From Arms to the Cross
His imprisonment ended after more than a year, and Francis returned to Assisi to his family. His body and mind bore the marks of hardship, weakened by deprivation and the harshness of captivity: he had come face to face with the terrible reality of war. His convalescence was long, and he spent it at home like an invalid; only gradually did he begin to go out again. Yet the beauty of the world no longer captivated him as it once had. He was experiencing a personal crisis, a time of reflection upon himself and his life. Did he still wish to follow in his father’s footsteps and grow wealthy? Was becoming a knight still an ambition worth pursuing? A few years passed, and a new opportunity presented itself: a nobleman from Assisi was preparing an expedition to fight in Apulia and was recruiting men. Francis saw in this the chance to fulfil the dreams inspired by the chivalric romances he had read, to take up arms and, perhaps, be knighted.
As he was preparing to depart, he had a dream in which he saw a palace filled with weapons and banners bearing the cross, an episode later depicted by Giotto in the Basilica Superiore of Assisi, and within it, a young bride. He interpreted this as an omen of success and felt strengthened in his resolve to go to war. In time, however, it became clear that the dream referred not to earthly weapons but to the spiritual arms with which the young man was endowed, and which he would one day place at the service of God and the Church.
The Dream at Spoleto and God’s Call
Francis’s journey came to an abrupt halt. Feeling unwell, he stopped at Spoleto, where he heard a voice asking him where he intended to go, and then saying:
“Who do you think can do you greater good, a master or his servant?”
“The master” replied the young man.
“Then why do you leave the master to follow the servant, and the prince for his subordinate?”
“Lord, what would you have me do?”
“Return to your city, and there you will be told what you must do, for that vision must be understood in another way.”
The Encounter with the Leper and San Damiano
A New Life
Francis reflected upon both the dreams he had experienced and decided to return to Assisi, following the words he had heard. He resumed attending feasts, banquets, and revelry with his friends; yet he also allowed himself moments of meditation, withdrawing in solitude and walking alone through the countryside. One day he encountered a leper. Instead of turning away, he kissed the man’s hand, offered him money, and allowed himself to be embraced, as recounted in Con Francesco – Immersive Experience. The meeting with the leper marked the first in a series of events that would shape Francis’s conversion.
Some time later, while absorbed in prayer in the small church of San Damiano, it is said that he heard a voice coming from the wooden crucifix above the altar: “Francis, do you not see that my house is falling into ruin? Go, therefore, and repair it.” At last, he felt he had a purpose to pursue. He gave money to the priest who cared for the chapel so that a lamp might burn before the crucifix; then he took cloth from his father’s shop, mounted his horse, and rode to Foligno, where he sold everything. Returning to San Damiano, he handed the proceeds to the priest and asked to live with him. The priest refused the money but accepted the young man.
The Conflict with Pietro di Bernardone
Inevitably, Francis incurred his father’s anger for taking the goods and money. He therefore hid in a cave, torn between his desire to abandon everything, even his family, and follow this new calling, and his fear of what such a break would entail. When he returned to the city, he was mocked and jeered at, until Pietro di Bernardone, furious and humiliated by the conduct of the son in whom he had placed so many hopes, locked him in a storeroom in the hope that he might come to his senses. Someone, perhaps his mother, set him free.
The Renunciation of Possessions and the Radical Choice
Renouncing to Begin Anew
Outraged and determined to assert his rights, Pietro summoned his son before the consuls, accusing him of theft. They issued a summons to Francis, who, with notable shrewdness, declared himself a penitent and therefore subject not to civic authority but to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Thus, Pietro and his son appeared before the Bishop of Assisi, who reproved the Poverello for appropriating goods that were not his own. In response, Francis declared that he would restore what he had taken: he stripped off his garments, as Giotto later illustrated in the frescoes of the Basilica Superiore, placed the money he still possessed upon them and returned everything to his father.
The final separation had taken place, and for Francis a new life was beginning, one yet to be discovered. Alone, naked, cold and hungry, he fled into the forest like the knights of the romances he had once loved. He was beaten and insulted by brigands, and at last, in Gubbio, he was welcomed by an old friend, Giacomo Spadalonga, who according to tradition provided him with his first habit.