Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Jason M. Fletcher
Historical and Contemporary Models of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth
DMN 8803
January 10, 2010
The earliest known writing of Francis of Assisi is a prayer used in the celebration of the
Eucharist in which he prays, “Most High, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and
give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry
out Your holy and true command.”1 Because he lived simply and followed Christ‟s teaching,
Francis of Assisi became the leader of a great missionary movement during the early part of the
13th century.
Bernardone,” the son of an affluent Italian cloth merchant who lived around 1182.2 Though he
was raised in a family who obviously lived outside of poverty, merchants were still considered
social outcasts and part of a class lower than nobility, a class called minores. 3 He received no
more than three years of formal education at the schola minor attached to the Church of San
Giorgino between the ages of seven and ten.4 It would be here that he would have learned
enough Latin to be able to recite the Lord‟s Prayer and the Apostle‟s Creed at Mass. Though he
never mastered Latin, he received more education than most people of his time.5
1
Regis J. Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and William J. Short, eds. Francis of Assisi:
Early Documents, vol. 1, (New York: New City Press, 2000), 40.
2
R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in The Middle Ages (London: Penguin
Books, 1990), 281.
3
Donald Spoto, Reluctant Saint (New York: Viking Compass, 2002), 4.
4
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 18.
5
Ibid., 18-19.
1
2
The education that he was to receive from his father, however, was business. By the time
he was twelve years old his father took him out of school and started taking him on his business
trips to France. They would travel two or three times a year with each trip lasting up to two
months.6 During these times Francis was introduced to the French language and singing by the
traveling troubadours. It was in this house of privilege that Francis would grow up and become
an associate in his father‟s business, selling fine clothes and material from around the world.7 In
1196, at the age of 13, he was officially invited to join the merchants‟ guild.8
As a young man he was known for his extravagant lifestyle as well as his generosity to
the poor. He was known to have spent his days and nights roaming through the city of Assisi
singing and partying with his friends. He also spent considerable sums of money throwing
banquets, often giving away food to the poor.9 It was during one day while selling his father‟s
wares that he was too busy with work to respond to the request of a beggar. As soon as the man
left, Francis became overwhelmed with regret and made a vow to God that he would never
refuse alms “for the love of God.”10 His help and concern for the poor would drive his ministry
A turning point in his life would come in 1202, when the men of Assisi went to war.
Francis was captured and spent about a year in an Etruscan prison. Conditions were notably
harsh and upon his release in 1203 due to a truce that had been signed as well as a generous
6
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 22.
7
Margaret Oliphant, Francis of Assisi (London: Macmillan and Co., 1870), 6.
8
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 24.
9
Ibid., 25.
10
Oliphant, Francis of Assisi, 7.
3
ransom paid by Francis‟ father, he returned to Assisi sick with malaria and badly malnourished.
He would spend another year bedridden with sickness.11 Though he regained much of his
strength, Francis did not regain his earlier pursuits of pleasure and wealth. He did not have any
direction or ambition in life until one day in 1205 when he stumbled into an old chapel, San
Damiano, which stood about a mile outside of Assisi. He sat and meditated in the old,
dilapidated church that had fallen into disrepair. It was upon this time of reflection that he
sensed the crucified Christ speak to him, “‟Francis,‟ it said, calling him by name, „go rebuild My
house; as you see, it is all being destroyed.‟”12 It was at this point that Francis had found his
He began his spiritual journey completely on his own. His first mission was to physically
rebuild that dilapidated chapel, San Damiano. He received permission from the priest to sweep
the floors and repair the walls. He used his business experience as well as his charm to barter in
exchange for whatever he needed. He was known to find stones in fields or streams and when he
needed lumber or heavy supplies he would simply ask for donations. In any case, Francis
repaired that chapel and moved on to repair two more just like it.13 While his early ministry
consisted of physically rebuilding the church, he went on to rebuild it spiritually. After Francis‟
conversion, the bishop in Assisi, Guido, encouraged him to take a pilgrimage to Rome. Clothed
in only a simple tunic with a rope for a belt, Francis left for the center of the Catholic Church.
