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This PLAQUE (112 mm x 88 mm) has been cast in bronze to commemorate
750th Anniversary of the death of St. Francis of
Saint Francis of
size - 112 mm x 88 mm
weight
– 298.80 gr (10.54 oz)
metal – bronze, old nice patina
St Francis was born, to Pietro di Bernardone, a prominent
businessman, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except
that she was originally from France. He was one of several children. Pietro was
in France on business when
Francis was born, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni di Bernardone in
honour of
Rebellious toward his father's business and pursuit of
wealth, Francis spent most of his youth lost in books (ironically, his father's
wealth did afford his son an excellent education, and he became fluent in
reading several languages including Latin).
He was also known for drinking and enjoying the company of his many friends,
who were usually the sons of nobles. His displays of disillusionment toward the
world that surrounded him became evident fairly early, one of which is shown in
the story of the beggar. In this account, he found himself out having fun with
his friends one day when a beggar came along and asked for alms. While his friends ignored the
beggar's cries, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His
friends quickly chided and mocked him for his stupidity, and when he got home,
his father scolded him in a rage.
In 1201 he joined a military expedition against Perugia, was taken
prisoner at Collestrada,
and spent a year as a captive. It is probable that his conversion to more
serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. After his
return to
It is said that when he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former
companions, and they asked him laughingly if he was thinking of marrying, he
answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen" –
meaning his "lady poverty",
as he afterward used to say. He spent much time in lonely places, asking God
for enlightenment.
By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors
for the poor, he claimed to have had a mystical experience in the Church of San Damiano just outside
of Assisi, in which the Icon
of Christ Crucified came alive and said to him three times,
"Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is
falling into ruins." He thought this to mean the very ruined church in
which he was presently praying, and so sold his horse together with some cloth
from his father's store, to assist the priest there for this purpose.
Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to bring him to his
senses, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final
interview in the presence of the bishop,
Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments
he had received from him. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in
the region of
At the end of this period (according to Jordanus, on February
24, 1209), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. The sermon
was about Matthew
10:9, in which Christ tells his followers that they should go forth and
proclaim that the Kingdom
of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them,
nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote
himself wholly to a life of poverty.
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the
Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He
was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he
had to the work. Many other companions joined Francis, and reached the number
of eleven within a year. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest, and the
community lived as "fratres minores", in Latin, "lesser
brothers". The Franciscans are sometimes called Friars Minor, a term
derived from "fratres", in Latin, "brothers".
The brothers lived a simple life in the
deserted lazar house of Rivo
Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering
through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs,
yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations.
In 1209 Francis led his first 11 followers to
From then on his new order grew quickly with new
vocations. When hearing Francis preaching in the
On Palm
Sunday, 28 March
1211 Francis received Clare at the
Porziuncola and hereby established the Order of Poor Dames, later called Poor Clares. In the same
year, Francis left for
On 8 May
1213 he received the
In 1215 Francis went again to
In 1216 Francis received from the new pope Honorius III the
confirmation of the indulgence of the Porziuncola, now better known as the Pardon
of Assisi : which the Pope decreed to be a complete remission of their
sins for all those who prayed in the Porziuncola.
In 1217 the growing congregation of friars was divided in
provinces and groups were sent to
In 1219 Francis left, together with a few companions, on
a pilgrimage of non-violence to Egypt.
Crossing the lines between the sultan and the Crusaders in Damietta, he was
received by the sultan Melek-el-Kamel.
[1] Francis
challenged the Muslim scholars to a test of true religion by fire; but they
retreated. When Francis proposed to enter the fire first and, if he left the
fire unharmed, the sultan would have to recognize Christ as the true God, the
sultan was so impressed that he allowed him to preach to his subjects. Though
he didn't succeed in converting the sultan, the last words of the sultan to
Francis of Assisi were, according to Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre in his book "Historia
occidentalis, De Ordine et praedicatione Fratrum Minorum (1221)" :
“Pray for me that God may deign to reveal to me that law and faith which is
most pleasing to him.”. This was a fine example of dialogue with the enemy and
respect for a different culture. But when Francis went back to Crusaders, he
was declared a heretic and they wanted his head. Ironically, it was finally the
(Muslim) sultan who prevented the (Christian) Crusaders from killing him.
At Saint
Jean d'Acre, the capital of what remained of the Kingdom
of Jerusalem, he rejoined the brothers Elia and Pietro Cattini. Francis then most probably visited
the holy places in Palestine
in 1220.
Around 1220 St Francis of
When receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers
in
During 1221 and 1222 Francis crossed
On 29
November 1223 the final rule of
the order (in 12 chapters) was approved by Pope Honorius III.
While he was praying on the
Suffering from these Stigmata and from an eye disease, he
had been receiving care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. In the end he was
brought back to the Porziuncola. He was brought to the transito, the hut
for infirm friars, next to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where it all
began, feeling the end approaching, he spent the last days of his life
dictating his spiritual testament. He died on the evening of 3 October 1226 singing Psalm 141. His feast day is observed 4 October.
On 16 July
1228 he was pronounced a saint by the next
pope Gregory IX, the former
cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend and protector of St. Francis. The next day,
the pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica
of Saint Francis in