The Saint of the day 4 October is Saint Francis of Assisi, which name day is celebrated and other saints who are celebrated on this date.
Saint Francis of Assisi
Certainly Francis of Assisi is the most famous Christian saint, loved all over the world, even in environments very distant from the Catholic Faith.
It is of fundamental importance to establish the characteristics that guarantee Saint Francis' fidelity to an entirely evangelical ideal, presented and lived in a very original way, but never free or rebellious.
First of all, his perfect adherence to the Gospel teaching, to the words and to the figure of Jesus himself.
A Jesus whom Francis of Assisi, with great intuition, succeeds in presenting to the men of his time and of successive generations as the Savior out of love, using immense love, therefore not only Almighty Lord, Supreme Judge, indefectible Master but also brother among the brothers, suffering among the suffering, most lovable creature among the creatures that love and praise him.
Furthermore, an untiring loyalty to the Church, which Francis considered the mystical bride of Christ, a factor testified by infinite episodes.
Just think that three times and to three different Popes, the Poverello of Assisi applied for the approval of his Rule.
He even asked for approval to be able to make the first nativity scene in Christian history, a living nativity scene at Greccio on Christmas 1223.
On the other hand, at the very beginning of the saint's vocation, it was the painted Crucifix of San Damiano, still preserved in Assisi, who asked Francis to restore his Church, without criticizing or reforming it.
The sense of Christian joy was constant in him, diametrically opposed to the feeling of anguish caused by error.
Brought for the first time, together with his companions, in front of Innocent III, he began to dance joyfully.
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During a party in San Leo he preached saying: "So much is the good that I expect that every punishment will delight me."
To Brother Leo he explained where perfect joy lay, stating that it lay in tribulation and persecution accepted for love.
And finally, at the garden of San Damiano in Assisi, when he was sick and almost blind, plagued by the Stigmata and after a tormenting sleepless night, he intoned the Canticle of the Creatures, which represents the greatest hymn of thanksgiving and praise to God.
About the biography, San Francesco, son of Pietro di Bernardone and Donna Pica, was born in Assisi in 1182.
Spent a rather carefree youth, when he was 24 years old, in the church of San Damiano, he felt the invitation of Christ who called him to follow him and repair his house.
Francis immediately gave up everything on earth to adhere only to God and from that moment he had no other concern than to live according to the Gospel narrative, trying to imitate in every little detail the poor and humble Christ.
Together with some companions, who in the meantime had joined him, he founded a new religious Order in 1209, humbly called the "Order of the Friars Minor", settling first in Rivotorto and then in Santa Maria degli Angeli.
He wrote his own Rule which was later approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223.
Francis and his friars began to go everywhere to preach the Gospel, with simple but highly effective words, with the omnipresent example of life inspired by holiness.
He also founded a second order, called the "poor ladies" or the Poor Clares, and a third order for all those who live in the world.
Two years before his death, on the mountain of Verna he received the Stigmata from Christ, who made him perfectly conform to the crucifix also corporally.
He died in Santa Maria degli Angeli, lying on the bare earth, on the evening of October 3, 1226.
Two years after his death, Gregory IX declared him a saint and in 1230 his body was buried under the altar of the new Basilica erected in his honor.
Pius XII in 1939 proclaimed him, together with Saint Catherine of Siena, patron of Italy.
Other saints and celebrations on 4 October
- Blessed Alfredo Pellicer Munoz
- Saint Aurea of Paris
- Blessed Enrico Morant Pellicer
- Blessed Francesco Saverio Seelos
- Blessed Giuseppe Canet Giner
- San Petronio of Bologna
Religious and martyr
Abbess
Priest and martyr
Redemptorist priest
Priest and martyr
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