When he arrived he encountered a group of sick beggars at the entrance to St. Peter‟s Basilica
11
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 36-37.
12
Regis J. Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and William J. Short, eds. Francis of Assisi:
Early Documents, vol. 2, (New York: New City Press, 2000), 249.
13
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 72.
4
and gave them what was left of the small purse the bishop had given him.14 It would seem that
from early on in his conversion Francis desired to give freely to those in need and live as simply
as humanly possible.
While on his return from Rome, Francis encountered a leper colony. At this time, lepers
were considered social outcasts and had no legal standing or rights under any law, either civil or
ecclesiastical. Having no food or money himself to give, he knelt beside one of the lepers and
merely embraced him.15 This would have been scandalous to any one of Francis‟
Francis as his mission now was not merely physically rebuilding dilapidated chapels, but upon
ministering to and rebuilding the lives of people. Specifically, he began a ministry to the lepers
and outcasts in his own community. Though he would beg for them, taking them food and alms,
this was only the beginning of his service.16 He would carry the lepers on his back to streams to
bathe them and wash their wounds even to the point of cleaning out “the pus from their sores.”17
The next transition for Francis would come upon his completion of the repairs of his third
chapel called St. Mary‟s. It was owned by a Benedictine monastery that had since abandoned the
chapel. Once Francis was finished with the physical repairs, it was ready for Mass. The priest
read from Matthew 10:7-9 which included Jesus‟ command to his disciples to go and proclaim
the good news, taking nothing with them.18 Francis wasted no time in applying what he had just
14
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 57.
15
Ibid., 58.
16
Ibid., 58-59.
17
Armstrong, Hellman, and Short, eds. Francis of Assisi, vol. 1, 194.
18
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 67.
5
heard. Included in his schedule each day from this point forward, after the work of the day was
done, he would walk throughout the area and preach to whomever he met along the way.19
The content of his preaching emphasized an active faith. An outline of his preaching has
survived: “Do penance—change your lives—by performing good works, since we will all soon
die. Give to others, and it will be given to you. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. And if you
do not forgive others their sins, the Lord will not forgive your sins.”20 From this summary one
may see that Francis did not find it sufficient for a person to merely attend Mass or give to the
Church. His emphasis was upon giving to poor, as he himself practiced. The urgency of his
message speaks aloud, “since we will all soon die.” One does not have work hard to conjecture
if his urgency was as a result of his own physical frailty and near-death experience coupled with
a retrospective look at his squandered youth. Forgiveness was also a key element in his
preaching.
It would not be long before others saw Francis‟ work and sought to follow after him.
Francis did not seek out followers, he simply led by example and people started gravitating
toward him. His first two followers were Bernard Quintavalle, a wealthy merchant from Assisi
and Peter Catanio. When these two men met with Francis for guidance, they read three passages
of Scripture which became the cornerstone for the movement that was about to be birthed. The
first passage was from Mark 10:21 where Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all of his
possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. This would lead brother Bernard to sell his
profitable business and all his possessions and distribute alms to the poor. The second passage
19
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 69.
20
Armstrong, Hellmann, and Short, Francis of Assisi, vol. 1, 78.
6
was from Luke 9:3 in which Jesus instructed his disciples to take nothing for their journey, not
even an extra tunic. The early followers also followed this passage in that they held no
possessions and wore the most basic of garments. This was in stark contrast to the robes and
jewels that adorned the bishops of the time as well as even the wealth of the Benedictine monks.
The final passage they read together was Matthew 16:24 that emphasized Jesus‟ followers must
deny themselves.21
Within a year that group of three had grown to almost a dozen. When they would travel
to other towns and minister to the poor, they would often be asked what religious order they
belonged. At this point, Francis would simply respond, “We are penitents and were born in
Assisi.”22 What this shows is that even though Francis had developed a following, he resisted
institutionalizing his group. Though his followers looked to him for leadership, for Francis,
there was no hierarchy as he considered himself merely one of a group of brothers. In a society
that was very stratified with clear lines of social hierarchy, Francis clung to the conviction that
whatever group that was starting to coalesce around him would be more egalitarian.
