His fond parents expected him to likewise love the family business. Francis' father, Pietro, was a tough, self-made man, a cloth and silks merchant, a member of the new and rising middle class in Assisi. Like many of the nouveau riche, he loved accumulating money for the sake of money itself. Because of the family's luxurious life style, Francis lived an easy, carefree life. But, he was not destined to inherit the family business. Francis' life would include much loss, including the loss of his family. The young lover of life would one day choose to love the Divine Lover, and his life would be up-ended. Even then, rich and carefree, he sometimes gave away money to beggars, much to his friends' simultaneous hilarity and disapproval.
In 1201, war broke out between Assisi and the neighboring city of Perugia. In Assisi, the rising middle class was growing more and more outspoken against the ruling nobles, and finally revolted. The ruling nobles fled to Perugia, a city that was still very feudal and which prepared to crush the revolt of the "serfs" in Assisi before they could destroy the dictatorship of the nobility.
The twenty year old Francis, young, idealistic, ardently seeking glory, went to war alongside his friends, planning to enjoy putting his combat skills to the test. He soon discovered the horrors of war. He probably engaged in hand to hand combat and had to kill the enemy. He was probably captured only at the end of the battle. He was promptly thrown into prison. In those days, the enemy would always profit from rich prisoners by contacting their families and asking for ransom in exchange for their release. But Francis, sick with fever, languished in prison for a year before he was ransomed. Why did it take his father so long to ransom him? No one knows.
The Francis who finally arrived home was a different young man. He wandered aimlessly, longing for purpose, for his life to have some meaning. During the darkness of his year in prison, he had looked inward and reflected on his life. Now he thought of himself as worthless, a failure. Undoubtedly because of his painful experiences of war, the ignominy of being captured, and then his imprisonment, he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. All Francis knew was that there had to be more to life than this.
Eventually, after an aborted attempt to rejoin military life - he grew ill and heard a Voice in a dream telling him to return to Assisi - he was out riding his horse when he saw a leper, an outcast from society because people feared contracting the dread disease. At first repulsed by the sight of the man's disfigurement and the smell of his wounds, Francis intended to ride around him. But something stopped the young man. He dismounted, embraced the leper, and gave him all that he had in his purse. Did Francis, still suffering from the internal wounds of war and feeling alienated from society, understand more deeply the wounds of this leper's physical alienation from society?
One day, Francis wandered into a desolate church - San Damiano. Meditating on the crucifix, he saw the figure move and heard Christ's voice asking him to repair his ruined Church. Taking this divine command literally, Francis rushed to his father's shop, picked up some draperies, and sold them along with his horse. He took the gold coins to the priest in charge of San Damiano, who refused them. Pietro, Francis' father, was enraged by his son's actions. Francis hid from him in a cave for a month. When he finally emerged, dirty, and emaciated from hunger, people laughed at the "crazy man." His father beat him and locked him in a closet. Later, when Pietro was out of town, his mother, Pica, freed him, and he sheltered with the priest at San Damiano.
When he returned from his trip, a furious and vengeful Pietro was determined to disinherit his son. He and the city council called him to a meeting with the Bishop. But Francis, having reached a decision about his life, took off all his clothing in front of the Bishop and the entire town, handed them to his father, and told him that while up until now he'd called Pietro "father," from now on he would call on God his Heavenly Father. Pietro was indeed a hard man, and now an embarrassed man. There is no record of Francis and his father ever reconciling, or of Francis seeing either of his parents again.
Francis returned to rebuilding and repairing churches, including St. Peter's and St. Mary of the Angels, and began nursing lepers. He who had been rejected and reviled was intent on including more and more people as part of his own community: a community made up no longer of the "rich and famous" but the rejected and despised. He had decided to live the Gospel as a lifestyle, following in the footsteps of Jesus who loved to repair, rebuild, and heal his people, and who rejected no one. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us:
"On a certain morning in 1208, probably 24 February, Francis was hearing Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, near which he had then built himself a hut; the Gospel of the day told how the disciples of Christ were to possess neither gold nor silver, nor scrip for their journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff, and that they were to exhort sinners to repentance and announce the Kingdom of God. Francis took these words as if spoken directly to himself, and so soon as Mass was over threw away the poor fragment left him of the world's goods, his shoes, cloak, pilgrim staff, and empty wallet. At last he had found his vocation. Having obtained a coarse woolen tunic of "beast colour", the dress then worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants, and tied it round him with a knotted rope, Francis went forth at once exhorting the people of the country-side to penance, brotherly love, and peace. The Assisians had already ceased to scoff at Francis; they now paused in wonderment; his example even drew others to him....
