Born in 1181, St. Francis of Assisi lived a brief life which has gone on to affect all ages. His death occurred on October three, 1226. Some writers have called St. Francis of Assisi’s youth idle, but it is humorous how his own finest buddy referred to the life he’d lived prior to his profound conversion.
Thomas of Celano Writes the Very first Authoritative Life of St. Francis of Assisi
Right after explaining the instances in which St. Francis of Assisi was born and lived; a time of debauchery, arrogance, vanity, excess, lewdness – Thomas of Celano calls his generation "slaves of sin." According to this examination of the occasions of St. Francis’ early years, Thomas of Celano writes:
“This is the wretched early training in which that man who we currently venerate as a saint – for he truly is a saint – passed his time from childhood and miserably wasted and squandered his time nearly up to the twenty-fifth year of his life. Malicious advancing beyond all of his peers in discount bathroom vanities, he proved himself a much more excessive inciter of evil and a zealous imitator of foolishness.” Thomas of Celano
St. Francis of Assisi’s Vain and Naïve Youth
His father was a cloth-maker by trade and extremely wealthy. Throughout his youth, St. Francis saw no issue with this predicament. He followed the techniques of his friends in attending to drinking in bars and disrespecting ladies – with the exception of 1 – Clare.
Clare and Francis had been buddies from an early age and would together come to be one of the most holy duos in Christian history.
St. Francis of Assisi’s Call to War
When the freedom of Assisi was threatened by the typical aristocracy, St. Francis gathered his pals and convinced them that they should fight for their freedoms. In his naivette, he felt really proud and full – even bringing into the battle a young boy who had not even reached the age of majority. But he felt so specific of his cause that there was no stopping his conviction, and he was so favorite amongst his close friends, that they all followed him into what would turn out to be an unsuccessful, bloody and horrific war.
St. Francis of Assisi’s Conversion Began on a Battlefield
Watching many die senselessly and horribly on the battlefield, St. Francis’s conversion began – but would not come to completion for rather some time – on that battlefield. He realized that he had made a profound error in judgment and several consumers had died since of it.
Possibly only by the grace of God, the majority of his loyal friends survived their injuries. But St. Francis was presumed dead.
St. Francis of Assisi Spends Years in Prison
St. Francis of Assisi Receives his Call
Sources: Saint Francis – A Film by Michele Soavi, Francis of Assisi Total Writings in Three Volumes, The Saint, The Founder, The Prophet – Compiled by Regis Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., J. A. Wayne Hellmann, O.F.M. Conv., William J. Short, O.F.M., The Small Flowers of St. Francis – By Raphael Brown, Saint Francis of Assisi – By Thomas of Celano, God’s Fool: The Life and Occasions of St. Francis of Assisi, By Julien Green, Clare of Assisi, The Lady – Translation by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., Francis and Clare: The Total Works, Translation by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F.M., Clare of Assisi: Her Spirituality Revealed in her Letters – By Claire Marie Ledoux