Heeding the advice of bishop Guido, Francis would return to Rome. The group had
grown to the size that it needed the official blessing of the Pope or it might see the same fate as
other similar groups before who had been branded as heretics, most notably the Waldensians.23
At the age of 28 in 1210, he traveled to Rome with eleven of his followers to petition Pope
Innocent III for permission from the Church to preach and gather others who wanted to follow in
21
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 72.
22
Armstrong, Hellmann, and Short, Francis of Assisi, vol. 2, 43.
23
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 93.
7
his way of life.24 An interesting aspect of this was that while the Pope granted Francis‟ request,
Francis departed from Rome with only the Pope‟s verbal commitment. He carried no official
One of the novelties of Francis‟ request included his appeal to be allowed to preach
anywhere, not being restricted to a certain territory.26 This would free him from being under the
authority of his current bishop, bypassing the accepted authoritarian structure of the Church. His
first true missionary journey would be with his original spiritual brother, Bernard, would be to
Spain. Over three years he supervised the spreading of his message of unconditional love and
forgiveness all over the towns and villages of Spain.27 They would move on from there to
Germany and even England.28 Francis would later heed the call of the Pope to crusade against
the Saracens and travel to Egypt in an attempt to convert the new Sultan, Al-Kamil.29 It would
be this freedom that would allow his followers the ability within seventy years to have a presence
Another novelty was that in comparison to the traditional monastic orders, Francis was
convinced that the gospel was best lived out among people, not behind the confines of the
24
Southern, Western Society, 281.
25
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 93.
26
Ibid., 93.
27
Ibid., 139.
28
Ibid., 142.
29
John Holland Smith, Francis of Assisi, (New York: Charles Scribner‟s Sons, 1972),
129.
30
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 99.
8
cloister.31 Thus, Francis did not look to retreat from the world but to follow Christ‟s command
Finally, Francis did not seek ordination into the priesthood, neither did he expect his
followers to become priests. In fact, one of his original followers, Peter Catanio, was a candidate
for the priesthood, though he renounced that way to follow the way of Francis.32 Upon receiving
Pope Urban‟s blessing, he and his original eleven followers were asked to submit to tonsure—the
ceremonial cutting of the hair on the crown of one‟s head to signify admission to the lowest class
of church status as a sign of loyalty to the Church. One biographer notes that this must have
He wanted to call his new band, fratres minores, the “lesser brothers,” with the
understanding that they would be subject to all men.34 Eventually it would be recognized with
the more formal title of the “Order of Lesser Brothers.” It is commonly referred to the as the
The original rule, or guiding principles, that Francis laid down for this new order is lost to
history. Scholars do believe that it included a strong call to total renunciation of the world. This
renunciation would include selling all forms of property and giving away all personal wealth and
belongings to the poor.35 Originally it was delivered orally by Francis to Pope Urban III. It
31
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 92.
32
Ibid., 72.
33
Ibid., 95.
34
Armstrong, Hellman, and Short, Francis of Assisi, vol. 1, 216.
35
Southern, Western Society, 281.
9
remained an oral tradition until 1223 when by necessity of growth the rule was expanded and
While Francis resisted the institutionalization of his group, in less than ten years since he
received approval to form the fratres minores it had grown to around five thousand brothers.37
With the increasing size came the increasing needs. There was a need for the brothers to own
property and houses to provide shelter for the burgeoning ranks. Francis saw property as the
doorstep to authority and power. It was like a slippery slope leading to the same trappings that
There was also an increase in the number of priests and those who valued formal
education who had joined the ranks of the brothers. Education required books, another form of
With the calls to formalize and institutionalize the movement growing stronger from
within its own ranks and from the Church, in 1220, Francis resigned his supervision function
within the Order. He resisted writing a Rule, for obvious reasons, but saw that as his final act of
service to the group which he had helped found. Through sickness and the resistance of his
successor to Francis ever completing his task, Francis completed the Early Rule by the end of
1221. Much to his dismay, the progressives revised it, removing some of the harsher elements of
36
Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady, Francis and Clare: The Complete Works,
(New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 107.
