Francis Bernadone was born in Italy in 1182 AD. His father called him ‘Francesco’ after a trip to France. And the ‘little Frenchman’ was brought up on romantic French ballads sung by travelling troubadours. The son of a wealthy merchant, Francis led a cavalier life in Assisi until, in his early twenties, he fought in a battle against a neighbouring town, was captured and incarcerated. This was to prove a turning point for Francis. Following his release Francis gave away his horse, his armour, and his weapons. His father, exasperated over Francis’s prodigality with family property, organised a meeting with the bishop to pull his son into line. But it backfired. Francis renounced his family, and his family’s property, altogether. He gave back everything his family had given him, including the clothes he was wearing at the time. Francis stood there naked as the day that he was born. Then he turned to his father and said: ‘Until now I have called you father, but from now on I can say without reserve, ‘Our Father who is in Heaven’ — I place my confidence in Him.’

Francis decided to spend some time living as a hermit beside an old church in San Damiano. While there, Francis heard a voice saying,‘Rebuild my church’. Francis responded by repairing the ruins of the church in San Damiano, then set about the task of reforming the life of the church throughout Italy. Francis approached the task of renewal — not as a legislator — but as a juggler! He aspired to be like one of the jugglers who accompanied the troubadours, drawing the crowds, so they could listen to the music of the heart the musicians played. As Le Jongleur de Dieu (a ‘Juggler for God’), Francis wanted to travel from town to town like an entertainer, without a penny to his name, introducing people to joie de vivre (the ‘true joy of living’).

Thousands of people responded. And Francis pointed them to the Sermon on the Mount as the simple gospel imperative. For he longed for them to model the life of Jesus in the world. Remarkably, considering his views, Francis did not rage against the opulence of medieval society. Ever the romantic, he tried to woo people away from the trappings of power, and get them to fall in love with the lovely ‘Lady Poverty’. For him, poverty was not an end in itself. People needed to joyfully embrace poverty in order to follow Jesus.

In 1210, Francis obtained approval from Pope Innocent III for a simple rule dedicated to ‘apostolic poverty’. He called the order the ‘Friars Minor’, and this band of ‘Little Brothers’ followed the example of their founder in caring for the poor. In 1212, Clare — a wealthy friend from Assisi who, like Francis, had given all her wealth to the poor — started a sister order to the brothers, known as ‘the Poor Clares’.

At this time, many Christians understood mission in terms of crusades – slaughtering as many Muslims as they could — in the name of the Lord. Francis not only refused to take up weapons himself, but traveled to Egypt where the crusaders were fighting, and begged them to lay down their swords. When they wouldn’t listen to him, Francis crossed the lines at Damietta, to talk with the ‘enemy’ sultan, Mele-el-Khamil, telling him about the ‘Prince of Peace’, and trying to broker a peace deal ‘in His name’ While Francis was overseas, disputes arose among the Friars. A Vicar-General was appointed to take control of the order, and a new set of rules were instituted which changed the character of the movement. Francis retired to a hermitage on Monte Alvernia where he died in 1226AD.[i]