Saint Francis of Assisi, the transfigured poor man

On Mount Alverna, in September 1224, Francis had been fasting for forty days in a secluded cave. A six-winged seraph appeared to him, bearing the image of the crucified Christ. When the vision faded, the friar's hands, feet, and side bore the raw wounds of the Passion.

Founder of the Order of Friars Minor, first stigmatized person in history, died in Assisi in 1226.

The wealthy merchant turned beggar of God in Assisi

Around 1181, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, son of a wealthy cloth merchant, was born in Assisi. His father, returning from a trip to France, renamed him Francesco. The boy grew up in comfort, led a dissolute youth, and dreamed of military glory. Taken prisoner during the war between Assisi and Perugia, he experienced his first profound inner turmoil. An illness, followed by a vision received during another military expedition, sent him home transformed.

The encounter with the Christ of the lepers and of Saint Damien

At 24, Francis turned to the poor and lepers, whom he had previously served with disgust. In the ruined chapel of San Damiano, near Assisi, the Byzantine crucifix spoke to him and asked him to repair its crumbling house. Francis took this literally and became a volunteer mason. To finance the work, he sold his father's clothes, prompting his father to sue him before the Bishop of Assisi. Francis then publicly stripped himself of his garments, declaring that he had no father but the Father in Heaven—a foundational act, reported by his early biographers as the point of no return in his conversion.

The fraternity and the Rule approved in Rome

Around 1208, one morning, Francis heard the Gospel reading about the Twelve being sent on mission. He decided to follow this passage literally: barefoot, with a rope for a belt, he traveled through the Umbrian countryside proclaiming the peace of the Lord. Companions quickly joined him. When they numbered twelve, they set out together for Rome to have their way of life approved by Pope Innocent III, around 1209-1210. The Rule, composed almost entirely of Gospel passages, marked the birth of the Order of Friars Minor. Meanwhile, in 1212, Clare Favarone di Offreduccio left her family home to follow the same ideal of poverty; she became the first Poor Clare at San Damiano. For lay people who could not leave their homes or their professions, Francis founded a third Order, now called the Secular Franciscan Order.

The Sultan's meeting in Damietta in 1219

In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis crossed enemy lines to meet the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil, near Damietta. The episode is historically attested by two contemporary witnesses, Jacques de Vitry and the secular chronicler Ernoul, although the exact content of their exchange remains uncertain. Francis had hoped for the Sultan's martyrdom or conversion; instead, he received a respectful welcome and left safe and sound, in an atmosphere of mutual esteem. This gesture continues to inspire Christian-Muslim dialogue today, including Pope Francis in his encyclical "Fratelli tutti.".

The crisis of the Order and the retreat to Alverna

Upon his return from the East, Francis found his Order, which had grown too large, fraught with tensions regarding the observance of poverty. He drafted a new, more detailed Rule, approved in 1223 by Pope Honorius III, and then gradually withdrew from the effective leadership of the friars. Exhausted and nearly blind, he withdrew in the summer of 1224 to Mount Alverna in the Tuscan Apennines for a forty-day fast in preparation for the feast of Saint Michael. It was there, on September 14 or 17, 1224, depending on the source, that a seraph appeared to him and he received the stigmata of the Passion—an event recounted by his companion, Brother Leo, as a direct witness, making Francis the first documented stigmatized person in Christian history.

The Canticle of the Creatures and Death at the Portiuncula

During the autumn and winter of 1224–1225, suffering from an eye infection and weakened by the stigmata, Francis composed the Canticle of the Creatures (or Canticle of the Sun) in Assisi, completing it with the help of Brother Pacificus. This text, one of the earliest known poems in vernacular Italian, praises God through the sun, the moon, the wind, water, fire, and even death itself. On October 3, 1226, at the Portiuncula near Assisi, Francis died, it is said, welcoming «Sister Bodily Death,» lying naked on the bare ground according to his desire for total detachment. Pope Gregory IX canonized him two years later, in 1228, so quickly had his reputation for holiness spread throughout Italy.

The reception of a universal saint

His rapid canonization is a documented historical fact; the exact authenticity of certain accounts, such as that of the wolf of Gubbio, is a legend passed down by the Fioretti two centuries after his death; his transformation into a universal icon — patron saint of ecologists in 1979, reference for non-violents, model of interreligious dialogue — is a result of the progressive reception of his figure by the Church and contemporary culture.

