Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Festival of the Stigmata of St. Francis

Andy Wilkes has a superb post on the Stigmata of St. Francis over on a man breathing… I have no intention of trying to do anything like as well here, so I’ll just suggest you click over and continue reading from:

In September 1224 Brother Francesco Bernadone climbed Mount Alverna in Umbria, in order to spend some time alone in prayer. Francis was tired and had the beginnings of the illness which would lead to his death within two years. He was also sad that his little order of friars was no longer what he intended it to be. He had just returned from a peace mission to the Holy Land to find that the itinerant preachers now owned property of their own. He had relinquished his leadership and now needed to spend some time in retreat and prayer…

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