Francis of Assisi: More Than “The Birdbath Saint”

What comes to your mind when you think of St. Franics of Assisi? Most likely, most of you answered, “Oh, he is the patron saint of animals.” Or perhaps, “Oh yes, I take my dog to church to get her blessed on his feast day.” Or maybe, “I have a birdbath in my yard with a statue of St Francis.” 

While none of these answers is wrong, Saint Francis is so much more. Yes, he is the patron saint of animals and is probably most known for his famous poem in praise of all Creation, the Canticle of the Creatures which begins:

Most High, all-powerful, good Lord, yours is the praise, the glory and the honor and every blessing.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong, and no one is worthy to speak your name.

Praised be you, my Lord with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day through whom you bring us light. And he is lovely, shining with great splendor, for he heralds you, Most High.1

Pope Francis starts his famous encyclical, Laudato Si, Praised Be, with Saint Francis’ canticle. And goes on to talk about why Francis’s theology and spirituality is important today. More about this is a future article. However, his love for Creation is only one of Saint Francis’ qualities. He is also known for his poverty, his love of the poor, his humility, and his compassion. Let’s talk about each of these qualities of Francis’ spirituality, and in future articles, we will discuss how these qualities serve as an example for how we might make our world a better place to live in. We will also talk about how Franciscan spirituality is evident in other religions as well.

Poverty

Poverty is a hallmark of Franciscan spiritualty, in fact he is known as Il Poverello, the poor one. But his poverty goes far beyond just giving up his worldly belongings, it is living with and for the poor, it leads to his compassion for all people.

Pope Francis recently said of his namesake, Saint Francis:

"Brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid to strip ourselves of worldly trappings and return to the heart, returning to what is essential. Let us think of Saint Francis, who after stripping himself, embraced with his entire being the Father in heaven. Let us acknowledge what we are: dust loved by God, called to be dust in love with God. Thanks to him, we will be reborn from the ashes of sin to new life in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit." 2

Pope Francis was referring to the famous story of Saint Francis stripping himself naked in front of his Bishop. As quoted in Seven Key Moments in the Life of Saint Francis.3

[Shortly after Francis’s experience in the Church of San Damiano where Christ spoke to him from the cross, telling him to “Go, rebuild my church.”], Francis, dressed in rough clothing, took precious merchandise from his father’s store, and sold it to his customers, in order to pay for the rebuilding of the fallen-down chapel. He also sold his father’s horse. Francis’ father, Peter, would have preferred to see Francis go back to wearing fancy attire and throwing parties for his old chums. He was aghast and embarrassed, moreover, to learn that Francis was often caring for the lepers, who were living in the valley below Assisi.

In response, his father, boiling with rage, dragged Francis before the bishop of Assisi and demanded the return of his property and goods. Francis readily agreed to this. In the hearing of all present, Francis said, “From now on I will no longer say, My Father Peter Bernadone, but Our Father who art in heaven.” Francis gave back to his father not only his property and goods, but the money and all his clothes as well. Francis carefully placed his clothing on the ground.

The bishop, admiring Francis’ fervor, drew him into his arms and covered him with his mantle. The bishop understood that Francis’ actions were inspired by God—and were part of God’s way of leading Francis into an amazingly new form of life. Francis’ heart was overflowing with joy. His heavenly Father had set him free of all attachment to earthly things.

Francis was now ready to serve the Lord simply and without fear. For all who follow St. Francis of Assisi today, this kind of poverty and detachment can lead to the freedom to, in St. Matthew’s words, become “children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. . . . So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:45, 48).

This action of Francis may have shocked his father and the townspeople, but clearly the bishop saw Francis’ devotion to God and his determination to give up his worldly possessions and to live in poverty. 

Just this morning my pastor gave a wonderful homily about the rich man and Lazarus, the gospel for today. He asked the congregation whether it was a sin to be rich. A few people said yes. My answer was, “It is not a sin to be rich, but I once heard an old Hebrew saying that it is not a sin to be rich, but it is a sin to die rich. The rich man in today’s gospel was not being punished after his death for his wealth but rather his lack of generosity to the poor man laying at his door step day after day. I don’t believe we are called to emulate Francis and strip ourselves naked in front of our bishops (that would probably lead to a sensational news story, and likely being hauled off to jail), but we are called to not worship the things our wealth can buy us, and to give to others in our own way. My pastor went on to say, it is not just giving material things to the poor and needy but sometimes it is or love and support they need. As I meditated on my pastor’s homily, I thought of the very wealthy man sitting next to me in church and who was going through a very rough time with the death of his father and serious illness in his family. I could certainly not offer this man anything material that would satisfy his needs, but we held hands during mass, and I assured him of my love and prayers, for which he was so grateful. I wondered what the rich man in the gospel would do if Lazarus had offered him prayers and support even though Abraham told him that it would not do any good for Lazarus to come dip his hand in water and offer it to the parched man or to come back from the dead to save the rich man’s brothers from suffering the same fate he was facing. Francis’ poverty would have not benefitted him had he had not stripped himself to show his love for God and his devotion to God and his fellow humans.

