INTRODUCTION

Do you believe that there was a man that can talk to other creatures? He can talk with us

even with plants and animals as well. You may wonder how this wealthy young man who became

poor can understand both human and nature.

St. Francis of Assisi is one among the greatest saints of the Catholic Church that both

Christian and non-Christian denomination know him. He lived in a simple life and surrendered

everything he had to the Lord. He was a wealthy man and a soldier but when he heard the voice of

the Lord saying, “Francis go and rebuild my church”, he converted himself and followed Christ in

a great observance of the Gospel. He became poor for the poor that he choose Lady poverty as his

wife.

Francis life can be summed up by the word “dialogue”. The cycle of his ministry was

paying much attention on how to create dialogue between him and the world. He leads the people

and the world by living out the Gospel and sharing the ministry of Christ to others.

But what is dialogue for us? What do we mean about dialogue? Dialogue is important today

as humans are in constant conversation with one another. True dialogue involves sharing what we

believe and not comparing that we are better to other person. It does not mean going into dialogue

with the goal of converting the other, it is more about sharing our own belief in a non-threatening

way.

Francis have shown his concept of dialogue between man and man and man to his nature.

He treated everything as brother and sister- a one family of God. He is a man of dialogue the whole

of him speaks about the Gospel. The way he dress, the way he talk, and the way he live are the
greatest manifestation of the poor Christ to mankind. For Francis dialogue is not only for talking

or sharing our own thoughts but it is more on listening without judging to anyone else. He can

preach to everyone, to plants and animals and he assumed that they understand each other. One

speaks and one listens.

The search for peace, safeguarding nature, promotion of dialogue between man, Francis is

a true master of all these things.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

To understand Francis’ concept of dialogue to man and nature, the paper will answer the

following questions:

1. Who is St. Francis of Assisi?

2. What is Francis’ concept of dialogue?

3. How did Francis show and live dialogue in his life?

4. How is his concept of dialogue applicable in our current situation?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Upon reading the life of St. Francis of Assisi, he dwelt on dialogue to man and nature. This

research study will present a new concept of dialogue promulgated by Francis. This paper will

help the readers to correct their manners towards people and nature on how to treat them correctly

with the same degree.

This study could also make the readers to be optimistic in creating a lively dialogue

between man and man and man to nature. This too may provide the Church and the lay the clear

understanding of St. Francis’ concept of dialogue for addressing in a certain situation.

Finally, the life of this great saint, St. Francis of Assisi will bring a constant change to the

readers to look upon peace by making dialogue to man and nature.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

This paper will not go to detail on the whole life events of St. Francis of Assisi though

some stories are presented. The researcher asserted some of the events in St. Francis’ life that will

show his concept of dialogue. The word dialogue here is coined by Francis’ but some people made

their own interpretations in honor to this great saint.

The researcher of this paper also indicates some of the issues regarding to man and man

relationship and man to nature that still happening in our current situation, specifically in the

Philippines.
 CHAPTER I
St. Francis of Assisi

Francis was born in Assisi, city of Umbria, in the year 1182. His father, Pedro Bernardone,

was a rich cloth merchant. The name of his mother was Pica and some authors affirm that she

belonged to a noble family of Provenza. Both his father as well as his mother were affluent. Pedro

Bernardone traded especially in France. Since he was in France when his son was born, people

nicknamed him “François” (the Frenchman) even if his baptismal name was John. In his youth,

Francis liked the romantic traditions that the troubadours promoted. He had money in abundance

and he flaunted his wealth. He was not interested in his father’s business or in his studies; he was

only interested in having fun with vain things which are commonly called “enjoying life.”

However, he was not in the habit of licentiousness and he was very generous with the poor who

asked him out of love for God.

When Francis was 20 years old, discord between the cities of Perugia and Assisi exploded.

While in the war, the young man was imprisoned by the Peruginos. He was in prison for a year

and Francis withstood it joyfully. However, when he was freed, he fell gravely ill. This illness

tested his patience and strengthened and matured his spirit. When he felt sufficiently strong, he

was determined to join the army and fight in Galterio and Briena, in the south of Italy. With that

purpose he bought an expensive armor and a beautiful mantle. One leisurely day, however, when

he was wearing his new outfit, he came across a poorly dressed gentleman who had fallen into

poverty. Moved with compassion before this unfortunate person, Francis exchanged his rich

clothing for those of the poor gentleman’s. That evening he saw a marvelous palace with rooms

full of weapons over which had been engraved the sign of the cross, and he seemed to have heard

a voice that told him that those weapons belonged to him and his soldiers.
 Francis left for Apulia with an unburdened soul and the confidence of winning, but he

never reached the battle line. In Espoleto, city of the path from Assisi to Rome, he fell sick again

and during his illness he heard a celestial voice that exhorted him to “serve the master and not the

slave.” The young man obeyed. At the beginning he went back to his former life, although taking

things less lightly. Upon seeing him lost in his thoughts people would tell him that he was in love.

