St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis was born around 1181 A.D. in Assisi, Italy. As a young man he loved to go to parties and spend time with women. He was from a rich family, so he bought himself the finest clothes and spent money freely. One day he refused to give alms to a poor beggar but as the man was leaving, he felt sorry for what he had done and ran after him with some money.After he fell ill twice, Francis realized that he was wasting precious time. He realized that he should be serving Jesus and began praying more and making sacrifices to grow strong in spirit. He usually gave his clothes and money to the poor and served the sick in hospitals but, he felt he had to do more. He fasted and began to go around in rags to humble himself. His father was so angry that he beat him and locked him up at home. Francis bore all this suffering for love of Jesus. His father later took him to a court saying that Francis would not be his son anymore unless he went back to being a rich and prideful son. But, Francis decided that he wanted to live a humble life and striped down all his clothes until he was naked and then he gave his father his clothes and walked away. Francis began to live as a beggar and his food was what people gave him. Everywhere he went, he begged people to stop sinning and return to God. Many men began to see how close to God this poor man really was, and they became his followers. Francis followed the example of Jesus closely by living a life of simplicity and teaching the Gospel message. That is how the great Franciscan order of priests and brothers began. They helped the poor and sick and preached everywhere. Even after the order had spread all over Italy, Francis insisted that they should not own anything. He wanted his priests to love poverty as he did. St. Francis had the power of working miracles. He loved all creatures and the birds and animals happily obeyed his commands! As a reward for his great love, Jesus gave him his own wounds, a stigma; two in his hands, two in his feet and one in his side but the humble Francis tried to hide them from people. He eventually died in 1226 A.D..