‘All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and let us sing, alleluia…’ St Francis.
St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) founded the Franciscans. They were called mendicants because they begged for their food. Mendicant orders had their residences in the towns and cities of Europe, unlike the Benedictines whose monasteries were situated in rural areas.
St Thomas Aquinas and St Bernard of Clairvaux, were the sons of noblemen, Francis’s father, Pietro Bernardone was a cloth merchant. Francis was not overly interested in joining his father’s business and pursuing the life of a cloth merchant. He began to look for something more fulfilling.
At the age of 24 he was sitting in a Church in Assisi when he heard Christ on the Cross asking him to rebuild ‘my Church.’ Initially, he though that this referred to a small chapel in the area which had fallen into ruin. With no resources to accomplish the task, Francis turned to begging for money and materials to repair the Church. He even sold some of his father’s goods and used the money to buy building materials.
Naturally his well-to-do father was annoyed and embarrassed by him. He dragged Francis into the town square where he demanded that Francis repay what he had taken from him. Francis took off his clothes, gave them to his father, and announced that he did not wish to have anything more to do with him.
Though Francis turned his back on life as a cloth merchant, an eye for the beauty of a good piece of cloth carried over into his life after his conversion. Unlike many other ascetics in the first millennium, who viewed nature in an ambivalent way, Francis had a positive attitude towards creation. He recognised the presence of God in creation and felt no need to flee the world as many hermits had done from the time of St Anthony in Egypt (c251 - 356AD). He did not reject the world; rather he rejected the mentality which placed trust in material possessions and social prestige, rather than in God alone.
Francis understood that his mission was to proclaim the gospel to humanity, and afterwards to every other creature. He admonished all birds, animals and reptiles to praise and love their Creator every day. His deeds matched his words. He was gentle with earthworms and lifted them from the path so they would not be crushed underfoot.
With Francis there was no yearning to manipulate or subdue either humans or the rest of creation. For Francis all creation pointed the way to God, their Creator.
Fr Sean McDonagh is a researcher on justice and peace issues and more recently ecological challenge.
Note: St Francis of Assisi’s feast day is observed on October 4.
Read more from The Far East, January/February 2011