St. Francis of Assisi

FRANCESCO BERNARDONE
the man who became...

TIME magazine, as anyone who reads the papers knows, has been soliciting votes for its highly publicized Person of the Century. The magazine's criterion - the person who for good or ill has made the greatest impact on the world - allows for some quite unsavory selections. Hitler and Stalin are near the top of that list, and word has it that the legion of Elvis fans have been stuffing the electronic ballot box.

But what if we were to broaden our scope to the last thousand years? What individual stands out as having had the most impact on our millennium? We might find it an even more fruitful exercise if we were to ask the question, Who has had the most effect for good over the course of the past ten centuries? While the usual suspects would include those who wielded political, economic, or military power, leading conquering armies or sitting on the thrones of rich and far-reaching empires, people of faith might bring a radically different set of criteria. Applying gospel values instead of worldly ones, the most fitting candidate for person of the millennium might very well be Francis of Assisi.

Why Francis? First off, he's not just the meek-and-mild animal lover of myths and legends. The real Francis was a high-spirited and rather wealthy young man, on the road toward economic success and military glory. He renounced it all to follow the gospel. The ideas and values that he personified - simplicity of life, nonviolence, humility, love of the creation - are qualities of increasing importance as the world limps out of the materialistic, war-torn 20th century.

Francis began a movement in the Christian church and in secular society that continues to challenge us to this day. On a broader plane, he inspired many of the nonviolent social movements that have come after him, including all those that have relied on the "little people," the power of an idea, and the intrinsic weakness of human power structures, such as the Gandhian revolution in India and Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights struggle in this country.

Francis put into practice values that have gone out of favor in modern society. He believed in obedience to the institutional church, lived a celibate lifestyle, and embraced poverty. While most people in modern times - probably even most Christians! - find such values a little old-fashioned and even a bit distasteful, perhaps they are just the kinds of "limitations" that can provide real freedom in a world sorely lacking in discipline, commitment, and structure.

The point, of course, is not to give recognition to the person of Francis (it's safe to assume that if he were here, such a designation would strike him as unnecessarily vain). But what of the values that he stood for? What does the way he lived teach us about how we ought to live today? What lessons for the future can we draw from his life?

In some ways, Francis represents the choice that we're given as human beings facing the beginning of a new millennium. His life and spirit stand in stark counterpoint to the Hitlers and Stalins of our world. We've seen in this century the effects of militarism and violence; we've yet to unleash the power that Francis exemplified, the power of nonviolence. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin put it, "Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire."

For that rediscovery, we have been offered role models, like Francis - people who have walked a personal journey that placed gospel values over worldly ones. As we enter the new millennium, the true measure of our humanity, if not our godliness, might be seen in how well we walk in their footsteps.

- Editors of Sojourner Magazine

saint of the century
FRANCIS OF ASSISI
(c. 1182-1226)

He was born into a prospering class at a time of European plenty. To encourage riches, the church preached industry, a get-ahead attitude that had little regard for outcasts, for lepers, for the poor. The revelation of Francis was that poverty was holy and that the spirit approached God when in want. He kissed lepers and gave away his possessions. He preached naked from the pulpit. The church saw his ideals as a dangerous communism and undermined him by co-opting his Friars Minor, which gorged itself with power after his death. Yet Francis changed the face of sanctity: heaven was now in the face of the abject and in the horror of disease. Lenin said if there had been ten of Francis, there would have been no need for revolution.

- Howard Chua-Eoan, TIME (31 December 1999)

WRITINGS ABOUT ST. FRANCIS ON THIS SITE

Valerie Martin: excerpt fromSalvation: Scenes From the Life of St. Francis

Interview with Adrian House, author of Francis of Assisi: A Revolutionary Life,
on NPR's Weekend Edition - Sunday (15 April 2001)

Interview with Donald Spoto, author of Reluctant Saint: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi,
on NPR's Weekend Edition - Sunday (22 December 2002)

Jay M. Hammond: "Francis of Assisi: A Symbol of Peace"

WEB SITES AND PAGES

San Francesco d'Assisi (multilingual site)
The Franciscan Experience...since 1182
Herald of the Great King: God's Troubadour - Francis of Assisi
The Franciscan Institute Library, St. Bonaventure University
Franciscan Web Page
The Franciscan Archive
Sancti patris Francisci Assisiensis
Instytutu Studiów Franciszkanskich
Francisconet
San Francesco d'Assisi
San Francisco de Asís y los Franciscanos
Alcune pagine sulla vita di San Francesco d'Assisi
San Francesco e storie della sua vita
Christian Saints: St. Francis of Assisi
Medieval Bibliography #5: Francis of Assisi & the Mendicants
The Home of the Saint Francis of Assisi Webring
Franciscan Focus

