The National Shrine of St. Francis,
610 Vallejo Street at Columbus Avenue. The church was built in 1859 and
survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Detail |
St.
Francis is the City's most enduring icon. San Francisco is appropriately
named for him, the patron saint of ecology and merchants. Francis of Assisi
was born in 1182, the son of a wealthy textile merchant. He was blessed
with charm and personality. His early life was punctuated by popularity
and ease. He liked to party. When he left Assisi to fulfill his dream of
becoming a knight, he was almost immediately visited upon by God, who told
him turn back. To the people of the town it seemed that the golden boy had
choked, chickened out, come home a coward. He was humiliated, derided by
Assisi, and eventually disowned by his father. Francis turned to God. He
would exalt the tenants of the Catholic Church in their purest form, but
not in the fashion of a fundamentalist. He preached, and indeed lived, principals
of sacrifice, grace, and love for all creatures of God. For this he is known
as the lover of all creation. Famously, he preached to birds, which he saw
as equals in the pantheon of creation. His sense of brotherhood knew no
boundaries and his followers came from communities of the rich and poor
alike. Impulsive because he shot from the heart, Francis' life as a wandering
preacher was tumultuous. He advocated poverty and sought to convert a sultan,
a Muslim, during the Fifth Crusade. Two years before his death in 1226 he
received the stigmata. (Holes appeared in Francis' hands like those of Christ
as he was nailed to the cross.) His final years were marked by illness and
suffering. During this time Francis wrote about the glory of God, nature
and the elements, even death and humility in his Canticle
of the Sun. Francis of Assisi died at the age of 45. The National
Shrine of St. Francis on Vallejo Street is the only St. Francis shrine
outside of Assisi. The Peace Prayer of St.
Francis (1915, author unknown) is a beautiful invocation and a mantra
for San Francisco.
Detail
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Detail II
Detail III
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