| Last Thursday, October 4th, was the
feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. We have been hearing about his
life.
Here is a wonderful picture of him, painted by Giotto. You can see the
painting in the big church, called a basilica, in Assisi today.
Here is the basilica.
Born in Assisi, in 1182, in central Italy, Francis was the son of a
wealthy middle-class merchant. When he was young, he was fun-loving;
as we might say today, a bit of a playboy. He enjoyed stories about
medieval chivalry, which were all about serving a liege lord for a lofty
purpose- you were supposed to forget about yourself by helping the poor
and weak, being kind, showing good manners. Francis wanted to become
famous as a knight in shining armour.
He joined the army, but only for a short time, as he was captured and
became a prisoner of war for a year. He became ill.
Then he had the idea of fighting for the pope of the day, but had a
vision, after which he turned to Christ instead. He saw Jesus suffering
on the cross. Soon after, something made him hug a leper, someone with
a terrible illnes, whom normally no-one would touch. People thought
you could catch leprosy really easily.
Francis dressed as a beggar and went on a pilgrimage to Rome.
Back in Assisi, he was praying in front of a crucifix in the church
of Saint Damian, when the figure of Jesus seemed to speak to him. Jesus
seemed to say,"Go Francis, and repair my house which, as you see,
is in ruin."
Francis thought he meant the actual church was falling down. He did
spend some time mending three churches in Assisi.
His father was angry that Francis was living in that way. He made him
a prisoner in his own home to try to stop him and to get his money back.
Francis would not give in.
Aged 25, choosing to dress as a hermit, he began to look after lepers
until the Holy Spirit moved him to go to preach, to tell other people
about God. He was unsure whether to spend his time in this way, so asked
his good friend, who became Saint Clare, to pray to God to ask if he
should do this. She gave the answer, yes.
A set of stories called 'The Little Flowers of Saint Francis' tell us
about lots of wonderful events which happened.
Saint Francis is often shown preaching to the birds, which flocked to
him to listen. He told them they should sing beautifully to praise God,sending
them out- north south east and west, all the directions which can be
seen in a cross - in other words, to all corners of the world, to tell
of Jesus.
Francis set up an Order of monks, but never became a priest, as he was
too humble. He helped Clare set up an Order of nuns.
This symbol, the Tau cross, is associated with Saint Francis. It is
the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but reminded him of Christs's
cross. Also Saint Anthony the hermit, who looked after lepers, was often
pictured with the Tau symbol on top of the staff he carried.
Here is the Tau cross with part of a famous prayer of Saint Francis.
We began thinking how we could bring these things to the world. We put
our ideas inside the image of the wolf, because we were going to tell
the people back in church the story of Saint Francis and the Wolf of
Gubbio. It is another story inside the 'Little Flowers'.
We practised our play, which we performed to the congregation. Father
John was an excellent stage manager. He made everyone join in.
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