Saint Francis of Assisi’s Humility
By: Joshua Bennett
Tags: Humility, Pope Francis, Saint, Introspection, Catholic

Upon his election to the papacy in 2013, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was asked what name he would like to go by. After pausing for a moment, he selected the name Francis. When asked about this, the Pope explained that before the election, his friend Cardinal Claudio Hummes told him “not to forget about the poor” and that made the Pope think of Saint Francis of Assisi. According to the Pope, Saint Francis was not only a man of the poor but,

“The man of peace. The man who loved and cared for creation and in this moment we don’t have such a great relationship with the creator. The man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man who wanted a poor church.”

Saint Francis of Assisi has not only had a tremendous impact on the current pontiff of the church but other religions as well. Francis changed history by teaching that a church of poverty could be more effective and closer to God than a church of pride, luxury, and vanity. He followed through Christ’s advice in Matthew 11:29

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find the rest for your souls.”

Francis defined the imitation of Christ two centuries before Thomas à Kempis wrote The Imitation of Christ, which is the second most widely read book in all of Christendom. While many of the church fathers believed that an imitation of Christ was the gift of salvation, they had only discussed it on a spiritual level. Francis was the first to preach it on both a spiritual and physical level. His advocation of poverty and devotion toward the teachings of Christ made him the humblest of figures and has rightfully earned him the title of the church’s most beloved saint.

Saint Francis (1699) by Cigoli

Saint Francis’ biographer, Thomas of Celano, recalls to us how early on in the saint’s life, he began to “muse on other than his wonted thoughts” that eventually brought about feelings of loathing and disgust. It is no wonder considering the upbringing Francis went through. He was born into wealth. His father, Pietro Bernardore, was a cloth merchant and made abundant money that Francis grew up as a local noble. Celano implies that the family of Saint Francis raised him vainly and the sin of it rotted him from within. He splurged money freely and engaged in every vice imaginable. For the first twenty years of his life, Francis lived as a typical nobleman, expected to get married, join his father in the merchant business, and have a life of luxury at his disposal.

Yet, this was not to be.

It became evident that the aristocratic life Saint Francis grew up with was not the life he wanted from himself. He disliked the idea of working as a cloth merchant and sought a change. It would come when he returned to Assisi in 1205 after being held captive by the Perugians for a year. The time spent in captivity had changed Francis for it had given him time to think about eternity and the fate of his soul after death. His heart yearned for a change and his friends joked if he was thinking about marriage, to which the saint implied that he did have a bride in mind.

This bride was not to be physical, but spiritual.

Following his release, Francis took a pilgrimage to Rome and pitted at the meek offerings left at the tomb of Saint Peter, emptied his purse, and stayed alongside the beggars in fasting and prayer. Not long after this pilgrimage, Francis stopped to pray at St. Damian’s chapel outside of the city, which was dilapidated. As he was praying, he felt a spirit come over him, and, much like Augustine, heard a voice that would forever alter his life. The voice told him to go and “repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Overwhelmed, Francis hurried to his father’s shop, bundled up together an assortment of expensive cloth, and sold the fabric to provide the funds for the restoration of the chapel.

When Francis took the cloth from his father’s shop, it marked the beginning of a change in him. He followed through the words of Solomon, as echoed in Proverbs 28:6, “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his wicked ways.”



The rich life, in Francis’ eyes, was wicked for it brought no joy or peace. It did not fill in the void but expanded it. What Francis wanted was not a rich physical life, but rich spiritual life. We are reminded in Matthew 5:3 that “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Some might argue that Christ resented wealth in general, but there is no indication of it found in the Scriptures. Rather, Christ felt that one could be wealthy, but if they put too much emphasis on earthly treasures instead of heavenly ones then it would lead them to sin, which echoes Matthew 6:19–21, where Christ told the Apostles that if they stored their treasures in heaven, their hearts would be there as well.

The reaction of Pietro Bernardone toward his son’s gift was swift. Fearing for his father, Saint Francis fled into the hills of Assisi and hid in a cave for over a month. When he finally emerged, Francis was pelted by the townspeople and mocked as a madman. His father beat him severely and locked him into a closet, but the saint was freed thanks to the efforts of his mother. Fearing for his life, he returned to St. Damian’s and sought sanctuary with the local priests. When his father dragged him to the city consuls to force him to forgo his inheritance, Francis was more than happy to do so. In the presence of his family, Francis renounced his worldly heritage and stripped himself bare without even saying a word. According to Thomas of Celano, when the bishop saw this,

“He understood clearly that ‘ the counsel was of God,’ and perceived that the actions of the man of God which he had witnessed enfolded a mystery. Immediately, therefore, the bishop became his helper, and, cherishing and encouraging him, he embraced him in the bowels of charity.” — The First Life of Saint Francis, Chapter VI

This was what Francis was wanting to break away from, the sin of abundant wealth and living life away from the direction God wanted him to live. He did not care for material wealth, but spiritual abundance. The pleasures of the world lost their charm upon him and could never taint him again. There was to be no other love greater than that of God and the bride he bestowed upon her: Lady Poverty.

