When most of us hear “Saint Francis,” we think “of Assisi.” And that’s exactly how the other Saint Francis would want it.
Saint Francis of Paola, whose feast day is April 2, was devoted to living a humble life and wanted nothing more than to be the “least in the household of God.” But, as is often the case when we humans try to write our own destinies, God had other plans. He bestowed on Francis the gifts of prophecy, healing and miracle-working. And much like the better-known Francis his parents named him after, Francis of Paola didn’t reserve his God-given talents just for humans. He knew that he was to be a healer of all creation.
Francis was born in 1416 in Paola in the Italian region of Calabria. As a young boy, he studied at the Franciscan friary of San Marco. But at just 15, he asked his parents’ permission to become a hermit, living in a cave and devoting himself to prayer, humility, poverty, chastity and nonviolence. In keeping with those tenets—and in an expansion of Lenten fasting—he refused to kill and eat animals or anything made from their milk or eggs. He knew that animals’ lives were precious to God, that they possessed souls and that they continued to exist after departing this life.
