New Product: Francis of Assissi

Historical Information: First in a Series–The Realms of the Spirit.
A Series of Figures devoted to mankind’s spiritual awareness.

Kit Number: RS-1
Title: Francis of Assissi
Price: $20.00

Francis of Assissi
(1181-1226 AD)

Born Giovanni Francesco Bernardone in the year 1181/1182 Assisi, Italy. He was one of seven children born to Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant, and his wife Pica Bourlemont a French woman.

As a youth, Francesco became a troubadour and yearned to become a writer of French Poetry. Many biographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, street brawls, and love of pleasure, however his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life. In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia he as taken as a captive and held for a year there. It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. For the next several years Francis was involved in several other military expeditions and in 1205 Francis left Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. In Spoleto, a strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening.

Sometime in the year 1209 Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. The sermon was from 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 and began at this moment to devote himself to a life of poverty.

For the next seventeen years Francis devoted himself to the care of lepers, the poor and the spiritually needy. In time he was joined by twelve other men, seekers of personal redemption and awareness to the human condition. With the men Francis founded what would become the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.

Many of the stories that surrounded the life of Francis deal with his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates his humility towards nature is recounted in the ‘Fioretti’ or ‘The Little Flowers’, a collection of legends and folk-lore that sprang up after his death in 1226. The legends recounted exemplify the Franciscan mode of charity and poverty as well as his personal love of the natural world. His attitude toward the natural world, while poetically expressed, was conventionally Christian. He believed that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of the primordial sin of man. He preached to man and beast the universal ability of duty of all creatures to praise god and the duty of men to protect and enjoy nature as both stewards of God’s creation and as creatures ourselves.

A remarkable man, Francis’ acceptance of living the Life of Christ in every aspect literally – mirroring the Life of Jesus of Nazareth. In this way, his truthful and honest way of life brought about a personal transformation. A transformation that mirrors the natural world and underscores the inner world of personal transformation we all experience.

For further investigation I might suggest the following:

The Flowers of St. Francis a Film by Roberto Rossellini (1950) Franco Zeffirelli’s Film- Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1974) Liliana Cavani’s Film Francesco (1990)

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis – a number of different versions have been published over the past one hundred years.

Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi Donald Spoto (2002) There are a multitude of other books available as well.

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