Francis was a man born of wealth, a leader who dreamed of knighthood and who went to war on a high steed only to be brought low to the earth in defeat and imprisonment that marked him with what has been the fate of countless soldiers and prisoners of war throughout the centuries. Some say that mark was what today we call post-traumatic stress, an experience that affected Francis his whole life long until, singing “Bring me out of prison,” the words of Psalm 142, David’s prayer in a cave, he entered eternity on the high steed of evangelical poverty and intimate union with Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior.
— from the book Surrounded by Love: Seven Teachings from Saint Francis
