Kevin McKay, age 10, of Monroe, La., for his question:
WHO WAS SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI?
Saint Francis of Assisi was the founder of the Franciscan religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. He inspired many people during the Middle Ages with his simple life of poverty. Today, many respect him because of his love of peace and his respect for all living creatures.
Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, about 1181. His father was a well to do textile merchant.
As a young man, Francis took an active part in his city's commercial, political and social life. He was a member of the army during a war between Assisi and the nearby city of Perugia and spent most of 1202 and 1203 in an empty prison.
The suffering Francis saw during the war caused him to think about the true meaning and purpose of life. In 1205 he saw a vision of Christ and completely changed his way of life.
Francis rejected an inheritance from his father and started to devote his life to rebuilding churches and serving the poor. He adopted absolute poverty as his ideal. He tried to pattern his life after Christ's by preaching the Gospel and healing the sick.
Soon Francis started to attract followers. In about 1210, Pope Innocent III approved the formation of the Franciscan order by Francis. Although many of his followers became priests, Francis remained a layman.
Francis expressed his religious ideals in poems as well as through his ministry. In "Canticle of the Sun," he showed his love for all living things. His poems also contributed to the development of Italian literature.
Francis not only sent the friars of his order to preach in foreign countries, but he went himself. He was one of the most respected men of his time.
Francis died in 1226. Two years later, he was canonized or declared a saint.
In 1212, while traveling to Syria to convert the Moslems, Francis was shipwrecked on the coast of Yugoslavia. He tried to go to Morocco as a missionary but became ill in Spain and could not continue.
In 1219, Francis accompanied the crusaders to Egypt. He returned to Italy in 1220 and continued to preach but let others administer the Franciscans.
In 1224, while Francis prayed on Mount Alvernia near Florence, the stigmata appeared on his body. The stigmata are five wounds resembling those suffered by Jesus on His hand, feet and side during the Crucifixion.
He suffered with the wounds the rest of his life. The objective reality of these wounds is so well testified that the most critical of modern scholars accpet it.
When Francis died, it was near Assisi in the Portiuncula chapel, his favorite church and the first headquarters of the Franciscans.
About 100 years after Francis' death, a Franciscan collected stories about the saint and his companions in "The Little Flowers of Saint Francis."