The Tamed Wolf and the Man Who Spoke to Birds

One firmly established fact dominates Francis's biography: his decision, documented by his contemporary biographers Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure, to live the precepts of the Gospel literally, without mediation or compromise. This radicalism—total poverty, itinerant preaching, service to lepers—is not a legend but a life choice attested to by direct witnesses such as Brother Leo, who was present at his side on Mount Alverna during the episode of the stigmata.

The most famous legend associated with Francis remains that of the Wolf of Gubbio, recounted in the Fioretti (Little Flowers), a collection of poems compiled about two centuries after his death. The story tells of a ferocious wolf that terrorized the Umbrian town of Gubbio, devouring animals and people alike, and no one could stop it. Francis went alone to meet the animal, made the sign of the cross over it, and spoke to it as to a brother: «Brother Wolf, come here. In the name of Christ, I command you to harm no one again.» The wolf stopped, closed its menacing jaws, and lay down at the saint’s feet. Francis then negotiated a pact: the townspeople would feed the animal every day, and it would cease its attacks. The wolf placed its paw in Francis’s hand as a sign of commitment, then lived peacefully among the inhabitants of Gubbio, and died of old age two years later.

This legend, like other accounts attributing to Francis the ability to speak to birds or to calm wild animals, has no historical value in the strict sense. But its symbolic significance far surpasses the question of factual authenticity. The story of the wolf of Gubbio encapsulates in a single scene the entire Franciscan worldview: nature is not an adversary to be dominated but a creature of God with whom one can dialogue, negotiate, and form an alliance. The wolf is not exterminated; it is reintegrated into the human community through a pact of reciprocity—humans feed it, and it renounces violence. It is this insight that has earned Francis the title of patron saint of ecologists, bestowed upon him by John Paul II in 1979, and that explains why he remains the central figure for Scouts and Cub Scouts, whose animal emblem directly echoes this episode.

The reception of this legend has remained undiminished through the centuries. It appears in Franciscan pictorial art as early as the 14th century, inspired stained-glass windows and frescoes throughout Europe, and continues to be told to children as a living parable of reconciliation. Some historians see in it a literary reworking of the real and documented conversion of brigands or violent lords of Umbria, whom Francis is said to have pacified simply by his unarmed presence. Others interpret it as a pure allegory: the wolf represents the impulses of violence and fear that an encounter with evangelical gentleness can transform without negating them. Between fact and legend, the figure of the Wolf of Gubbio does not need to be definitively separated to remain relevant: it expresses, better than any treatise, what the Poverello of Assisi longed to experience—peace as a concrete gesture, reaching out to the other, even the most feared.

Poverty chosen as a path to freedom

Francis never theorized about poverty; he lived it as a gradual stripping away that liberates rather than impoverishes. By undressing before the Bishop of Assisi, he was not simply renouncing clothes: he was renouncing the inheritance, the status, the security his father had provided. This gesture, often perceived as a painful family rupture, actually opened up a new freedom: that of depending solely on Providence.

This radical approach resonates with the very words of Christ in the Beatitudes, which proclaim the poor in spirit blessed (Mt 5:3). Francis does not comment on this verse; he embodies it with his own body, even going so far as to want to die naked on the bare earth. His life invites us to reconsider what we believe we possess and what, in reality, possesses us.

The episode of the wolf of Gubbio extends this same logic of stripping away, applied this time to fear rather than material possessions. The wolf is defeated neither by force nor by flight, but by a word that acknowledges him as a brother before judging him. This is a lesson applicable to any tense human relationship: to name the other as a brother, even a formidable one, before seeking to fight him.

The Canticle of the Creatures, composed in suffering and near-blindness, completes this spiritual journey. In it, Francis praises God through the sun, water, fire, and even death, without a single complaint about his own broken body. The virtue highlighted here is not insensitivity to pain, but the capacity to continue blessing in spite of it.

Lectio divina

Prayer

Lord my God, you who transformed a carefree young man from Assisi into a willing poor man of the Gospel, teach me to hear the quiet calls you address to me each day. Francis listened to a crucifix that spoke to him in an abandoned chapel; grant me the attentiveness to perceive your signs in the silence of my ordinary days. He stripped himself of everything before his family without fear of judgment; grant me the courage to renounce what separates me from you, even when this choice disturbs those around me.

