A modern biography describes the complicated and painful life of Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi: Reluctant Saint by Donald Spoto book review: He is probably the most famous of Roman Catholic Saints. 
Donald Spoto published his biography, “Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi” on September 30, 2002 in hardcover by Viking, followed by a paperback edition on August 31, 2003.
Spoto moves past idealized legends by trying to analyze the authentic, often emotionally moving and complicated life of Francis.
Frankly, very little about the biography of Saint Francis had been published up until the later part of the20th century. My husband attended four years of boarding school at Saint Francis College and learned practically nothing about the namesake’s life.
Saint Francis of Assisi (b. 1181- d. October 3, 1226). We know him mostly from seeing dozens of beautiful artistic renditions painted by centuries of artists. Yet, like the cliché asks, “What happened to him during the ‘dash’, between his birth and death?"
Donald Spoto published his biography, “Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi” on September 30, 2002 in hardcover by Viking, followed by a paperback edition on August 31, 2003.
Spoto moves past idealized legends by trying to analyze the authentic, often emotionally moving and complicated life of Francis.
Frankly, very little about the biography of Saint Francis had been published up until the later part of the20th century. My husband attended four years of boarding school at Saint Francis College and learned practically nothing about the namesake’s life.
Spoto challenges myths reported about Saint Francis including some of what the saint’s official biographer Saint Bonaventure wrote about him after he died.
He was baptized Giovanni de Pietro de Bernadone when he was born in 1181, in Assisi, Umbria, but his father, who was a wealthy silk and cloth merchant, gave him the name “Francis”. His father did not want him to be associated with the life of John the Baptist.
He was baptized Giovanni de Pietro de Bernadone when he was born in 1181, in Assisi, Umbria, but his father, who was a wealthy silk and cloth merchant, gave him the name “Francis”. His father did not want him to be associated with the life of John the Baptist.
He chose the name Francis for his son, because his wife, and the mother of Francis, Pica de Boulemont, was related to a noble French family and the family business was largely done in France.
Almost all the beautiful images painted to describe Francis of Assisi show him in nature, almost always with birds and sometimes with animals. Spoto writes about how Saint Francis of Assisi is never pictured as speaking to people, but is always painted in nature. Frescoes by the master Giotto, in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, expand on the connection with the environment.
Saint Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint of animals and the ecology. Yes, Saint Francis was known to speak to birds and Spoto documents at least one of these occurrences from eye witness accounts given at the time.
Even today, a visitor to Assisi, as my husband and I were several years ago, are entertained by the abundance of birds in the town’s olive orchards.
As a result of centuries of images, the world largely knows Saint Francis of Assisi as being in communion with nature. Of course this is true, especially verified when he wrote the beautiful “Canticle of the Sun”, considered to be the first poem or hymn composed in the Italian Umbrian dialect. This poem is among the world’s beloved prayers to God’s Creation. As we learn in Spoto’s biography, Francis wrote this canticle near the end of his life when he was painfully blinded by an eye disease and suffering end of life pain related to his years of living in his choice to accept complete poverty and endure self-imposed austerity.
First and foremost, Saint Francis was a social reformer. He defined the concept of charity and in so doing created a social revolution with a community of friars.
Spoto emphasizes that Francis's focus on unconditional charity was not just personal piety. In the violent, rigid social structures of medieval Italy, it pioneered a radical new historical and social movement.
In this well documented biography, including dozens of interesting to read footnotes, Spoto effectively brings the reader into the medieval world where Saint Francis was born where he experienced his conversion. I think if is fair to say, Saint Francis felt he was always on the verge of more personal conversion, because he experienced spiritual enlightenment on several occasions, even before the famous encounter with the Crucifix at Saint Damiano. Nevertheless, Saint Francis of Assisi lived his life feeling like he had fallen short in his desire to bring conversions to others. Nevertheless, his early years as a missionary proved to be charismatic, because his followers grew from four men to thousands of friars during his lifetime.
Although Spoto effectively joins the readers with the painful humanity in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, I found his biography fell short in providing details about what I thought to be extraordinary experiences. For example, how could a frail man, who was suffering from the chronic side effects of malaria he developed while held captive by Perugians, manage to walk without shoes from Assisi through Italy and west into the Pyrenes Mountains? In another episode, Saint Francis was not expected to return alive when he went to pay a personal visit to Muslims during his time in Egypt in 1219, and crossed enemy lines to meet the Sultan Malik al-Karmil. It is strictly against the law for Christians to evangelize Muslims (this is true even today in Muslim countries). Somehow, Saint Francis was not martyred during this experience. Instead of being murdered, he astounded the Crusaders he had travelled with by returning alive. He was disappointed when he was unable to convert the Sultan.
During his time in Egypt, Saint Francis developed a serious eye disease causing him to eventually become completely blind. Nonetheless, enduring illness and blindness, he continued to preach and his order of friars continued to grow.
