TODAY'S SAINT (Francis of Paola)

FRANCIS OF PAOLA

(ca. 1416-1507)

Founder of the Minim Friars

Also known as: "The Miracle Workers" and "God's Miracle Worker Supreme

 

 

St. Francis of Paola was born around 1416 in Paola, Italy, to a humble family. Childless for years, the parents had prayed earnestly to St. Francis of Assisi for a son. When Francis was conceived, tongues of fire were seen dancing harmmlessly over the family roof. At birth the boy was named after the saint. When he was 13, they sent him to the Franciscan friary at San Marco to be educated. The austere lifestyle appealed to Francis.

     After a  year, he took a pilgrimage with his parents to Assisi, Rome and other places. When they  returned, Francis  went into seclusion, first slightly outside Paola and then in a remote location in a cave  by the sea. By 1436 he was joined by two companions. Neighbors built them cells  and  a chapel. A story is told that one day a goat rushed into Franccis's cave, seeking refuge from hunters. Francis took it as a sign from God that he was to leave his her-miitage and work for the Church.

     Thus began Francis's order. The date of foundation is considered to be 1452. Seventeen years later a church and monastery were built, and Francis established a discipline for the order based on penance, charity and humility, and also on a perpetual Lent that required a strict vegetarian diet.

     Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471-84) approved the new order in 1474. Initially, they were called  the Hermits of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis had this changed in 1492 to the Minim Friars, as he desired that they be recognized as the least  (minimi) in the household of God.

     In 1481 the dying King Louis XI of France sent for Francis and asked him to heal him in exchange for assistance to his order. Francis replied that the lives of kings are in the hands of God. The two men shared numerous meetinngs, and Louis died in Francis's arms. His succeessor, Charles VIII, relied upon Francis for much advice. He built for Francis three monasteries: two  in France at Plessias and Amboise, and one at Rome.

     Francis remained  in France for the last 25 years of his life. He became ill on Palm Sunday, 1507, and died the following Good Friday, at age 91. 

     Franccis was renowned as a miracle-worker. He was reported to bilocate, and was seen simultaneously in prayer in the chappel and out on the street talking to people, or working in the kitchens while he also attended the altar. He had the gift of miraculous transport, and took companions across water using his cloak for a boat. In 1483 he was observed by the king of Naples to levitate in an ecstasy and to be bathed in supernatural light in the middle of the night. The saint also levitated objects. Suring the building of his first church  and monastery, he raised a large boulder that was in the way.

     On numerous occasions, Franncis multiplied food and wine, sometimes for large crowds of several hundred. Though portions were small, each person  felt fully satisfied.

     Thrrroughouut his life, Francis was very popular and wads often  mobbed by enthusiastic ccrowds when he ventured out in public..  He was said to make mimself invisiible whenever he wished to traveeel undetecccted, orr to quiet momeents ffor prayer and meditationn. He also  had thfe giifttts of prophesy, clairrrvoyance, supernatural dnowledge  and control of