BIOGRAPHIES AND SPIRITUAL PORTRAITS

THE FRANCISCANS

MULTIMEDIA

FranciscanRadio.org
St. Francis of Assisi Slide Show
MP3 audio files for The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi
Biography - Francis of Assisi (podcast)
Michael Haydn: Kyrie, from St. Francis Mass
Francis Poulenc: Quatre petites prières de Saint Francois d'Assise (Wagner Society Male Choir, Keio [Japan] University)
Franz Liszt: Legend of St. Francis Walking on the Waves (Michael Hawley, piano, May 1986)
Francesco d'Assisi: Cantico delle Creature (MP3)
Richard Shulman: Light from Assisi
Aaron Adams: "All Creatures of Our God and King"
Guarneri Underground: "Assisi" (from Captive)
Prayer of St. Francis
Frist Center for the Visual Arts: ARTini talk about Caravaggio's Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (15 July 2005)
Father Gerard Gross: Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, Wednesday, 4 October 2006
Brian McLaren: Four Great Saints: St. Francis (8 February 2004)

OTHER THINGS FRANCISCAN

Emissaries of St. Francis
Centro Culturale San Francesco D'Assisi
Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs Inc.
St. Francis of Assisi t-shirt
Squitti's St. Francis Bird Feeder
Franciscan Cards
Blue Mountain Francis of Assisi e-card
Saint Francis Pet Medallion
Fr Christopher Sharah FSF: A Novena in Honour of St Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi (prayers for St. Francis)
National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi (San Francisco, California)
Cartoon of Francis having coffee
Academy of American Franciscan History
Four Still-Franciscan California Missions
Franciscan Masters
The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, 1226 October 4
Francis of Assisi : Early Documents

Francis in the wilderness

ST. FRANCIS AND THE BIRDS
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

St. Francis preached a sermon once,
Not to dominie nor dunce,
Prince nor pauper, - to the birds
He addressed his loving words.

Flocking in from far and near
One and all kept still to hear,
Robin, vireo, and wren
Sitting mute like decent men;

Tanager in scarlet coat,
Golden-wing and ruby-throat,
Bobolink and chickadee,
Like children good as good could be.

From the catbird not a squawk,
Not a whistle from the hawk,
From the raven not a croak;
Not a parrot cracked a joke.

Even the outrageous jay
Sat without a word to say,
And the oriole and thrush
Forced their golden throats to hush.

Grosbeak, meadow-lark, and quail
Let their sliding woodnotes fail,
While the lonely whippoorwill
Ceased his grieving from the hill.

And the whitethroat from the wild
With his music undefiled,
Even he put singing by
For the greater mystery, -

Some new phrase of being's lore
He had never heard before,
Which might turn his plaintive fall
Into triumph after all.

There they waited all intent
For the word the Lord had sent,
Hearing good St. Francis tell
How life's song of joy befell;

How they each must bear a part
In the chorus of the heart,
Keeping harmony alive,
Helping rapture to survive;

For if any voice were dumb
Their Lord's Kingdom could not come,
And the world must pass away
In a wreck at Judgment Day.

As he finished every tree
Sounded like the Litany
When the people make response.
For the bird folk all at once,

With new reason to be glad
Such as they had never had,
Lifted up with one accord
Heart and voice to praise the Lord.

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FRANCESCO BERNARDONEthe man who became...

WRITINGS ABOUT ST. FRANCIS ON THIS SITE

WEB SITES AND PAGES

BIOGRAPHIES AND SPIRITUAL PORTRAITS

EPISODES AND ASPECTS

WRITINGS BY FRANCIS

PRIMARY SOURCES

SECONDARY SOURCES

ARTISTIC RESPONSES: Performing Arts

ARTISTIC RESPONSES: Visual Arts

ARTISTIC RESPONSES: Popular and Folk Arts

ARTISTIC RESPONSES: Literary

ARTISTIC RESPONSES: Cinematic

ASSISI

THE FRANCISCANS

MULTIMEDIA

OTHER THINGS FRANCISCAN

FRANCESCO BERNARDONE
the man who became...