QUOTATION: Dead Before Death

Dead before death, alive after death.

--Epitaph of St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: The Epitaph of St. Francis of Assisi

Dead before death, alive after death.

--Epitaph of St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: The Humble Person

We can never tell how patient or humble a person is when everything is going well with him. But when those who should co-operate with him do the exact opposite, then we can tell. A man has as much patience and humility as he has then, and no more.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Anxiety

By the anxieties and worries of this life Satan tries to dull man's heart and make a dwelling for himself there.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Transubstantiation

For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Perfection

Our perfection consists in combating our imperfections.

--St Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: God's Judgement and Mercy

If man excuses himself, God accuses him; if man accuses himself, God excuses him.

--St Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Scripture

To read Sacred Scriptures means to turn to Christ for advice.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Perfection

He is not perfectly good who cannot be good among the wicked.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: The Threats to Chastity

These are the weapons by which a chaste soul is overcome: looks, speeches, touches, embraces.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: The Rich

Let us not, however judge or despise those who live delicately and are clothed sumptuously. God is their Lord as well as ours, and He is powerful enough to call them to His service, and having called, to justify them. Let us therefore reverence them as our Brothers and master. They are our Brethren, because formed by the same Creator; they are our masters because they help the virtuous do penance by ministering to their temporal wants.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Obedience

The more contemptible the Superior may be, the more pleasing to God is the humility of him who obeys.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Self-Love

No one has perfectly renounced the world who reserves the most secret place in his heart for his self-love.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Mortal Sin

We should all realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done so and did not, the Devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate it.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Animals

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

-- St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Service

I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Tormentors

Those who unjustly inflict upon us tests and ordeals, shame and injury, sorrows and torments, martyrdom and death, are the ones we should love most, for what they're really inflicting upon us is eternal life.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Sad Faces

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Troubled Soul

When the soul is troubled, lonely and darkened, then it turns easily to the outer comfort and to the empty enjoyments of the world.

–- St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: The Crucifixion

Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.


-- Saint Francis of Assisi