We all love our Nativity scenes. These have been popular Advent and Christmas decorations for centuries. But were you aware they originated by our beloved St. Francis? St. Francis of Assisi had a special devotion to the Child Jesus. He is credited with creating the first nativity scene on Christmas Eve of the year 1223. It…
Also known as The Canticle of the CreaturesBy St. Francis of Assisi Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,all praise is yours, all glory, all honor,and all blessing. To you, alone, Most High, do they belong.No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name. All praise be yours, my Lord,through all, you have made, and first, my…
Francis of Assisi (13th century) simply wanted to live as Jesus did—as a wandering preacher with as few material possessions as possible. Francis never set out to found an order, but amazingly, people began to emulate him. The “Order of Friars Minor,” which we now call the Franciscans, was created. I believe part of the attraction…
“In 1213 Count Orlando Catani of Chiusi gave Francis a mountainous parcel of land called La Verna to use as a place of retreat. Tucked into the wilderness east of Florence, La Verna features a solitary peak, known as Monte Penna, and is covered with a forest of beech and fir trees. The friar withdrew…
FRANCIS OF ASSISI, FRIAR D. 1226 PATRON OF ANIMALS AND OF ECOLOGY St. Francis was born in the hill country of central Italy in the town of Assisi around 1181. He was the only child of a prosperous cloth merchant and grew up among the privileged sons of the town’s wealthy families. His early youth…
Some of the highlights along The Way of St. Francis Santuario della Verna (La Verna, our starting point) We start our walk from La Verna, a remote mountain retreat. As we leave the Sanctuary of La Verna, through the Casentino park, it is like walking back in time from the Renaissance into medieval times. This Sanctuary is considered…
A Mystical encounter in Tuscany By: Andrew Harvey When I was 18, I spent eight months hitchhiking around Italy. At the time, I was about to go to Oxford, and I thought that I wanted to be an art historian. So I visited all the great centers—Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice. Then, one day in…
BY Gretel Ehrlich | MAY 1, 2000 Gretel Ehrlich walks in the footsteps of St. Francis through the Umbrian countryside and ponders the life of a saint who was “radical without bitterness, vital yet gentle, dramatic—even outrageous at times—without narcissism.” The road to Gubbio veers north by northwest from Assisi. It slides under La Rocca—the feudal…