Francis And His Companions example essay topic

... lute d, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands -- because those hands had held God. Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat and loving God. With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places. He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. 'Here is our rule,' Francis said as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that. He was going to do what no one thought possible any more -- live by the Gospel.

Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe! Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope. Following the Gospel literally, Francis and his companions went out to preach two by two.

At first, listeners were understandably hostile to these men in rags trying to talk about God's love. People even ran from them for fear they'd catch this strange madness. But soon these same people noticed that these barefoot beggars wearing sacks seemed filled with constant joy. They celebrated life.

And people had to ask themselves: Could one own nothing and be happy? Soon those who had met them with mud and rocks, greeted them with bells and smiles. Francis did not try to abolish poverty, he tried to make it holy. When his friars met someone poorer than they, they would eagerly rip off the sleeve of their habit to give to the person. They worked for all necessities and only begged if they had to.

But Francis would not let them accept any money. He told them to treat coins as if they were pebbles in the road. When the bishop showed horror at the friars' hard life, Francis said, 'If we had any possessions we should need weapons and laws to defend them. ' Possessing something was the death of love for Francis.

Also, Francis reasoned, "What could you do to a man who owns nothing? You can't starve a fasting man, you can't steal from someone who has no money, you can't ruin someone who hates prestige". Francis was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent.

He threw Francis out. But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach. Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them. Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead. Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn't have time to put on a role.

Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride. When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, 'Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you. ' Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice. Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought. In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren't killed.

Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, 'I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one -- but both of us would be murdered. ' Francis did find persecution and martyrdom of a kind -- not among the Moslems, but among his own brothers. When he returned to Italy, he came back to a brotherhood that had grown to 5000 in ten years. Pressure came from outside to control this great movement, to make them conform to the standards of others. His dream of radical poverty was too harsh, people said.

Francis responded, 'Lord, didn't I tell you they wouldn't trust you?' He finally gave up authority in his order but he wasn't too upset about it. Now he was just another brother, like he'd always wanted. Francis' actions did not go unnoticed and he was soon joined by his first followers: Bernard of Quinta valle, Peter Catan ii and then a short time later, Giles and Philip the Long. Francis and his companions had their first experiences in the Assisi valley, in the hovel in Rivotorto and at the Porziuncola. They were joined by other companions and, like Francis, they dressed in a tunic and rags. The Order of the Friars Minor was officially founded in 1210.

The headquarters of the Order moved from Rivotorto to the Porziuncola. This was also when the first contact with Clare of Assisi took place and this represented the beginning of the female branch of the Franciscan movement or, in other words, the foundation of the Order of the Poor Women, who would later be known as the Poor Clares. In 1213, Count Orlando of Chiu si donated Mount La Verna to Francis and this marked the beginning of more widespread teaching. Francis decided to go to Morocco, but had to stop in Spain because he fell ill. In 1216, Honorius approved the Porziuncola Indulgence, or the Assisi Pardon, which was the most important indulgence in the Christian world after the one that the faithful could obtain in the Holy Land. The saint's followers then began to preach in Europe and the Orient.

In 1219, Francis left for Acre and Damietta as part of one of the Crusades and arrived in Egypt, at the court of sultan Me lek el-Kamel. From there, he went on to Palestine. In the meantime, the first Franciscan martyrs died in Morocco. The Poor One returned to Assisi in 1220 and by this time, his ideals of poverty, charity and simplicity had influenced a great number of people. Therefore, at this point he began new cycle of evangelization in Central Italy and traveled up and down the peninsula. At Fonte colombo, near Rieti, he drew up a new Rule, which was then approved by Honorius.

At Greccio in December, he made the first Christmas cr " ec he, one of Christianity's most beloved traditions. At this point in his life, he was exhausted and seriously ill and was treated at St. Damian's. Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. While he was there, he composed the Canticle of Brother Sun, a deeply religious and lyrical prayer that synthesizes all the ideals of humility that made Franciscan ism so momentous.

Perceiving that he had come to the end of his days, he asked to be brought to the Porziuncola, in Santa Maria d egli Angeli, the place from which his message was spread. During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 45) he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side. On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, 'Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death. ' He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.

Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron. Francis never recovered from this illness. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45.

Two years later, on July 16th, he was canonized a saint by Pope Gregory IX. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders and the patron saint of ecologists and merchants.