Description
The statue of St. Francis is a religious statue of a Franciscan friar who is best known for his conversion to Christianity, and for his founding of the Franciscan Order. The statue is made of cast marble and is 60mmL x 55mm W x 210mm H. It is hand painted at an additional cost. The statue is priced for "Cast Marble White". The statue is patron saint of animals, merchants, and ecology. Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy, and died in 1226. He is the founder of the Franciscan Order, which is a religious order devoted to serving the poor and promoting peace. Francis spent his early years living a carefree lifestyle and was known for his charm and leadership abilities. In 1187, when Francis was 17 years old, his father sent him to France to learn more about the cloth trade. While in France, Francis fell in love with the songs and culture of France and became fascinated with the free and adventurous troubadours. In 1191, Francis returned to Assisi and joined the army in an attempt to take Perugia. However, his troops were slaughtered and he was taken prisoner. Francis was held in a harsh dungeon for a year and was eventually
St Francis Marble Statue
Dimensions: 60mmL x 55mm W x 210mm H
Please note that all our Marble Art Statues are made on order. There is a lead time of approximately 10 working days.
Our statues are priced for "Cast Marble White".
Hand Painted at an additional cost - please email us orders@catholic-shop.co.za for a quotation on any one of the alternative options
Feast Day: October 4 Patron - Animals, Merchants & Ecology 1181 - 1226
Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181.
In 1182, Pietro Bernardone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he'd been gone, Pietro was furious because she'd had his new son baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. The last thing Pietro wanted in his son was a man of God -- he wanted a man of business, a cloth merchant like he was, and he especially wanted a son who would reflect his infatuation with France. So he renamed his son Francesco -- which is the equivalent of calling him Frenchman.
Francis enjoyed a very rich easy life growing up because of his father's wealth and the permissiveness of the times. From the beginning everyone -- and I mean everyone -- loved Francis. He was constantly happy, charming, and a born leader. If he was picky, people excused him. If he was ill, people took care of him. If he was so much of a dreamer he did poorly in school, no one minded. In many ways he was too easy to like for his own good. No one tried to control him or teach him.
As he grew up, Francis became the leader of a crowd of young people who spent their nights in wild parties. Thomas of Celano, his biographer who knew him well, said, "In other respects an exquisite youth, he attracted to himself a whole retinue of young people addicted to evil and accustomed to vice." Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time.
Francis fulfilled every hope of Pietro's -- even falling in love with France. He loved the songs of France, the romance of France, and especially the free adventurous troubadours of France who wandered through Europe. And despite his dreaming, Francis was also good at business. But Francis wanted more..more than wealth. But not holiness! Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia.
Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight. Only those wealthy enough to expect to be ransomed were taken prisoner. At last Francis was among the nobility like he always wanted to be...but chained in a harsh, dark dungeon. All accounts say that he never lost his happy manner in that horrible place. Finally, after a year in the dungeon, he was ransomed. Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.
The experience didn't change what he wanted from life either: Glory. Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse -- no problem for the son of a wealthy father. And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.
But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did. What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle -- the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.
Francis' conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave an
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