An Italian who loved France.

I also went there. The village is more than beautiful.

I have also a great memory of my visit to Assisi.

Jo Miller, I am curious, what makes Assisi fascinating? Please tell.

@eileenleyva We are not saints. We all do what we can.

@marguicha Francis never aimed to become a saint. In fact, he did not adhere to monasticism and was never a priest. Our God instructed him though, to repair the church. As for me, I am struggling very much, because I want to be Christ-like desperately. I am weak though, for gluttony and pride and avarice and sloth and lust and wrath and envy persist all around me. I know very well that I must discipline my self, but gosh, the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. Francis, he transcended all that.

Ahhhhh. My most favorite of saints, too. If I can call him the greatest human being, the only one who truly and literally obeyed our Lord Jesus Christ. If I could only be just a little of Francis, I would be most happy. Trying my best to be. Still my efforts are not good enough. But then, Francis had a life long longing, too. His stigmata came in the end.

Francis tops my list of favorite saints. I was deeply moved when Jorge Mario Bergoglio took Francis' for his Papal name. I knew instantly that he cares enough for the poor and the down-trodden.

Thank you very much. I have always loved Francis and was amazed at his literal riches to rags story. I knew that Anthony of Padua became a Franciscan because of Francis' Rule of Life, and Padre Pio, the saint who bore the stigmata for half a century, considered young men entering the order as Francis' greatest miracle, but not much information was really there, and I had to rely on Brother Sun Sister Moon, till Pope Francis took the poor saint's name to the Papacy, and now, more materials are on Francis. I just recently learned that fact about his pet name.

Whenever I have the time, I watch clips and movies about Francis and the other saints. Francis, of course, is top of the class for me. Why? First, he is a prankster turned radical rebel. Second, he didn't mind turning from riches to rags. Third, he is the proto animal whisperer, as you mentioned. Fourth, he loves the sun and the moon and the wind and the air and the flowers and the fields. I love all that, too. Fifth, he didn't know what he was doing. He was never priest and definitely never aimed to be a saint. Sixth, he wanted martyrdom, so he dealt with the Muslim sultan himself. He failed. He did not make a convert and he did not die. Above all these, he is mad with genuine love for our God. I think his tremendous love is comparable to Kind David but what gave Francis the stature of sainthood is his pure and peaceful way of loving. Pax et bonum.