Journal Entry re St. Francis of Assisi, Feb 1998

Alexa’s History Journal, February 11, 1998
St. Francis of Assisi
and the Francisian order
During Medieval times there were several reform movements in the church. The first movement, the Cistercian order, begun in 1098, was led by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Later there were the Dominicans, led by Dominic in 1170. Another reform was led by St. Francis of Assissi, the Francisians.
Francis was born in 1182 in Italy. Francis was not exactly the kind of person who you’d think would go on to become one of the most famous saints in history! Until is conversion he lived in self-indulgance and a life of parties and selfishness. When he almost died of sickness, however, his life changed. He completely changed his ways to serve his Master. He chose to put away worldly things and give everything to the poor, starving himself except for what others gave him and dressing in rags. His father was not pleased and ended up locking Francis in their cellar to keep him from giving all their money to the poor and to protect his family from becoming the laughing-stock of the town. Finally the Bishop interceeded in support of Francis and convinced him to give up his inheritence to appease his father. Francis believed that in order to really follow Christ, he had to to model his life after him by giving all and throwing away distractions, and continued to practice what he believed.
He went on to live “as free as the birds.” Francis believed that the birds lived the perfect life, always singing and happy even though they don’t build homes or store food. People respected and followed Francis and by 1210 he went to Rome where Pope Innocent III reluctantly approved the new movement and the Francisian order grew rapidly. They called themselves the “Lesser Bretheren” and lived by the simple rule of giving and sharing with the poor. He also founded a “Second Order” for women, spiritual sisters and nuns. Soon, however, a more complex rule was established and the original simplicity was being destroyed. Francis saw this and in 1220 resigned from being the head of the sucessful movement. Four years later he died knowing that the simple rule he’d established wouldn’t survive.
The Francisians gave common people an opportunity to contribute without being bound by restrictions -- they could be married or single, fulltime or parttime -- the only requirement was a serious commitment to God. St. Francis loved nature and to him creation sang of God’s love. Historians credit a rise in science in the west to Francis’ movement because he always encouraged his followers to learn and look closely at nature. Roger Bacon (1291) was one of the Francisian scholars. They worked with the Muslims as missionaries, some laying down their lives. In 1275, Raymond of Lull set up a missionary school to help missionaries learn the language of the Muslims so that they would be more effective by presenting the gospel in the language of the Muslims. Later they became like the Dominicans, becoming teachers at the new universities. Francis’ followers rejected his fear of higher learning, believing that they could be much more effective if they knew about the other religions they were missionaries to. In the end of the thirteenth century, many of the great scholars were from the Francisian order.
Francis life of simplicity and the effectiveness of the movement he begun had a huge impact on the world and he went down in history as St. Francis.