Saint Francis of Assisi was more than just a lover of birds
Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228, in a record 653 days after his death. The article recounts how Francis, a wealthy young man, renounced worldly pursuits after a profound spiritual conversion following illness. It highlights the rapid canonization process and the early biographer Thomas of Celano, who chronicled Francis’s life for the Church. The narrative emphasizes the enduring fascination with Francis’s legacy and his impact on Catholic spirituality.
3 months ago
Saint Francis of Assisi’s life, canonized just 653 days after his death, continues to inspire both Catholics and non‑Catholics through his radical embrace of poverty, love of creation, and humble preaching, as detailed in his early biographies and later reflections. 1
Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone into a wealthy merchant family in Assisi, Francis was known for his wit, extravagance, and many friends before a serious illness at age 25 sparked a profound inner change. 1
Rejecting a military campaign that promised wealth and distinction, he experienced a vision of his home filled with weapons and chose instead to seek God in a nearby cave, weeping for his sins and embracing “Lady Poverty.” 1
His dramatic break with his father—giving away the money from a cloth sale, enduring imprisonment, and ultimately renouncing all worldly possessions—marked the start of his lifelong commitment to absolute poverty and trust in divine providence. 1
Francis traveled on foot, preaching the Gospel, caring for lepers, rebuilding churches, and attracting disciples who formed the Order of Friars Minor, which later gave rise to numerous daughter orders and produced more saints than any other religious institute. 1
His encounter with Sultan Al‑Kamil during the Fifth Crusade, though not converting the ruler, earned the sultan’s respect and underscored Francis’s willingness to risk martyrdom for the faith. 1
In 1224, while praying on Mount La Verna, Francis received the stigmata—wounds mirroring those of Christ—after a vision of a six‑winged seraph, an event that cemented his reputation as a living embodiment of Christ’s suffering. 1
Although not a prolific writer, Francis left a collection of twenty‑eight “Admonitions” offering simple, practical spiritual counsel on humility, patience, and measured speech, which remain applicable to Christians today. 1
His poetic sensibility survived his conversion, evident in the “Canticle of the Sun” and in the verses of later biographers such as Henri d’Avranches, who rendered his life into a popular poetic biography. 1
Statues frequently depict Francis with birds, reflecting an episode where he greeted a flock in a valley, blessing them and preaching about God’s creation, illustrating his view that all creatures deserve praise of the Creator. 1
When words failed, Francis would simply bless his listeners and send them on, a practice his biographer Thomas of Celano records as an effective “very good sermon.” 1
Francis’s humility, love for the poor, and reverence for nature have made him a lasting model of Christian discipleship; his life continues to be celebrated in literature, art, and devotion, including modern indulgences offered through Franciscan churches. 1
Assess Francis’s rapid canonization within early Church canon law
Francis of Assisi was canonized only two years after his death—d. 3 Oct 1226, canonized 16 July 1228 by Pope Gregory IX—and this apparent “speed” is best understood not as a disregard for canon (Church) discipline, but as an early form of papal approval of an already widespread cult, granted on the basis of publicly known holiness and miracles.
In the earlier centuries, the Church tolerated (and sometimes only later corrected) the fact that saints could be recognized through a combination of local veneration and the bishop’s sanction, even when the evidentiary process was not as standardized as later medieval practice. Butler describes how older patterns allowed a kind of rough-and-ready canonization by popular acclaim, with the local bishop’s role being decisive—yet also notes the risk of abuses in such a system.
As the Church matured, a shift occurred: toward the end of the twelfth century, Alexander III “definitely reserved” to the Holy See the right to pronounce when the claims of a candidate to saintship were in question.
A related (but more technical) point is given by modern historical theology: canonizations came to be reserved de facto to the Apostolic See by the late twelfth century, even though a more formal juridical reservation is associated in later sources with the Liber Extra (1234). That matters for Francis (1228): the papal role was already functioning in practice, even if later codifications were still ahead.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) explains the basic distinction between beatification and canonization in terms of Church discipline: canonization is a universal precept commanding public veneration by the whole Church (as opposed to beatification being a restricted permission). While this is a later doctrinal-juridical framing, it clarifies the seriousness of what Gregory IX did in 1228: canonization was not merely a local tolerance of devotion.
Pope Gregory IX’s canonization text (the bull Mira circa nos) grounds the decision in two things:
Then, with the consultation and approval of “our Brothers,” Gregory decreed that Francis be enrolled in the catalogue of saints for veneration.
This is crucial for evaluating “rapidity” in an early-canon-law sense: the text does not present canonization as the end of a long investigation that only just began; it presents canonization as a papal juridical act following already available knowledge and reliable testimony.
From the standpoint of early discipline, Francis’s canonization can plausibly be considered “rapid” because:
But the legally operative question is not “How many years passed?” It is “Did the pope exercise the Church’s discernment according to the mind and practice of the Church?” Gregory IX’s bull indicates discernment through witness, miracles, and papal deliberation/consultation.
Your question implicitly asks whether the Church’s canon discipline required a long interval before canonization—something like a statutory minimum. The sources available here do not present a universal early norm such as “X years after death” for canonization. Instead, they show that the Church moved from local recognition to papal authority, and that papal decisions were grounded in knowledge, witness, and miracles.
So the more defensible canon-law assessment, based on what is provided, is:
A further angle is theological-juridical: by the thirteenth century, rapid canonizations of major mendicant founders were seen as especially strong papal approbations, and scholastic theology increasingly connected canonization acts with the Church’s indefectibility and (in some discussions) papal infallibility in the relevant sense.
The Catholic Encyclopedia likewise reports the mainstream theological view: that the pope is infallible in issuing decrees of canonization, while also noting that theologians disputed the degree of certitude owed to such decrees.
This supports the idea that once the pope formally canonized, the Church treated the act as a serious juridical judgment—not a tentative or reversible local approval.
Francis’s rapid canonization in 1228 does not, on the evidence provided, appear to contradict early Church canon discipline. The Church was transitioning toward papal reserved authority for definitive judgments on saintship, and Gregory IX’s bull explicitly cites personal familiarity, reliable witness, and “many brilliant miracles,” together with papal consultation/approval.