"In the true spirit of religious enthusiasm, Francis repaired to the church of St. Nicholas and sought to learn God's will in their regard by thrice opening at random the book of the Gospels on the altar. Each time it opened at passages where Christ told His disciples to leave all things and follow Him. "This shall be our rule of life", exclaimed Francis, and led his companions to the public square, where they forthwith gave away all their belongings to the poor. After this they procured rough habits like that of Francis, and built themselves small huts near his."
Francis and his friends had decided to "wed" Lady Poverty. Gradually Francis was realizing that Christ was calling him and his followers to love, especially to love the poor, and, in their poverty, to nakedly follow the naked Christ. Christ is Lady Poverty, abandonment to God's Will is Lady Poverty. Poverty for Francis was not just a renunciation of things but a renunciation of his own will so that he could accept whoever and whatever God sent to him. But this lifestyle was complete joy! In his poverty, Francis was free - free and open to everyone and everything. This openness was the nakedness of not having to be afraid of anyone or anything. And so he and his brothers traveled the countryside as poor beggars, and sang hymns to God. Francis even sang to the birds, probably poor crows, once more a troubadour.
Francis must have been engaged in a peaceful, interfaith dialogue with the Sultan, because contemporary scholarship reveals that one of the prayers which Francis wrote soon after his encounter with the Sultan, Francis' Praises of God, has much in common with the Islamic "rosary," the Tishbah, a Sufi meditative, contemplative prayer with special breathing. The Muslim rosary has thirty-three beads. A Muslim technique is to recite one of the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God/Allah on each bead in a a three cycle - 33 -33 -33. Why only Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of Allah? The one hundredth Name is the Mystery of God that we do not/cannot know. Francis' Praises of God number thirty-three; one idea about this is that, for Francis, the Mystery of God is Jesus, Who only lived to be thirty-three.
Francis' "Praises of God" reflect the Tishbah format of thirty-three praises. Francis' Praises for God mirror many of the Sufi Names, or Attributes, for Allah. For example, Francis praises God as "the holy Lord God" and the Tishbah says "The Holiest, the Most Pure." Francis calls God "The Lord God Living and True" and the Tishbah says "The Truth, the Only Reality, the Ever-Living, the Alive." Francis calls God "You are All-good, the highest Good." The Tishbah names Allah "The Creator of Good." Francis calls God "You are Security." The Tishbah proclaims "The Protector, the Bestower of Security." Francis says of God "You are our Eternal Life" and the Tishbah says of Allah "The Lord, the End, the Ultimate, the Awakener, the Resurrector." Of course, Christianity and Islam are both monotheistic religions, worshipping the same God,but Christians have received the revelation that God is Trinity. So, although Francis names God "You are Three in One," the Tishbah says of Allah "The One, the Only One."
One Franciscan priest today, who has a Doctorate in Islamic Affairs, and has studied Islam intensively, prays the Tishbah, attends a mosque every Friday, and fasts during Ramadan in solidarity with the Muslims who, with us, worship the one God, and whom he considers his brothers and sisters. With Francis, he does not want anyone to be on the outside, outside of our loving concern and our human family. For him, as for Francis, we are all children of God.
One of Francis' early prayers was this:
"Most High, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out Your holy and true command." Transformed by his encounter with the crucified Christ in the Church of San Damiano, Francis found true peace and joy in his faith in God, his trust in God's Fatherly love for him, and the Holy Spirit's ongoing guidance for his life. Rejected by his own dysfunctional family, he loved everyone and all creation, and made all his family, especially the rejected and despised. Wounded body, mind, and soul, by the violence of war and captivity, he continuously sought reconciliation and peace among peoples. May we learn to pray as he did wth true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity.
Next, more on Francis' Order, his Canticle of the Sun, his stigmata, and his death.