St. Francis of Assisi
Italian Catholic friar, mystic, and founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), the women's Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Penitents — the medieval saint whose radical embrace of poverty, kinship with all created beings, and visible identification with the suffering Christ made him one of the most influential and most beloved figures of the second millennium. Born around 1181/1182 in Assisi to a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis as a young man pursued knighthood and worldly success before, through a series of conversion experiences in his early twenties, renouncing his inheritance, embracing voluntary poverty, and devoting himself to rebuilding ruined chapels and serving lepers. The order he founded in 1209 grew rapidly into one of the largest religious movements in the medieval Church. He composed the Canticle of the Sun (Cantico delle Creature), one of the earliest poems in vernacular Italian; received the stigmata at La Verna in 1224; and died at the Porziuncola in October 1226. (Note: the famous 'Peace Prayer' beginning 'Make me an instrument of your peace' is an anonymous twentieth-century French prayer first published in 1912, traditionally attributed to Francis but not authored by him.)
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Quotes by St. Francis of Assisi
107 quotes“Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks, and serve him with great humility.”
“Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ gives to His friends, is that of overcoming oneself.”
“For willingly to undergo death and bear all afflictions for love of Christ.”
“Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.”
“Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor disturbance.”
“Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither covetousness nor avarice.”
“Where there is rest and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor restlessness.”
“Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the door, there the enemy cannot enter.”
“Where there is mercy and prudence, there is neither excess nor severity.”
“Blessed is the servant who keeps the secrets of the Lord in his heart.”
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received.”
“Only what you have given.”
“A full heart, a full soul, a full life of love and sacrifice.”
“Start by doing what is necessary.”
“Then do what is possible.”
“And suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
“Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console.”
“To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love.”
“Most High, all-powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing.”
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