This year marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis, which will be celebrated on his feast day, Oct. 4. October is also a month dedicated to the Blessed Mother and the holy rosary, which helps us meditate on Christ and the great mysteries of our salvation. The timing provides good reason to examine the exceptional devotion St. Francis had for the Blessed Mother.
Here are some fascinating facts to know about St. Francis, the Franciscan order he founded, and the Blessed Mother:
- St. Francis had a vision where he saw his friars try to reach Christ by a steep red ladder, but they kept falling off. Then Jesus showed him a second, less steep, white ladder that had Our Lady at the top. He told Francis: “Advise your sons to go by the ladder of my mother.”
- Many have given testimony stating St. Francis was one of the strongest Marian devotees in Church history. Servant of God Thomas of Celano, one of Francis’ friars, said that Francis’ love for the Blessed Virgin was beyond words, “inexpressible … for it was she who made the Lord of Majesty our brother.”
- St. Francis made the Blessed Mother the patroness and queen of the Friars Minor. St. Bonaventure, one of Francis’ early biographers, wrote that Francis placed himself and his order under the protection and guidance of Mary for all time: “On one side we should show Mary in all her poverty of Bethlehem placing the most sweet son of God upon the rough straw of the manger. In the other half of our painting, we would portray Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, and Queen of the Seraphic Order, in the chapel of Mary of the Angels stretching forth her arms in motherly protection over all her Franciscan sons and daughters.”
- It was one of St. Francis’ followers who was instrumental in the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The writings of Blessed John Duns Scotus (d. 1308), one of the greatest Franciscan theologians, led the Church in part to proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854.
- Praying with counted beads was a common method of meditation from the earliest centuries of the Church. Although we don’t have written proof that St. Francis prayed the rosary founded by St. Dominic, we do know that St. Dominic and St. Francis were contemporaries, and so it may be very probable he would know and pray it.
St. Francis’ devotion to the Blessed Mother is summarized beautifully in his “Salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary”:
Hail, O Lady,
Mary, holy Mother of God:
you are the Virgin made Church
and the one chosen by the
most holy Father in heaven
whom he consecrated
with his most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
in whom there was and is
the fullness of grace and every good.
Hail his palace!
Hail his tabernacle!
Hail his home!
Hail his robe!
Hail his servant!
Hail his mother!
And hail all you holy virtues which through the grace and light of the Holy Spirit are poured into the hearts of the faithful so that from their faithless state you may make them faithful to God. Amen.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!