Lived: 1181-1226
Born at: Assisi
Feast day: October 4th
St. Francis is an excellent person to model your life after. Even Protestants and some non-Christians accept him as their own. Even to this day his Franciscan Order is still growing.
He was born in 1181 to a rich family. His father was a successful merchant. When he was younger he liked to have fun and spend his father`s money rather than getting his education.
When Francis was 20 years old he went into war against Perugia. He was taken prissoner and became ill. During this time he seemed to come closer to God. When he was released he went out to help the people that were fighting for the pope against the Germans. He never got to fight a lot because he got sick again and had strange dreams. In one of his dreams he heard a voice saying, "serve the master rather than the servent." After this he decided to live a life of poverty. He went to Rome where he traded his expensive clothes with a beggar and spent the rest of the day asking for alms. He gave all the money he collected to the poor box at the Tomb of the Apostles and returned to Assisi with no money.
One day, while praying at Saint Damian`s Church he heard God`s voice tell him to rebuild the church because it was falling down. So he did what the Lord told him, he even sold some his father`s goods to buy the materials for rebuilding the old church. But soon he realized that God was talking about the entire CHURCH and that he was suppose to rebuild Christianity.
On October 3rd, 1226, at the age of forty-five, while the Passion of our Lord was being read to him, he died.
None of his followers has ever been quit like "God`s Troubad," but they all continue his great work of love and penance and his great desire to call others to be true followers of Christ.
Saint Francis is the patron saint of animals and children
Prayer to Saint Francis (Song Version)
Lord, make an instrument of your peace.
O Divine Master; Grant that I may not so much seek
When 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.
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.