Bonaventure talked about Francis’s love of poverty, renouncing not only earthly possessions to be owned, but even to the use of those earthly possessions for anything that was not God’s work.4

Love for the Poor

Francis showed his love for the poor and outcast in many ways. Bonaventure writes of him quoting Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of God” and cites his invitation to follow his example of taking seriously Christ’s words in Matthew 19:21 “If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything that you have, and give to the poor and come, follow me.” Francis did exactly that because his own poverty was only the beginning, he had to love the poor and share with them everything he had to give, 5 Bonaventure also says that God’s perfect love enables God to condescend to the weak without doing violence to God’s divine perfection. Francis was a perfect example of humanity being enabled to care for the poor while seeking its own perfection. Francis was the epitome of the statement that “Our key relationship to the world and to others is inseparable from our relation to God. 6

Humility

In his Later Admonition and Exhortation, Francis says “Because I am the servant of all, I am obliged to serve all and to administer the fragrant words of my Lord to them.” And later in this same piece, advises his brothers to not become angry at the faults of their brothers but to admonish and support his brother with patience and humility. Further, he admonishes his brothers to be servants and subject to every human creature for God’s sake.

Francis closes his Admonition with a beautiful prayer. “I brother Francis, your lesser servant, with a wish to kiss your feet, beg and implore you in the love of God, to receive, to put into practice, and to observe, as you should, these words and the otters of our Lord Jesus Christ with humility and love.”7 Watching Pope Francis wash the feet of twelve women in prison and then kiss their feet, recalls what the true humility of Saint Francis means.

In his Rule of the Franciscan Third Order, we hear that Francis makes it clear in his Testament that “the Most High Himself revealed to me that I had to live according to the form of the Holy Gospel.” Rather than starting anything new, Francis felt he had merely responded to this call from God, not that he wanted to establish a new order. It was Pope Greogry IX who stated that Francis established three orders.8 These were said to be the First Order—the Friars Minor, the Second Order, the Poor Clares, and the Third Order of Lay Men and Women that followed the Franciscan way of life. Although this description has been fluid and has also been said by some to represent the Conventual Friars, the Capuchins, and the original Observant Friars Minor.

Commitment to Christ and the Eucharist

Francis was profoundly aware of Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist and in the Word of God.  One of my favorite prayers of Francis, perhaps even more so than his famous Canticle of the Creatures is his amazing prayer about the Eucharist. In fact, I adapted this prayer and made copies to place in the chapel of my church for Eucharistic adoration.

Let Everyone Be Struck with Awe

Let everyone be struck with awe.

Let the whole world tremble,

and let the heavens exult

when Christ, the Son of the living God,

is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!

O wonderful loftiness and stupendous dignity!

O sublime humility!

O humble sublimity!

The Lord of the universe,

O God and the Son of God,

so humbles Himself that for our salvation

He hides himself

under an ordinary piece of bread!

Brothers and sisters look at the humility of God,

and pour out your hearts before Him!

Humble yourselves

that you might be exalted by Him!

Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves,

that He Who gives Himself totally to you

may receive you totally!

Adapted from St Francis of Assisi

Peace

Francis is also known for his love of and commitment to peace. We are probably all familiar with the song, Make Me a Chanel of Your Peace, the words of which are attributed to Saint Francis. Peace can be viewed as the absence of war or living in a state of freedom from conflict. But was Francis always serene and peaceful? In her article asking if Franciscans can be angry, Darleen Pryds, reminds us that even Jesus was angry at the merchants for turning the temple into marketplace. But I believe his real anger was at the merchants who were taking advantage of the poor who could not afford the price of the sacrifices they were required to make. I think this would make Francis angry too because of his love for the poor. Surely it is easy to love “the birdbath saint,” and maybe not as easy to love the Francis who, it is alleged came home from the war between Assisi and Perugia, a physical, emotional, and spiritual wreck. He surely was not feeling peaceful at that juncture of his life. And he did display anger when he tore the tiles off the roof of what he deemed a luxurious house for himself. 9

