Francis’ whole life led to La Verna. His youth in Assisi was marked by frequent violence. He took part in bloody conflict in the ill-fated war of Assisi against Perugia in 1202, which journalist Paul Moses believes—along with Francis’ yearlong imprisonment—caused what today we know as post-traumatic stress disorder. Francis’ conversion—through long months of isolation and prayer—did not happen in one moment of insight.
Rather, God led Francis in and through the depths of suffering to come to know Christ. As Francis himself tells us in his Testament, God led him to embrace the suffering, crucified Christ, in serving lepers, the outcasts of his time. And finally, on Mount La Verna, God marked Francis in soul and body with the total gift of Christ in his suffering and death on the cross.
—from St. Anthony Messenger‘s “The Stigmata of St. Francis: Embracing the Crucified Christ“
by Greg Friedman, OFM
