St. Francis of Paola (April 2nd)

Of the Saints and other celebrations remembered this week:

April 2 -- Saint Francis of Paola, Hermit

April 4 -- Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

April 5 -- Saint Vincent Ferrer, Priest

April 6 – 5th SUNDAY OF LENT


I’ve chosen to write about Saint Francis of Paola.


Saint Francis of Paola was born on March 27, 1416 to a poor but pious family in the town of Paola in Calabria, basically on the top of the arch of the boot of Italy.


His parents, poor but devout, had trouble having kids. They prayed asking St. Francis of Assisi to help them, and their prayer was answered with a bouncing little son who they then named Francis.    Still a baby, one of his eyes got infected.  The parents prayed again for St. Francis of Assisi’s intercession.  Again their prayers were answered.


So it was not surprising that the parents then took their child and at 12 gave him to the Franciscans at their convent in San Marco Argentano.  There the future saint learned to read and write but he never got ordained.  


Instead he returned home and became a hermit living in a small shack at the edge of the town.  Known for his piety and austerity, he was joined by two other men, who together formed a confraternity called the Hermits of st. Francis of Assisi.  


The community was composed entirely of laymen, no priests, though they went to Mass.  At the beginning few could read or write.  Their rule was approved by the rather notorious Pope Alexander VI, who changed their name to the Minims of St. Francis of Assisi.  They became a counterpoint ostentatiousness of Italy and later France of the Renaissance.  


Indeed, when French King Louis XI fell terminally ill, he sent for the future St. Francis of Paola.  Initially he refused but came to be ordered by the Pope to do so.  So he went … 


He produced such an impression on the French court that soon King Charles VIII, Louis’ successor was building convents for his order all across France.  Perhaps the most famous member of the Third Order of this congregation became St. Francis de Sales.


Did the humble hermit St. Francis of Paola want all this attention.  By all accounts not really.  


The Rule of his Order identified its two major charisms: humility and non-violence.


He died on Good Friday in 1507.


Sometimes you try really hard to be one thing, and others just throw things in front of you, even good things, that you didn’t really want.


Did he care to be seen as a saint, perhaps even a living saint in his time?  One does not know.


But he did seek to live an honest life, and God seems to have seen that.  He could not have died on a more fitting day for the life that he that he tried to lead.


 St. Francis of Paola, pray for us!




Image – by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, from the altarpiece The Immaculate Conception with Saint Lawrence and Saint Francis of Paola

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