My patron saint

Today is my saint day. As a Protestant minister, I had several references to St. Francis displayed prominently in my office.  And before I was a minister I admired St. Francis just the same.  Heck, before I was Christian I did.  

By the time I was in high school and college, the societal emphasis was increasingly on the sins of the West and its bastard child America.  Nonetheless, even with the negative focus, overall the final verdict was that, despite its manifold sins and evils, the West was still a net boon for the World. 

Likewise Christianity.  Naturally, by my time in college we were a functionally atheistic society.  And those secularists were not idle.  In multiple classes we were met with the various canards about religion being invented by ancient man in lieu of science, or the bible being riddled with errors and falsehoods, or simply treating various religious figures - including Jesus - as merely ancient religious rebels, often looking like John Lennon, and usually adhering to our  modern day's latest social activism.   

In all of that, however, was St. Francis.  In dealing with a figure who puzzled secular scholars, the parlor game - as with all academic parlor games - was to find a way of explaining him and his impact without the whole God stuff paradigm since, again, God and religion had long ago been debunked by science.  Sort of the way they did with Joan of Arc.  You know, her motivation was really a secret lesbian desire, or perhaps she had troubles with menstruating.  Anything other than the simplistic 'because God does exist' excuse. 

Despite attempts to downplay the supernatural or spiritual aspects, as one scholar noted, St. Francis was nonetheless still met with overwhelming choruses of praise and adoration even from the most secular of sources.  In many ways, because he lived it literally. 

Let's be honest, often times we appeal to some pretty strict and narrow interpretations of various biblical admonitions when it comes to everything from sex to greed to oppressing of the least of these.  But when it comes to the charge that we should sell everything and give it to the poor, we're fortunately reminded that Jesus clearly wasn't making a sweeping, general commandment.  Which for those of us in the wealthier parts of the world is always comforting to know.  And, yes, those outside the Faith do take note of such things, however they might be explained away.   

When it came to St. Francis, however, he clearly didn't get the memo.  And as one medieval historian I remember reading said, he decided to embrace his Lady Poverty, and it was a beautiful marriage.  He took things at face value and lived them.  And that, let me tell you, is always a powerful witness.

So powerful that even to this somewhat haphazard liberal agnostic, I couldn't help but conclude he really, really believed it.  We may sometimes mock those who say the Bible says it, I believe it, and then I live it. Yet there can be some good witnessing there.  And with St. Francis, it certainly was.  Including among so many historians and scholars of the time that I read.  And, quite frankly, including for me as well.  

It's not a surprise, therefore, that when I became a Christian, I still held onto St. Francis as I had already begun to do so as a non-believer.  And when we entered the Church and RCIA told me to pick my Patron Saint?  It took me about a half second.  So on this day when I'm reminded of a saint that has been near my shoulder since my college days, here is the always reliable and informative Fish Eaters breaking down all things St. Francis.