October 4 – The side of St. Francis of Assisi that few people know

In the 5th Crusade to Egypt, St. Francis of Assisi went straight before the Sultan and tried to convert him to the Catholic Faith.

The sultan told him that he needed time to think about it.  Meanwhile, Saint Francis challenged all the imams of the sultan to walk with him through a corridor of fire.

The one who survived would be the one who served the true God.  The sultan told Saint Francis that there was not one of his imams who would be willing to accept such a challenge.

How few Catholics know about this crusading side of Saint Francis? 

On the contrary, why is Saint Francis depicted so often as a sweet faced friar who does not seem able to even hold his own in a debate or polemic?

Saint Francis did not go before the sultan to have a nice polite dialogue with him.  Dialogue presupposes an equality of both sides; a conversation that has no specific and defined goal but to engage in conversation.

Saint Francis went before the sultan with a defined plan and with a absolute conviction of the superiority of the truths of the Catholic Faith over the errors of Islam.

He went to challenge him to covert to the Catholic Faith, the one true faith.  There are so many lessons we can learn from Saint Francis on his feast day.  Let’s pray that through his intercession, we learn and practice these lessons of holy intrepidity for the faith.