Francis's Experience With The Lepers In Assisi

The order that Francis founded started with a simple idea of living a very poor life, preaching the teaching of Jesus and submission to the church or assistance to anyone in need. A main part of Francis’s vision involved helping those in need without receiving anything in return. But in spite of the success of the order he started, Francis decided to resign his position as the head of the order. His resignation emerges from his coming to terms with the size of his movement. In his assistance with the lepers, Francis vison is revealed and the limitations it would have considering his followers and the pope.
Francis resignation from his movement in 1220 comes from the idea of his vision, which is expressed in his experience with the lepers in Assisi. Francis as a youth would see the lepers as going against his idea of beauty, yet once he rejected his past life he would find out a new truth. In Thompson, Francis describes his transformation, as “When I was in my sins, just to see lepers was very bitter for me. And the Lord himself took me among them, and I showed mercy to them. And on leaving them, what seemed bitter to me had turned for me into sweetness of body and soul” (Thompson 16). By helping lepers, Francis realized that what is more important in life was not the way he had been living. It is not by mere coincidence that Francis would be compared to Jesus since he emulated Jesus from the
In helping a marginalized people, Francis exemplifies the idea that would become the foundation of his order, which is being a “lesser brother”. Rather than