stigmatization of st. francis

in a book of hours, illuminated by the master of sir john fastolf, france or england, ca. 1430-1440

source: Getty Museum Collection, Ms. 5 (84.ML.723), fol. 44v

Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigma by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Francis of Assisi

“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, pray for us!

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi

What I own, what I use, —what I for a brief moment call my own— is not my own; because I am called to own nothing. Saint Francis used to exhort his brothers with a simple phrase, "sine proprio" — without appropriation. We are but pilgrims, poor men, who use what we need to survive but claim nothing as our own. [… T]here is something truly life-changing about this notion of sine proprio; what if we could go through this life as a pilgrim, claiming nothing as our own? What if, even the things were bought new, we approached as simply items we are borrowing and using? What if we looked at our cars, our houses, our dining sets, our furniture… whatever it may be, as something that someone else might use after us? While there are certainly plenty of products that will be used by no one else after us (a sad product of a single-use, throwaway culture), there's still something significant about viewing everything we use within the context of our own mortality. That we came into this world with nothing, and we will leave this world with nothing.

Fr. Casey Cole (This Robe is Weirder Than You Think!)

The World of Sayuri: A Palace of Humility

Palace Ruler: Humilitas Kitagawa

Yusuke’s palace is a fledged out world of the Sayuri painting made up of colorful buildings and flowing landscapes. Everything is a perfect still, a perfect piece of inspiration for an artist’s landscape painting. Simultaneously made of real, or more accurately realistic seeming objects, and of careful brush strokes. A world that is never static and constantly reconfiguring itself to suit and inspire every single cognition housed within it. The palace was made as a hub of artistic expression with Yusuke encouraging his constituents to work on different pieces of art year round to be presented at the large and ornate Arts Festival where the pieces can be critiqued by other artists. This event is how the palace citizens negotiate their social standing, by 1. Creating iconic, masterful and deeply meaningful pieces of art or 2. Becoming the great critiques of art and helping to elevate the vision of other artists through meaningful advice and critique. The main goal of the festival as stated by Yusuke himself is to celebrate different forms of art and help the artists improve so that they can make better and better pieces.

Unfortunately for Yusuke his palace plans didn’t go as planned, a small group of the artists grew sharper tongues and their critiques became malicious. Rather than appreciating the pieces and looking at the ways the artist has either failed to fully portray their ideas or ways to improve their technique. This new group of artists began to champion Yusuke’s art as the best and deviation from his style and technique was seen as bad form. Their structured mindset became popular and started to spread among the other cognitions and Yusuke responded by sectioning off his palace into different tiers. This causes Yusuke to go from a passionate mentor of his subjects to a lackadaisical artist who only appears during the Arts Festival. To enter the deeper areas of the palace a test was set up where a painting by Yusuke would be presented and the person or people viewing the work would be tasked with critiquing the piece. Those who made critiques that furthered and met Yusuke’s goal for his palace would be allowed to go further. There were three palace segments and of course this means there are subsequently three tests.

The first test presents a painting titled “Of Sun and Wine” which depicts Yusuke drinking wine from Dionysus’ hands and basking in the light of Apollo’s sun. The second test presents a painting titled “Rebirth” which depicts the Shibuya Teikyu Building Accessway with warm sunlight shining through the accessway windows, a black cat with a yellow collar and blue eyes laying on the floor sleeping and absent of people and vehicles. The third and final test presents a painting titled “IS DESTINY MADNESS” which depicts Yusuke and Madarame’s face melding together with Yusuke’s face contorted into a terrified expression and Madarame’s smiling maniacally with sweat dripping from his forehead.

The first test has been passed by a majority of the palace goers, the second test has been passed by a minority of the palace goers and no one has been able to pass through the third test. The test presents the Infiltrators with a variety of ways to explore further into the palace depths. It is possible to get through the palace by never participating in the test instead fighting their way through the guards. However this will prevent them from gaining access to equipment that will let them enter rooms that give access to Yusuke’s will seeds. The rooms are themed around the artists: Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami and Chiharu Shiota.

Within Yusuke’s palace his treasure takes the form of an ornate paint brush hidden under the floorboards of his private painting room. When the Infiltrators arrive to steal the treasure the roof of the room opens and Yusuke snatches the brush away from them, the walls falling to open into a battlefield. The brush grows in size becoming the length of a spear and Yusuke unveils his persona, St Francis of Assisi.

Finally Yusuke himself appears in the palace reclining on floating clouds wearing a painted obi and an elongated Yukata that trains behind him. He wears his hair up with a topper to accentuate the hairstyle and a bit of hair covering one eye. Additionally he wears a face of makeup inspired by traditional Japanese makeup.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi’s gender creativity inspired his followers — even centuries later.

Josefa de Óbidos (Portugese, c.1630-1684)

St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi in adoration of the Infant Christ, 1647, probably after Gerard Seghers

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi has been a source of inspiration, insight, and solace to me throughout my life. Today, on his feast day, I am meditating especially on his ministry as a lover of lepers and all those oppressed and marginalized by society. Ever since I saw it, this piece by openly gay priest and hospital chaplain William Hart McNichols has remained on my heart with its softness and meaning.

Speaking about the piece- “The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child,” 1984 - McNichols said that he “began a watercolor-and-gouache painting using the first two [AIDS] patients I had visited. There was St. Francis of Assisi holding the gay man being administered droplets of orange juice by his lover, and there was St. Aloysius holding another young, heterosexual man who had contracted AIDS through a needle infection. Over St. Francis is a glowing ring of the Crown of Thorns, with signs of hope, called wishbones, falling down upon them. Over St. Aloysius are three lilies, Catholic symbols of purity, in flames; we all become purified through fire.

I wanted to find a Virgin Mary that wasn’t white or wearing white. I chose the lushly-garmented Our Lady of Guadalupe. She wears a turquoise outer cloak, studded with stars, and a salmon-colored robe. On her lap is the Santo Nino, or Holy Child. He’s like one of those kids who reaches out to everyone, not knowing who is good, indifferent or bad. He just wants to hug everyone. My experience with AIDS patients was that they felt the adult Jesus was angry or judgmental towards them. So I’d tell them: Why not hold the Baby Jesus and talk to Him? This was hilarious to them—and yet they’d try.”

In 2022, 23 States have introduced anti-LGBTQ bills and 13 have signed them into law, disproportionately targeting transgender and non-binary people. During the current monkeypox outbreak, multiple Republican legislators have once again begun to perpetuate the deadly language that LGBTQIA+ people are “diseased.” On this Feast of St. Francis, I pray especially that my LGBTQIA+ siblings may experience Christ’s tenderness and love in those who claim to follow Him, like Francis. May we be loved in both words and actions - especially votes.

i just think they're neat!

OCTOBER Birthstone Rosary / St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis is celebrated October 4

Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: the window in the chapel of St Francis of Assisi, Seville Cathedral (1556). It shows Francis on mount La Verna - receiving the stigmata from a six-winged seraph.

TIL that there is a feast day dedicated to Saint Francis's reception of the stigmata; Franciscans celebrate it on the 17th of September.