“Yes,” Francis would reply, “I am going to marry the most beautiful and the fairest from all those

I’ve met,” he was referring to “lady poverty.” Little by little, with much prayer, he began to

conceive the desire of selling all his goods and buying the precious pearl of which the Gospel

speaks. Even though he ignored what he had to do to attain it, a series of clear supernatural

inspirations made him understand that the spiritual battle began by mortification and victory over

instincts. On one occasion when he was strolling by on horse through the prairies of Assisi, he

came across a leprous man. The wounds of this beggar terrorized Francis; but instead of fleeing,

he approached the leprous man who extended his hand to receive alms. Francis understood that

the time had come to take the step for the radical love of God. Despite his natural aversion towards

leprous people, he renounced his will, approached him, and gave him a kiss. That changed his life.

It was a gesture moved by the Holy Spirit, asking Francis for a quality of an offering, a “yes” that

distinguishes the saints from the mediocre people.

From thereafter, he began to visit and serve the sick in the hospitals. Sometimes he would

give his clothing away to the poor; other times he would give away the money he had with him.

He would serve them with great care because the prophet Isaiah tells us that Christ Crucified was

rejected and treated as a leper. In this way, he would develop his spirit of poverty, his profound

sense of humility and his great compassion. On certain occasions, meanwhile he prayed in the

church of San Damiano in the outskirts of Assisi, it seemed to him that the crucifix repeated three
times, “Francis, repair my Church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” The saint, seeing

that the church was found in a bad state, thought that the Lord wanted him to repair it. So he left

immediately and took a large quantity of clothing from his father’s store and sold them along with

his horse. At once, he took the money to the poor priest who was in charge of the church of San

Damiano and asked him permission to live with him. The good priest consented to allow Francis

to stay with him, but he did not accept the money. The young man placed it on the windowsill.

Upon finding out what his son did, Peter Bernardone headed angrily to San Damiano, but Francis

was very careful to hide himself.

At the end of some days spent in prayer and fasting, Francis reemerged back into society,

but he was so disfigured and poorly dressed that the people would make fun of him as if he was a

crazy person. Very taken aback by the behavior of his son, Pedro Bernardone took him home, beat

him furiously (Francis was 25 years old), placed grasshoppers on his feet, and locked him up in a

bedroom. Francis’ mother made sure to set him free when her husband was away and, that way,

Francis was able to return to San Damiano. His father went again after him, hit him on the head,

and threatened him that if he did not return immediately to his house then he would have to

renounce all of his inheritance and pay him the money from the clothing he had taken. Francis did

not have any difficulty renouncing his inheritance, but he told his father that the money from the

clothing belonged to God and the poor.

His father forced him to appear before Bishop Guido of Assisi who exhorted the young

man to return the money and to trust in God, “God does not desire that His Church enjoy goods

that were acquired unjustly.” Francis obeyed to the letter the bishop’s order and added, “The

clothing that I am wearing also belongs to my father and so I have to return it to him.” At once he

took off his clothes and handed them over to his father, telling him joyfully, “Up to now you have
been my father on earth. But from now on I could say, ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven’.” Pedro

Bernardone left the Episcopal palace “trembling from indignation and profoundly wounded.”

The bishop gave Francis a worker’s used clothing that belonged to one of his servants.

Francis received the first alms very gratefully; he traced the sign of the cross over his clothes with

a piece of chalk and put it on.

Right away, he left in search of a convenient site where he could settle down. He was

joyfully singing the divine praises on the camino real, when he bumped into some bandits who

asked him who he was. He responded, “I am the herald of the Great King.” The bandits beat him

and dragged him into a ditch covered with snow. Francis continued his path singing the divine

praises. In a monastery he obtained alms and work as if he was a beggar. When he arrived in

Gubbio, a person who knew him took him home and gave him a tunic, a belt, and some pilgrim

sandals. Francis used them for two years at the end of which he returned to San Damiano. To repair

the church, he went to ask for alms in Assisi, where everyone knew him as rich and, naturally, he

had to put up with the mockery and the rejection from many. He himself made sure to transport

the stones that were needed to repair the church and he helped the construction workers. Once the

reparations were done in the church of San Damiano, Francis took on a work similar to the early

church of Saint Peter. After, he moved to a small chapel named Porziuncula that belonged to the

Benedictine Abbey of Mount Subasio. It is probable that the name of the small chapel referred to

the fact that the chapel was built in a reduced plot of land. he Porziuncula was located on a plain

about four kilometers from Assisi, and in that time, it was abandoned and almost in ruins. The

tranquility of the site pleased Francis as well as the title of Our Lady of the Angels in whose honor

the chapel had been built. Francis repaired it and made it his residence. It is there that on the feast

of Saint Mathias in 1209 heaven showed him what was expected of him. At that time, the gospel
of the Mass for Saint Mathias’ feast day said, “As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom

of heaven is at hand.'…Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give... Do not take

gold… or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick…Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the

midst of wolves” (Mt 10: 7-18). These words penetrated to the deepest part of Francis’ heart and

taking these words literally, he gave away his sandals, his walking stick, and his belt and he was

left with his tunic tied to a cord. Such was the habit he gave his brothers a year later: a crude, wool

tunic similar to that of the shepherds and farmers of the region. Dressed in that way, he began to

exhort people to penance with so much energy that his words penetrated the hearts of his listeners.

When he came across someone on his way, he would greet him with these words, “The peace of

our Lord be with you.”

https://www.piercedhearts.org/theology_heart/life_saints/francis_assisi_life.htm