Celebrating St. Francis of Assisi
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #31
September 7, 2026
Celebrating St. Francis of Assisi
If you enjoy a nativity set in your home or a nativity display in your town, you are indebted to St. Francis of Assisi.
If you enjoy bringing your pet to church to get blessed each October, please thank St. Francis.
If you celebrate God’s creation each morning an enjoy walking through nature, and see yourself as part of God’s great creation, you spirit is similar to that of St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order.
There is much to celebrate in the life of St. Francis, but he was not born a saint. He was born in 1181 and his early life, like many of us who were young males, was less than exemplary. He was from a prosperous family as his father was a silk and cloth merchant. As a young man his lived a rambunctious life with much partying and womanizing. He was what one might call a “playboy” in our generation. He had the cash to enjoy a party life, and he made the most of it.
As part of his youthful adventures, he joined the army and fought in a local conflict between his city of Assisi and a rival town of Perugia. He was taken prisoner in that conflict and spent one year as a prisoner of war. It was during this captivity that he developed an illness. Historically it is unclear what that illness was, but he perceived it as life-threatening and by all accounts of his contemporaries, it was. He was close to death. He recovered from the illness and returned to Assisi in 1203. By then he was a changed man, one who knew that death is a possibility. There is nothing like a near-death illness to help a person seek spiritual, non-worldly ambitions.
He had a vision and began his life as a serious Christian serving in a Christian monastery as a cleaner and a server. This he did until he was inspired by the story of the Great Commission, became a monk and began living in a hut near the church where he served. He pledged to live in poverty and to preach Christ wherever he went. Soon other spiritual people came to join, and these new brothers and sisters would one day become the Franciscan Order and the Order of the Poor Claires.
Francis had a goal that he lived by and required of his followers. It was the primary rule of his order, “follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.”
Francis remained an impoverished monk the rest of his days. His days were spent living simply, preaching and constant prayer. During the Christmas season, he introduced “liturgical plays” by having participants act out the nativity story. Any of our churches who have Christmas plays are imitating St. Francis and his work. As a fundraiser, his monks began to sell nativity sets throughout Europe. These were not ornaments, but action figures for children so that these young people could reenact the Christmas story. At one time, only Catholics would have a nativity set for Christmas. Three hundred years after Francis, with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and Protestants rejected nativity sets as “idols.” After the Reformation, nativity sets were in Catholic homes, but never in Protestant houses. This, of course, has changed over the centuries.
Francis had a view of creation that was like that of Native Americans. He, like they, saw creation as a gift of God that must be cared for and nurtured. Both the Natives, and Francis referred to streams and trees as siblings. Care of creation for the Franciscans and the Natives was one way of honoring our creator. When we walk in nature and thank God for it, we are in Spiritual agreement with Saint Francis.
Because of his love for animals and nature, many churches, including the Community Church of Glen Rock offer “Blessings of the Animals” each year on the first Sunday of October which corresponds with his date of death.
Two years before his death, Saint Francis was in prayer on top of a mountain. It was there that he received the vision of a seraphim. He was filled with joy at this vision but was left with stigmatic wounds from this spiritual encounter. He is the first historically documented stigmatic. For the remaining two years of his life, he suffered from the stigmata and was treated by St. Clare and the Poor Sisters of Clare. He died 800 years ago on October 3, 1226.
On July 16, 1228, Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis. In 1979 Pope John Paul II declared Francis to be the Patron Saint of Ecology.
Our world is a better place because of the work of the Franciscans. If we wish to make our world a bit better place for future generations, perhaps it is time for us to imitate the life of St. Francis. Do we care for God’s creation? Are we willing to live more spiritually and less materially? Are we willing to follow the goal of Francis, “follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.”
If we chose to live in this fashion, we will be blessing our world and blessing future generations. Are we willing to take this challenge? Let us all live as Francis did.
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