St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis giving his mantle to a poor man.

 

-Brian Mendonca

Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). It is the day St. Francis passed on. I  remember him as a monk in brown robes having a mystic air as he walked through the village. The high point was when he tamed the snarling wolf Gubbio - who had become a menace to the villagers in Italy.

Today St. Francis is even more relevant as the saint of nature. He was born and died in Assisi, Italy. He was close to birds and animals and seemed to understand their language. He is the patron of ecology.

St. Francis received the stigmata in 1224.

The Crusades

St. Francis lived against the backdrop of the Crusades. The animosity between Christian Europe and the Moslem East was simmering. There were 8 major Crusades between 1096-1291. St. Francis founded the order of the Franciscans in 1209. He travelled to Egypt from Assisi to meet Sultan Malek-al-Kamil in 1219 during the fifth Crusade (1217-21). The first Franciscan friar missionaries were killed in Morocco in 1220. 

As one account puts it: In the 13th century, Christianity and Islam were fighting against each other in the fifth crusade in an attempt by the former to reacquire Jerusalem. In their efforts to take over the 'holy land' the West Europeans first wanted to conquer the Ayubbid state in Egypt. The meeting between St. Francis and the Sultan of Egypt happened at a time when the crusaders on the banks of the Nile were on the brink of defeat. When St. Francis arrived at the camp in August 1219, peace negotiations were being carried out between the two armies and it was during this period that he made the audacious decision to cross borders and visit the Sultan.#

Legacy

The beautiful hymn 'Make Me a Channel of Your Peace' attributed to St. Francis is one which I grew up with as a child. The hymn places high value on bringing peace to society. This can be done when we think of others instead of ourselves. 

Peace and conflict management are critical areas of study in today's fractured world. Nations need mediators to maintain peace. The UN has a peace-keeping force to which India has often contributed.
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#See '800 years before Pope Francis, St. Francis met the Sultan of Egypt.' Indian Express, New Delhi,  6 February 2019. Online.  Pic. courtesy ofm(dot)org. Updated 10th October 2021. Reference history(dot)com. Updated 4/10/25.

Note

The first Crusade (1095-1102) championed by Pope Urban II and envisioned by Peter the Hermit (1050-1150) ended with Jerusalem being recaptured from the Turks.  The second Crusade which collapsed had been played out between 1147-50. The third Crusade (1189-92) was to wrest the Holy Land from Saladin. The fourth Crusade (1202-04) had the same objective but (in)famously ended with the sack of Constantinople.