One of the little known episodes of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi is that he participated in war before he received his calling. He had romantic dreams of being a knight. History records that he sang like a troubadour and liked drinking and partying. It is reported that he had an eye for the ladies as well. He had a very romantic attitude towards the knighthood and chivalry, fully buying into the idea of the glory and honor of war. But, then, he met real war.
Francis and the men of Assisi came under heavy attack, and in the face of superior numbers, they took flight. The whole battlefield was soon covered with the bodies of butchered, mutilated men, screaming in agony. Most of the surviving Assisi troops were immediately put to death.
Unskilled and with no combat experience, Francis was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, he was considered worthy of a decent ransom, and the soldiers decided to spare his life. He and the other wealthy troops were taken as prisoners, led off to a dank underground cell. Francis would spend nearly a year in such miserable conditions — awaiting his father’s payment — during which time he may well have contracted a serious disease. Also during this time, he would later report, he began to receive visions from God.
After a year of negotiations, Francis’ ransom was accepted, and he was released from prison in 1203. When he came back to Assisi, however, Francis was a very different man. Upon his return, he was dangerously sick in both mind and body — a battle-fatigued casualty of war. — https://www.biography.com/people/st-francis-of-assisi-21152679
The accounts of Saint Francis’ illness after the battle vary widely, from a simple bodily illness (probably malaria and tuberculosis) to nightmares and other post-battle syndromes. A merely secular analysis states, “The central figure of Francis, as noted above, seems to suffer from PTSD. He is incapable of handling large crowds, needs isolation, and deprives himself of any creature comfort. Yet it was in this way that he was able to deal with the trauma that had scarred his psyche and work out his own mental health—within the social and religious context of the times in which he lived. [A review of Francis of Assisi: The Life by John F. Schwaller]” The pure secularists reduce all mention of God merely to a mental syndrome resulting from his exposure to war. This style of analysis is an extreme type of positivism, which deserves its rejection. Saint Francis went to go to a second battle, about a year later, and it was on that journey that he began to receive his calling from God, by way of dreams.
At the same time, we ought not to ignore the analysis either. There is no doubt that the young Francis grew into the Saint Francis of lore. He was considered an extremist in his time, and would be considered an extremist today. He walked the highways and byways barefoot and in an old threadbare robe. Yet, as he walked, preached, and built his order, he started to become beloved. But, Saint Francis was also the man who suffered a type of PTSD. The harder-to-find chronicles mention that he spent nearly a month in his room after that first battle. He did have recurrent dreams, many of which were not prophetic. He went to a second battle with the idea that he needed to get back on his horse in order to get rid of his malaise. In fact, he did display every sign and symptom of post-battle stress.
But, he is also a good example of how God can take even a damaged sickly chivalrous young man and turn him into the saint who went to preach to the Sultan. Did you know that he went on a missionary trip to preach in North Africa and the Middle East? The current Pope has named himself after Saint Francis. Protestants who do not believe in the saints honor the memory of this saint. More than one person has said that—in the West—he stands third to Jesus and Mary as an example of how the Evangelical counsels of the Church ought to be carried out. I only regret that all too many of our Orthodox brethren have become so caught up in their One Church argument that they fail to recognize the work of God within this man, who lived while the East and West were still meeting and trying to resolve their differences.
I am at the point of thinking that Saint Francis of Assisi needs to be declared the patron saint of those who suffer from PTSD.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will,
for the second death shall do them no harm. – St. Francis of Assisi
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