St Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is celebrated on October 4, is often remembered as one of the most Christ-like of saints, a man who imitated Our Lord so closely that he was rewarded with the stigmata.
To live like St Francis is primarily to love Jesus – in the Eucharist, where he recognised “the Poor Christ” continuing to humble himself in the forms of bread and wine, and in the sacred humanity of Christ, through which God’s love came to mankind (an insight which led to the saint creating the first Nativity scene).