In the early stages of his ministry, Francis was inspired by a sermon based on Matthew 10:9, which called for the abandonment of worldly goods and to live a destitute life doing good deeds. It was this sermon that lead Francis to become a missionary for the poor and reaffirm the teachings of Christ. When Francis began his life as a missionary of his poor, he was joined by Bernard of Quintaville, who became his first disciple and greatly admired his humble nature. Eventually, Francis, much like Christ, acquired twelve followers and he set out to Rome to seek permission for a new religious order. The order, known as the Franciscans, was commanded to live a life of poverty and solitude without question. Francis’ command could echo James 2:5, where the Apostle asks,

“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”

The question then becomes if poverty itself is a virtue. Humility is seen as a virtue, but poverty is an act of humility, not a separate virtue for one can be poor, but be prideful and resentful to the world around them. Voluntarily poverty was unheard of during the time of Saint Francis. It would not be until 1260 that the renunciation of all private poverty would become mandatory for all friars entering a monastery. Critics argue that the church holds a double standard for not allowing all secular groups to abide by this rule. Yet, the Council of Trent specifically reaffirmed Francis’ belief for the Franciscans after grave abuses tainted the vow of poverty with the air of scandal.

Sinning against the vow of poverty is an offense against the virtue of religion. This was what Francis was afraid of as his order grew larger. During his life, there were indifferences about the brothers following through with Francis’ rules. Seeking help, Francis turned to Pope Honorius III, who, in 1226, issued the Solet Annuere, a papal bull upholding Francis’ rules and commanding all future friars to

“… appropriate nothing for themselves, neither house nor place, nor anything. And as pilgrims and exiles in this world let them go about begging for alms confidently in poverty and humility as members of the household of God, nor is it fitting that they be ashamed [to do so], since the Lord made Himself poor in this world for us. This is that heavenliness of most high poverty, which has established you, my most dear Friars, as heirs and kings of the Kingdom of Heaven, making you poor in things, it has raised you high in virtues. Let this be your portion, which leads you into the land of the living.” — Chapter VI

So the question then becomes how the poverty of Francis and his followers demonstrates humility?

Catholic tradition has humility fall under the cardinal virtue of temperance. Saint Bernard considered it an act in which men knew each other. It follows through 1 Peter 5:5, where it is commanded that all people should clothe themselves with humility toward each other so that they could be graceful. Then, as told in Romans 12:2, they could live in harmony with each other. Thomas of Canto reflects on how humility is the guard of all other virtues, citing that without it, a building on this foundation would collapse as it expanded. He uses this to tell readers that Saint Francis was every splendor of this holiness and how,

“In order that he might lay the foundation which he had learnt from Christ, he strove to build himself on this virtue of humility. Forgetful of the things he had gained, he fixed his eyes on his failings alone, considering that more was lacking to him than was present with him. The only thing he coveted was to become better, and to add fresh virtues to the former, wherewith he was not content… All loftiness was absent from his mouth, all pomp from his gestures, all ostentation from his actions. In many matters he had learnt his opinions by revelation, but yet he would bring them into discussion and prefer the opinions of others. He believed his companions’ advice to be safer, and others’ views seemed to him better than his own.” — The Second Life of Saint Francis, Chapter CII

Kempis considered humility to be the strength for which men could overcome their enemies. He believed that if men walked with humility in their lives, that it would bring forth the hope of forgiveness, the reconciliation of a lost conscious, restoration of grace, and the unification of man and God in the soul. Did Christ not do these things? He bade the sinners to go and do no more harm when he healed them of their demons and wickedness. We see throughout the four gospels that he is filled with compassion toward those less fortunate than him. Both Matthew 9:10–13 and Luke 9:58 remind us that Christ was an impoverished man that hung around those that society had rejected for their wrongdoings and imperfections.

Christ taught with a humble heart, for he saw humility as the way to salvation and bearing forth the fruits needed to enjoy eternity in paradise. After his Ascension, his Apostles embraced this humility and formed the early Church on the backbone of Christ’s doctrine of simplicity and humility. Saint Francis humbled himself by this notion. He saw the structure of the church as going against Christ’s being, that of being poor, but kind and loving toward all outcasts, and he sought to restore the church to this belief. It is said that when Francis visited Pope Innocent III, the pope had a dream in which the saint held up the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, the spiritual home of the Papacy, and that the dream was a foreshadowing of Francis upholding the original virtues of the church.

Throughout his life, Saint Francis never once complained about the circumstances he was in. The Franciscan order grew as people were drawn to Francis’ message and the humility he presented first hand. He set out to imitate Christ and live based on the image of him presented in the gospels. He preached for a simplistic life and shunned all worldly goods that he saw as corrupt to the soul. Around 1224, two years before his death, Francis had a vision and received the stigma of Christ, the first recorded incident since Saint Paul wrote of it in Galatians 6:17. With this final gift from Christ himself, the imitation was complete.

Coming back to Pope Francis, we see that he demonstrates a lot of the same qualities that Saint Francis maintains, mainly his humility and emphasis on God’s mercy, alongside his simplicity. Unlike previous papacies, Francis takes a more informal approach to his rule. Instead of living in the Apostolic Palace, he chooses to live in the guesthouse of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, citing that he wants to “live my life with others.” The Pope does not see himself as superior to other cardinals, but as an equal, much like how Saint Francis never saw himself as superior to his fellow Franciscans.

News outlets around the world have noted that Francis’ common touch and accessibility to the people have inspired others in the faith. Pope Francis is the spiritual leader to over 1 billion Catholics around the globe, but he always asks for the people to pray for him. This is significant as it demonstrates his humility since he is not afraid to show himself struggling and wants to remind people that even the bishop of Rome shares the same struggles as they do. In living a humble life, he reminds us that our faith belongs to God and that it is a “deep bond with him, a relationship that gives meaning to our whole life and keeps us resolute, in communion with him, even during the most difficult and troubled moments” in life.

Although Catholics can disagree with Pope Francis’ more liberal views in trying to modernize the church in today’s world, they all can agree that Francis stays true to his namesake: he shows humility in a way that is badly needed to heal the church and move it forward. The current pope shows all brothers and sisters of the faith that he is not superior to them in his eyes, but an equal. He carries Saint Francis’ message, which is that “If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”