|
This beautiful Rosary features a sculptural portrait on its sterling silver center and is finished with smooth, ebony-colored wooden beads and an elegant sterling silver crucifix.
About St. Francis . . . Francis enjoyed a very rich easy life growing up because of his father's wealth and the permissiveness of the times. From the beginning everyone loved Francis. He was constantly happy, charming, and a born leader. In many ways he was too easy to like for his own good. No one tried to control him or teach him. As he grew up, Francis became the leader of a crowd of young people who spent their nights in wild parties. Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time. Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia. He was taken prisoner and chained in a dungeon. Finally, after a year he was ransomed. Again, he rode off to battle. But Francis never got farther than one day's ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him the direction his life was taking was misguided and told him to return home. And return home he did. Francis' conversion did not happen overnight. God had waited for him for 25 years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c -- the crumbling building he was in. He begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands, not realizing that it was the Church with a capital C that God wanted repaired. Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class. Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope. He is considered the founder of the Franciscan Order.
|