And yet, we think of him as a champion on peace, especially when he goes to visit the Sultan of Egypt during the crusades, which you will hear more about in a future article. He is even said to have brought about peace between the wolf of Gebbio and the townspeople whose livestock was being devoured by the wolf. I thought of this peacemaking gesture of Francis when my undergraduate university changed its sports team from the Crusaders to the Golden Wolves, a far more Franciscan name. In fact, they recently held a contest to name their mascot, and I submitted the name Gebbio. We will see what the name will be when the contest is over, but I was so proud of the university for changing the name from a war-based them, and scourge on the reputation of the Catholic Church, to a name that represents the peaceful nature of Saint Francis.

Compassion

So much more could be said and has been said by writers far greater than me, about the spirituality of Saint Francis. In future articles I will talk more about Pope Francis, the first pope to take this well known and most popular of all the saints. I will talk about his bold visit to the Sultan Malik al-Kamir of Egypt, and how his spiritualty influences Muslims, Buddhists, and even non-religious people. But I want to end this article with the most compelling of his spiritual qualities—compassion. His spirituality first and foremost revolved about his love for Jesus and his ability to show the compassion of Christ to all with whom he came in contact. So in tune with Jesus was Francis, that he was the first saint known to have received the Stigmata of Mount Alverna, many years after another communion with Jesus when he spoke to Francis from the cross telling him to rebuild his Church. It took Franics a while to figure out that Christ meant this figuratively not literally, after he had already sold his possessions in order to reconstruct the crumbling church of San Damiano.

Compassion means we walk with someone, and Francis walked not only with his Lord, but with his fellow human beings. Francis was neither formally schooled, nor was he an ordained priest, but his spirituality is unquestioned. He is written about by his contemporaries Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Thomas of Celano, and John Duns Scotus, along with modern-day Franciscan theologians such as Ilia Delio and many more. But one thing they all agree on was that Franics had compassion—he walked with Christ, he walked with his brothers and sisters, and he even walked with the entire created world.

One of the most stunning stories of compassion for me was the story that led Francis to become the great saint he was—the story of the leper. Let’s return to The Seven Key Moments in the Life of Saint Francis:

“Like most of his contemporaries, Francis felt a disdain for lepers and avoided them at all costs. One day, before his conversion, Francis was riding his horse alone in the countryside. As he moved along the road, he caught sight of a leper walking toward him. Francis’ instinct was to turn back or move off to the side to avoid contact with the poor wretch. But Francis instead rode directly toward this man with parts of his face and hands eaten away by this dreaded disease.

Francis dismounted his horse, and warmly embraced and kissed the leper tenderly on his lips. In his Testament, Francis writes, “When I was in sin, the sight of lepers nauseated me beyond measure; but then God himself led me into their company, and I had pity on them. When I had become acquainted with them, what had previously nauseated me became a source of physical consolation for me. After that I did not wait long before leaving the world.” Francis eventually came to realize that he had embraced none other than his Lord, Jesus Christ.

Francis even described this meeting as the sweet fragrance of the Lord coming from this leper after they kissed. He soon found himself living with lepers and caring for them. His meeting and embracing the leper was the best preparation Francis could have had for the founding of a new order in the Church, whose highest ideal was to serve the poorest of the poor.” 

In future articles I will write more about Francis’ amazing compassion, which is so much a part of his deep spirituality, and perhaps one of the reasons he is so popular across religious barriers which so often separate us. 

1 Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures, c. 1240

2 Pope Francis, Journey with the Pope, Vatican City, Feb 26, 2024

3, 11 Bodo, Murray, OFM, Seven Key Moments if the Life of Saint Francis, Franciscan Tradition and Resources, Oct 5, 2022.

4 , 5 Karris, Robert J, OFM, General Editor, Works of Saint Bonaventure, Defense of the Mendicants, Siant Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications. 2010.

6 Hayes, Zachary, OFM, The Hidden Center, New York: Paulist Press. 1981.

7 Francis of Assisi, Later Admonition and Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, c. 1220

8 Francis of Assisi, The Rule of the Franciscan Third Order

9 Doyle, Eric, OFM and McElrath, Damien, St. Francis of Assisi ad the Christocentric Character of Franciscan Life and Doctrine.

10 Pryds, Darlene, Can Franciscans Be Angry? Francis of Assist and the Trap of a on-Emotional Saint. Franciscan Connections.