37
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 152-153.
38
Ibid., 171.
39
Ibid.,,172.
10
Francis‟ ideals, most notably, the original principle which called for the brothers to hold no
He would continue to be plagued by ill-health for the rest of his life. Eventually, he
would lose his sight and suffer at the hands of several physicians to no avail.40 Though bed-
ridden and in constant pain, near the end of his life, he was instrumental in ending a war that had
broken out in their region.41 He would die surrounded by his followers on October 3, 1226, at
the age of 44. His last recorded words to his brothers were, “I have done what is mine; May
Christ teach you what is yours!”42 His final request was that as soon as he died, for his body to
be laid on the floor completely stripped of any clothes for “about the time it would take to walk a
leisurely mile.”43 Hence, he would die completely naked of this world, his heart fully enveloped
Several aspects of the life of Francis of Assisi are striking in their application to the
church. First, was his sense of dedication and urgency. While he did not begin his adult life
following God, once he does, he does it with all of his strength and might. He was completely
dedicated to following the will of God even when it meant going against the established order or
culture. He also sensed the urgency and fleeting nature of life. His health issues limited his
ability to travel, but that did not stop him from traveling across continents or even oceans to
spread the gospel. Much of what he accomplished was within the span of about two decades.
What would the modern implications be, would we to live with such an urgency?
40
Spoto, Reluctant Saint, 204-205.
41
Ibid., 206.
42
Armstrong, Hellman, and Short, Francis of Assisi, vol. 2, 386.
43
Ibid., 388.
11
pupils as a professor at a university, Francis focused on modeling the way of life that he felt
Christ would have him to live. When the fraternity grew, there is no evidence that Francis shied
away from any of the physical duties required of any of the other brothers. He still worked,
cared for the poor, and preached until he was physically incapable. Even blind and bedridden he
continued to minister to those who sought him out. He lived by the example of not asking
Thirdly, we see in Francis the desire to create a truly organic movement of the people of
God doing the work of God. He resisted any sense of formalization or institutionalization
throughout his lifetime. While true he kept a strong connection to the Catholic church, his
structure was something completely outside of the norm for the Middle Ages. The speed of how
fast the movement grew was a testimony to its truly organic nature. Francis held the door wide
open to those who wanted to join, as opposed to the priesthood and the monastic orders which
were beholden to the cultural stratification of the time. That blessing, however, was also a
struggle as the life of the organization needed some sense of structure in order to survive. That
tension arose toward the end of Francis‟ life. Upon his death the institutionalization of the Order
swung in the entire opposite direction of its founder. The tension exists today within the church,
to simply live out the commands of Christ and yet serving within an institution called the local
church.
contribution. He saw the sanctity of human life within a group of people that were considered
complete outcasts, and sought ways to minister to them and reach them with God‟s love. There
was never anyone outside of God‟s reach according to Francis. What would churches and
12
communities look like today who did not consider anyone outside of the reach of God‟s love?
When churches target to reach people and minister only to those that are in their same culture
and socio-economic status, it sends the message that some are less worthy of the Gospel. Francis
teaches us to take the gospel to the hard people and to the hard places.
13
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Armstrong, Regis J. and Ignatius C. Brady. Francis and Clare: The Complete Works. New York:
Paulist Press, 1982.
Chesterton, Gilbert K. St. Francis of Assisi. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1924.
________, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and William J. Short, eds. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.
vol. 1. New York: New City Press, 2000.
________, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and William J. Short, eds. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents.
vol. 2. New York: New City Press, 2000.
McDow, Malcom and Alvin Reid. Firefall: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals.
Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1997.
Smith, John Holland. Francis of Assisi. New York: Charles Scribner‟s Sons, 1972.
Southern, R.W. Western Society and the Church in The Middle Ages. London: Penguin Books,
1990.