Order. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for God’s Divine Grace and Mercy. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically ill and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray for all widows and widowers. We pray for the poor and needy, for peace, love, and unity in our marriages, our families, and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world…. Amen🙏
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DEACON, FOUNDER OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER: St. Francis, Founder of the Franciscan Order (1182-1226) was an Italian deacon who brought renewal to the Church through his decision to follow Jesus’ words as literally as possible. St. Francis is well known and remembered for his dedication to the Lord, his unique commitment to the service of God and in living humbly in poverty, poor in the eyes of the world and yet rich in the sight of God. His examples and life can very well serve as good inspirations for each one of us. St. Francis of Assisi, is the one who inspired the name of Pope Francis.
St. Francis was born Francis Bernardone in 1181 at Assisi, Umbria, Italy. He originally received the name Giovanni (or John), but became known as Francesco (or Francis) by his father’s choice. The son and one of the several children born to a wealthy cloth merchant, Pietro Bernardone and his wife Pica. Unlike many medieval saints, St. Francis was neither studious nor pious in his youth, he lived a lavish and irresponsible life. His father’s wealth gave him access to a lively social life among the upper classes, where he was known for his flashy clothes and his readiness to burst into song. Later a patron of peacemakers, he aspired to great military feats in his youth and fought in a war with a rival Italian city-state. At the age of twenty, he went to war against Perugia, but was captured and imprisoned. This period of imprisonment during that conflict turned his mind toward more serious thoughts, as did a recurring dream that suggested his true “army” was not of this world. During his imprisonment he experienced a vision from Christ and changed his life completely, he abandon everything for Christ. He returned to Assisi due to illness in 1205, and there began consider a life of voluntary poverty. His father became extremely displeased at his action, and disinherited him. He left all his possessions and embraced complete poverty, taking the Gospel as his rule of life.
Three major incidents confirmed Francis in this path. In Assisi, he overcame his fear of disease to kiss the hand of a leper. Afterward, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he deposited his money at Saint Peter’s tomb and exchanged clothes with a beggar. Soon after he returned home, St. Francis heard Christ tell him in a vision: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” St. Francis began to use his father’s wealth to restore churches. This led to a public quarrel in which the cloth-merchant’s son removed his clothing and declared that he had no father except God. He regarded himself as the husband of “Lady Poverty,” and resolved to serve Christ as “a herald of the Great King.” St. Francis wore ragged old clothes, begged for food and preached peace. During the year 1208, the “herald” received the inspiration that would give rise to the Franciscan movement. At Mass one morning, he heard the Gospel reading in which Christ instructed the apostles to go forth without money, shoes, or extra clothing. This way of life soon became a papally-approved rule, which would attract huge number of followers within Francis’ own lifetime. He began to attract followers, when his companions numbered twelve, in 1209, St. Francis sought and received approval of Pope Innocent III to lead a life according to the Rule of the Holy Gospel, and with the papal blessing he founded the Friars Minor (Franciscans). They became a band of roving preachers of Christ in simplicity and lowliness. Thus began the “Friars Minor,” or “Lesser Brothers”. Then in 1212 with St. Clare of Assisi he founded the foundation of the Order of “Poor Ladies,” now known as the “Poor Clares.” He also founded the “Third Order of Penance” (the Third Order) which included lay people. The religious order of Franciscans, whose brothers preached the gospel, made poverty holy, and worked hard to bring the word of God to the world that desperately needed it. Out of humility Francis never accepted the priesthood but remained a deacon all his life. He had a great love for God’s creatures and called them his brothers and sisters. His ardent love of God merited for him the name of Seraphic.
St. Francis’ devotion to the Passion of Christ prompted him to make a missionary journey to the Holy Land. Through his imitation of Christ, Francis also shared in the Lord’s sufferings. He miraculously received Christ’s wounds, the stigmata, in his own flesh in September of 1224. He was the first person (recorded) to receive the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ). His health collapsed over the next two years, a “living sacrifice” made during two decades of missionary preaching and penance. Worn out by his tremendous apostolic efforts, pained by the Stigmata he had received in 1224, and blinded by eye disease, St. Francis of Assisi died at sunset, October 3, 1226 at Portiuncula, Assisi, Italy at approximately 44 years, while singing the eight verse of Psalm 142: “Lead me forth from prison that I may give thanks to Your Name.” His holiness was so widely attested that only two years after his death the Church proclaimed him a saint. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, his friend and devotee, less than two years later on July 16, 1228, Assisi, Papal States. St. Francis of Assisi has captured the heart and imagination of people of all religious persuasions by his love for God and neighbor, as well as all God’s creatures, by his simplicity, directness, and single-mindedness, and by the lyrical aspect of his multifaceted life. However, he was far more that an inspired individualist. He was a man possessed of vast spiritual insight and power; a man whose all-consuming love for Christ and redeemed creation burst forth in everything he said and did. St. Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint against fire; animals; Catholic Action; dying alone; ecology; ecologists; merchants, the environment; families; fire; lacemakers; peace; zoos; Italy; Assisi, Italy; Colorado; Sante Fe, New Mexico; archdiocese of San Francisco, California; archdiocese of Denver, Colorado; archdiocese of Sante Fe, New Mexico; diocese of Salina, Kansas. His feast day is October 4th.
QUOTES OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
☆”If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”
☆”Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
☆”Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
☆”It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
☆”For it is in giving that we receive.”
☆”All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
☆”It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”
☆”While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
☆”Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”
☆”Where there is injury let me sow pardon.”
☆”No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI PEACE PRAYER: MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.🙏
PRAYER: God, You enabled St. Francis to imitate Christ by his poverty and humility. Walking in St. Francis’ footsteps, may we follow Your Son and be bound to You by a joyful love. Amen 🙏