Francis of Paola
A Calabrian hermit whom a king of France sent for to be cured, and who did not cure him.
- Middle Ages
- Italy
- Feast day April 2
- 1416 – 1507
- Hermit
- Founder
- Monk
- Confessor
Born at Paola in Calabria in 1416, at fifteen he withdrew to a cave on the coast and lived alone there for six years. Disciples joined him; from that community came the order of Minims — the name states the programme: lesser than the friars minor of Francis of Assisi, with a fourth vow of perpetual Lent, no meat or dairy for life. His reputation as a wonder-worker crossed the Alps. In 1483 Louis XI, ill and terrified of death, obtained from the pope that he be sent to him. Francis reached Plessis-lez-Tours, refused every title, did not cure the king but stayed with him to the end. Kept on afterwards by Charles VIII and then Louis XII, he spent twenty-four years in France, and died there in 1507, aged ninety-one.
Recognising
A bearded old man in a brown habit with a pilgrim’s staff; the word CHARITAS in a radiant disc above him.