St. Francis of Assisi’s father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, was a gregarious and generous man, a very ambitious and successful businessman. He was part of the “new money” demographic of the high Middle Ages known as the merchant class. Born into the lower classes of society, he was determined to elevate himself and his family’s social status. He was domineering and driven but not abusive or wicked. He loved beautiful things like the fine cloth he purchased during frequent trips to France, which he would sell in his shop. He married a refined and pious French lady named Pica de Bourlemont, also called “Giovanna,” about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from Provence.

Giovanni was the firstborn of Pietro and Pica’s several children. Although the exact number is not known, some sources suggest seven. Giovanni was the first child and first son, a privileged and favored position. He was born and baptized during one of his father’s many absences. Pietro, who was in France purchasing cloth for his shop, returned home filled with joy; the birth of his firstborn son, his successful business trip and his love for all things French caused him to refer to his newborn son as “Francesco.”

This was the father of St. Francis of Assisi, a “good man” characteristic of his era but driven by worldly ambition. He wanted to break the glass ceiling of the social structure of his time and become a lord or majore but personal wealth was not enough to accomplish this ambition. In the social framework of the high Middle Ages, such a change of status needed to be granted by imperial and ecclesiastical authority. The only way for Pietro to achieve his ambition was for him or one of his sons to be victorious in battle; then his family would be granted a title and therefore status as majores.

The Heart of a Son

Giovanni “Francesco” Bernadone loved his earthly father; he had no reason not to. Francesco was the heir to the family business and fortune, and the son Pietro could rely on to achieve his ultimate ambition of becoming majores. Francesco willingly united himself with his father’s ambition, helping to advance the family name not only by working in the family business but also by using the family fortune to promote their status. Francesco became a leader among the young men in his town through his charismatic personality and the use of his father’s fortune to pay for entertainments. Pietro was supportive of his son in such activities, seeing this money as an investment in his own worldly ambition.

Assisi was engaged in a battle with the neighboring town of Perugia. Pietro saw his opportunity. Outfitting his son in the finest armor he could afford, he sent Francesco off to win the longed-for family status. Medieval combat was largely hand-to-hand. Nothing in Francesco’s past prepared him for the taking of human life in such a gruesome way. After a year in battle Francesco fell prisoner to Perugia and wound up in a medieval prison cell for almost another year, waiting to be ransomed. Haunted by the trauma of combat and poor health caused by the conditions of his confinement, Francesco was at a crossroads in his life. It was during his confinement that he had a mystical dream that would be the start of his conversion away from any worldly ambition and toward Jesus Christ as the center of his life.

Francesco was ransomed by his father and returned home a changed man. His health slowly returned, but he had completely lost interest in his father’s business and social ambitions, for which he had done everything, likely including the shedding of blood, to promote. A growing divide with his father escalated, culminating in a public confrontation in front of the bishop of Assisi in which his father publicly disowned him. Francesco acknowledged his earthly father’s rejection, but he rejected, from that point on, any worldly ambition by embracing “Our Father who art in heaven.”

The Heart of a Saint

Francesco approached life now as a penitent. Having been shown mercy by his heavenly Father, he realized that the Most High God was love poured out. Unlike his earthly father’s worldly ambition for upward mobility, the Most High God “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8).

Francesco’s mouth would water when he pronounced the holy name of Jesus, and his hunger would only subside in the reception of holy Communion, which became now the center of his life. He was offered ordination as a priest, for which he felt unworthy. But it is widely acknowledged that he accepted ordination as a deacon and served in this capacity, although we have no historical record of his ordination. Francesco cherished this servant role at the altar and all things connected to it: the obligation to pray the Divine Office, the commitment to clerical continence, obedience to the bishop.

In every aspect of his life Francesco sought after the “Spirit of the Lord and his holy operation,” which for Francesco meant the interior and exterior living of poverty modeled on the Most High, who once made himself poor in the child at Bethlehem and eternally poor and ever present to humanity in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. 

FATHER JOSEPH TUSCAN serves as director of the Confraternity of Christian Mothers and a full-time “Minister of the Word” for the Capuchin Province of St. Augustine, offering retreats and reflection days for parishes, religious and priests.