Spoto is closest to Saint Francis during his very difficult end of life struggles. In this sometimes difficult to read ending chapter, we are exposed to Saint Francis as a specimen of a human, racked with pain and disfigurement related to wounds of unknown origin, perhaps they were the stigmata often described by religious historians. During the description provided about Saint Francis on his death bed, Spoto attempts to define the life he so carefully documented. In fact, I felt like Spoto, who was a former religious monk, was giving the reader a sermon about piety, poverty, humility and devotion to God. Somehow, I found this preaching in the biography to be a little disingenuous because, throughout most of the book’s chapters, Spoto works towards putting a secular focus on what others considered to be spiritually enlightening experiences. In summary, it is miraculous in my mind how a man of only 44-45 years of age, as Saint Francis was, who experienced his conversion when he was in his early adulthood, could grow a social reform movement from having four followers into a world-wide religious devotion of scholars, friars, women religious who are the Order of Saint Clare, Second Order Franciscans, and lay people and more broadly into thousands of devoted followers.
Pope Francis picked up the legacy of Saint Francis of Assisi when, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he chose the saint’s name for his Papacy. This name was his signal of commitment to humility, peace, environmental care and solidarity with the poor.
It is obvious, in my opinion, to see how Saint Francis of Assisi, in spite of his many human frailties, continues to evangelize the world by summoning the faithful to follow his teachings and for us to pass his legacy on to others.
Almost all the beautiful images painted to describe Francis of Assisi show him in nature, almost always with birds and sometimes with animals. Spoto writes about how Saint Francis of Assisi is never pictured as speaking to people, but is always painted in nature. Frescoes by the master Giotto, in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, expand on the connection with the environment.
Saint Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint of animals and the ecology. Yes, Saint Francis was known to speak to birds and Spoto documents at least one of these occurrences from eye witness accounts given at the time.
Even today, a visitor to Assisi, as my husband and I were several years ago, are entertained by the abundance of birds in the town’s olive orchards.
As a result of centuries of images, the world largely knows Saint Francis of Assisi as being in communion with nature. Of course this is true, especially verified when he wrote the beautiful “Canticle of the Sun”, considered to be the first poem or hymn composed in the Italian Umbrian dialect. This poem is among the world’s beloved prayers to God’s Creation. As we learn in Spoto’s biography, Francis wrote this canticle near the end of his life when he was painfully blinded by an eye disease and suffering end of life pain related to his years of living in his choice to accept complete poverty and endure self-imposed austerity.
First and foremost, Saint Francis was a social reformer. He defined the concept of charity and in so doing created a social revolution with a community of friars.
Spoto emphasizes that Francis's focus on unconditional charity was not just personal piety. In the violent, rigid social structures of medieval Italy, it pioneered a radical new historical and social movement.
In this well documented biography, including dozens of interesting to read footnotes, Spoto effectively brings the reader into the medieval world where Saint Francis was born where he experienced his conversion. I think if is fair to say, Saint Francis felt he was always on the verge of more personal conversion, because he experienced spiritual enlightenment on several occasions, even before the famous encounter with the Crucifix at Saint Damiano. Nevertheless, Saint Francis of Assisi lived his life feeling like he had fallen short in his desire to bring conversions to others. Nevertheless, his early years as a missionary proved to be charismatic, because his followers grew from four men to thousands of friars during his lifetime.
Although Spoto effectively joins the readers with the painful humanity in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, I found his biography fell short in providing details about what I thought to be extraordinary experiences. For example, how could a frail man, who was suffering from the chronic side effects of malaria he developed while held captive by Perugians, manage to walk without shoes from Assisi through Italy and west into the Pyrenes Mountains? In another episode, Saint Francis was not expected to return alive when he went to pay a personal visit to Muslims during his time in Egypt in 1219, and crossed enemy lines to meet the Sultan Malik al-Karmil. It is strictly against the law for Christians to evangelize Muslims (this is true even today in Muslim countries). Somehow, Saint Francis was not martyred during this experience. Instead of being murdered, he astounded the Crusaders he had travelled with by returning alive. He was disappointed when he was unable to convert the Sultan.
During his time in Egypt, Saint Francis developed a serious eye disease causing him to eventually become completely blind. Nonetheless, enduring illness and blindness, he continued to preach and his order of friars continued to grow.
Spoto is closest to Saint Francis during his very difficult end of life struggles. In this sometimes difficult to read ending chapter, we are exposed to Saint Francis as a specimen of a human, racked with pain and disfigurement related to wounds of unknown origin, perhaps they were the stigmata often described by religious historians. During the description provided about Saint Francis on his death bed, Spoto attempts to define the life he so carefully documented. In fact, I felt like Spoto, who was a former religious monk, was giving the reader a sermon about piety, poverty, humility and devotion to God. Somehow, I found this preaching in the biography to be a little disingenuous because, throughout most of the book’s chapters, Spoto works towards putting a secular focus on what others considered to be spiritually enlightening experiences. In summary, it is miraculous in my mind how a man of only 44-45 years of age, as Saint Francis was, who experienced his conversion when he was in his early adulthood, could grow a social reform movement from having four followers into a world-wide religious devotion of scholars, friars, women religious who are the Order of Saint Clare, Second Order Franciscans, and lay people and more broadly into thousands of devoted followers.
Pope Francis picked up the legacy of Saint Francis of Assisi when, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he chose the saint’s name for his Papacy. This name was his signal of commitment to humility, peace, environmental care and solidarity with the poor.
It is obvious, in my opinion, to see how Saint Francis of Assisi, in spite of his many human frailties, continues to evangelize the world by summoning the faithful to follow his teachings and for us to pass his legacy on to others.
Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized by Pope Pope Gregory IX, on July 16, 1228, just two years following his death on October 4, 1226. His remains are in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
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