You who made Francis a universal brother, capable of speaking to the wolf as well as to the enemy sultan, open my heart, so often closed in on my fears and prejudices. May I know, like him before Malik al-Kamil, how to cross the lines that separate men without weapons or contempt, with only the peace you give as my strength. May I know, like him before the wolf of Gubbio, how to call brother that which terrifies me, before seeking to destroy it.

Lord, in times of trial, grant me the perseverance of Francis on Mount Alverna, praying until exhaustion, never giving up seeking you. When suffering or illness takes hold of my body, help me not to become trapped in complaint, but to continue, like him in his Canticle, to name the beauty of the world you created. May the sun, water, wind, and fire remain for me signs of your presence, and not forgotten truths.

Grant me Francis's faithfulness in service: faithfulness to the poor whom he chose before they chose him, faithfulness to a simple Rule made from your own words, faithfulness even to the ultimate stripping away of death. May I one day die, like him, in peace with you and with all your creation, having loved without measure what you have given me to love. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

To live

Take a concrete step towards sobriety today: donate an item of clothing, an object, or some time that you don't really need.

Contact someone who is isolated or in difficulty in your circle, like Francis visited the lepers who were being avoided.

Take ten minutes to reread Matthew 5:3 and honestly note down what in your life makes you "poor in spirit" or prevents you from being so.

Following in the footsteps of the Poverello, between Assisi and Alverna

The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, built between 1228 and 1253 shortly after his canonization, houses the saint's tomb in its lower crypt. The building, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, comprises two superimposed basilicas, decorated with frescoes attributed to artists including Giotto, notably the famous cycle depicting the life of Francis. It is here that pilgrims from around the world gather every year on October 3rd and 4th for the saint's feast day, celebrated on October 4th in memory of his death on the evening of October 3rd, 1226.

Mount Alverna (La Verna in Italian), in the Tuscan Apennines near Arezzo, preserves the sanctuary built on the very spot where Francis is said to have received the stigmata in September 1224. A chapel, known as the "Chapel of the Stigmata," marks this site today, maintained for centuries by the Franciscans. The pilgrimage remains vibrant, particularly strong in 2024 during the 800th anniversary of the event, celebrated with the Pope and the entire Franciscan family.

The chapel of San Damiano, below Assisi, preserves the memory of the crucifix that is said to have spoken to Francis, now kept in the Basilica of Saint Clare in Assisi. It was also at San Damiano that Clare of Assisi founded the Order of Poor Clares, forming with Francis a spiritual couple who were the founders of the Franciscan movement. The Portiuncula, a small church near Assisi where Francis died in 1226, also remains a major pilgrimage site, part of the complex of the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels.

On an artistic level, the figure of Francis has inspired generations of painters: Giotto in Assisi, Fra Angelico with his fresco of the ordeal by fire before the sultan, and many others up to the present day. The Canticle of the Creatures, composed by Francis himself around 1224-1225 and completed with Brother Pacificus, remains one of the very first literary texts written in the Italian vernacular, studied today as much for its spiritual value as for its foundational place in the history of Italian literature.

The most significant regional connection undoubtedly remains Gubbio, a small Umbrian town where the legend of the wolf is said to have taken place, still marked by this story in its tourist and symbolic identity. The figure of Francis has also gained contemporary global prominence: patron saint of ecologists since 1979 by the will of John Paul II, an explicit reference by Pope Francis in the encyclical "Laudato si'" dedicated to integral ecology, and a self-proclaimed model of Christian-Muslim dialogue since his meeting with Malik al-Kamil in Damietta.

Liturgy

Readings and psalm: on October 4, memorial of Saint Francis; proper readings evoking evangelical poverty and universal brotherhood, psalm of praise to creation (theme close to Ps 148).

Song or hymn: the Canticle of the Creatures («Praised be you, my Lord»), often used as an opening or communion hymn on that day.

Liturgical color: white, the color of non-martyred saints.

Thematic collection: asking for the grace to follow Christ in poverty and joy, in the image of Francis, configured to the poor and crucified Christ.

Antiphon or response: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace", frequently repeated in the opening or communion antiphon.

Link with the liturgical season: celebrated in October, this memorial is part of ordinary time, close to the missionary month and the season of Creation, a period during which the Church invites us to deepen the ecological responsibility inherited from Francis.

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