St Francis of Assisi

3rd October 1226 was the day on which St Francis of Assisi died, at the age of 44. He is probably one of the best-known medieval saints, mainly for the popular image of him being surrounded by animals and birds, which he called his “brothers and sisters”. Many stories have been told about his ability to talk to animals and make them change their ways, but how much credence can be given to these legends is open to doubt.

Among the undoubted facts of Francis’s life is his foundation of the Franciscan Order of friars and an equivalent order for women, the “Poor Clares”. These orders were based on the principles of poverty and service and spread far and wide in medieval Europe, existing down to the present day. Even though some followers of St Francis deviated from his principles in later years, with the Friar of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales being a notable example, the founder of the order lived entirely according to the rules he laid down.

Another lasting innovation of St Francis is the custom of displaying the birth of Jesus as a manger scene with animals paying homage to the infant Christ.

At the age of 42 Francis is reputed to have seen a vision of a “seraph with six wings” and to have received the “stigmata”, these being copies of the five wounds of Christ on his body.

When he knew that he that was nearing his end, Francis asked to be laid on the ground where he could greet “sister Death”.

Francis was certainly one of the more likeable saints in history, and he was so admired that that he was named a saint only two years after his death. The cathedral at Assisi, dedicated to St Francis, was consecrated only 27 years after he died.