St. Francis of Assisi was a thirteenth-century deacon who founded the Order of Friars Minor. His radical conversion led him to embrace poverty, serve lepers, rebuild the Church, and follow Christ with simplicity and joy. His love for creation flowed from his love for the Creator and for the Incarnate and Crucified Lord. As Catholics, we pray the novena to St. Francis for conversion, humility, peace, care for the poor, freedom from attachment to possessions, and faithful care for creation and animals.
Begin PrayingMore about St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis was born in Assisi in late 1181 or early 1182 into the prosperous family of a cloth merchant. As a young man, he pursued chivalric ambitions, went to war, was taken prisoner, and endured illness. A gradual conversion changed the direction of his life. He overcame his fear of lepers and served them, gave generously to the poor, and prayed before the crucifix in the church of San Damiano. According to his own Testament, the Lord led him among the lepers and transformed what had seemed bitter into sweetness of soul and body. The traditional account of San Damiano relates that Christ told him to repair His Church. St. Francis first restored ruined chapels, then came to understand a wider call to renew the Church through holiness and fidelity to the Gospel.
St. Francis gathered brothers who desired to live according to the Holy Gospel in poverty, fraternity, penance, and obedience to the Church. Pope Innocent III gave oral approval to their form of life in 1209, marking the beginning of the Order of Friars Minor. St. Francis was ordained a deacon and had a profound devotion to the Eucharist, the priesthood, the Nativity, and the Passion of Christ. In 1224, while praying on Mount La Verna, he received the stigmata, bearing in his body the wounds of the Crucified Lord. His Canticle of the Creatures praises God through the sun, moon, earth, and all creation. St. Francis received creation as God’s gift and invited every creature to join in praise of the Creator. He died on October 3, 1226, and was canonized in 1228. The novena is prayed from September 25 through October 3 in preparation for his feast on October 4.
