St Francis and places of prayer and celebration

It seems appropriate that a man with a developing love of poverty should find himself in a ruin of a church. He understood his call was to rebuild the church, which given the state of the building was a reasonable assumption to make. Francis was to recognise that rebuilding the Church was the whole Church not just a church building.

Francis’ rebuilding of San Damiano, Assisi, was early in his conversion and led to him effectively stealing from his father and selling materials to fund the restoration. Francis appeared before the Bishop of Assisi and Francis was to repay the money, renounce his inheritance and strip off his clothes. The bishop intervened and covered Francis with his cloak. Francis was to sever all contact with his father. This was a turning point for Francis and in his conversion..

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