Professional paper
Some aspects of life of st. Francis before conversion
Željko Tolić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2690-1256
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split
Abstract
In the Year of Consecrated Life this paper discusses one of
the most prominent personalities among consecrated personsSt
Francis of Assisi, the spiritual genius whose appearance and holiness of life even today has its numerous followers and admirers.
Relying exclusively on the sources, the first biographers of St Frances, the paper chronologically and historically elaborates on one part
of Frances' life, the one before the conversion. Based on the sources,
the topics of his birth, and then his childhood and his youth, have
been dealt with. After that, the author chronologically and historically expounds on the important events on his path to conversion:
the captivity in Perugia, the long illness which followed after the
captivity, the dream at Spoleto. Under the title The Year 1206 the
author presents in the subtitles the important events which were
significant during that year: in the life of St Francis: the pilgrimage to Rome, the kiss to the leper, the voice from the Crucifix in the
church of St Damian and the rupture with his father. The two years
which came after those events are dealt with under the title The Two
Years of Freedom. In the end, under the title God’s call at the Portiuncula, the author talks about the key event on St Frances' path
to conversion at the Portiuncula, the cradle of the Franciscan Order,
at which St Frances, while hearing the Gospel, grasped what God’s
plan for him was.
Keywords
St Francis of Assisi; Assisi; illness; conversion; pilgrimage; leper; Perugia; Spoleto; St Damian; the Portiuncula; God’s call
Hrčak ID:
150803
URI
Publication date:
24.12.2015.
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