Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis’ first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. Although he had no intention of founding an order, once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. 

He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of actively preaching the Good News. He chose to preach the Good News, but he always returned to solitude when he could. 

During the last years of his relatively short life, Saint Francis was half blind and very ill. Two years before his death he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet, and side. He died at the age of 44.

On his deathbed, Saint Francis repeatedly said the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.” He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior’s permission to have his clothes removed when the last hour came so that he could pass away while lying naked on the earth, in imitation of Jesus.