The deathbed verse of a great saint

Perhaps it’s time to cast our mind back to medieval Europe, to the 13th century in Italy. A young boy, born to a rich merchant whose trade links stretched from Italy to Egypt to Constantinople, grew up with the best of everything. He was selling velvet one day, when a beggar came up to him for alms. Renuka Narayanan writes

Perhaps it’s time to cast our mind back to medieval Europe, to the 13th century in Italy. A young boy, born to a rich merchant whose trade links stretched from Italy to Egypt to Constantinople, grew up with the best of everything. He was selling velvet one day, when a beggar came up to him for alms. Distracted by customers just then, the boy ran after the beggar and gave him everything he had in his pockets, for which he was soundly chastised by his family.

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The boy became a soldier, a prisoner of war for one whole year and took to soldiering again. He had strange dreams, fell prey to inner yearnings and took to begging. When his family protested, he publicly renounced his father and his patrimony, discarding even the clothes given him at home.

He created the first-known manger scene of Christ’s birth in 1223. Though never ordained a priest, he formed religious orders devoted to serving the poor, for both men and women. He became known as the champion of animals, the environment and social service, achieving sainthood as one of the most venerated figures in Europe. His international fan-following included, in later centuries, a determined young lawyer called MK Gandhi. The saint died listening to Psalm 140 that he asked to be read aloud as he slipped out of life on an October evening in 1226.

The saint was Francis of Assisi, a fighter for his cause.