Francisco

Francis of Paola was born around 1416 in Paola, Calabria, to poor and deeply devout parents who named him in gratitude to Saint Francis of Assisi. As a child he was drawn to prayer, solitude, and strict fasting, and after a year with the Franciscans he returned home, eventually withdrawing to a coastal cave where he lived for years in hidden penance and contemplation. Others soon sought to share his way of life, and a small fraternity grew around him, marked above all by humility and radical self-denial. With the Church’s guidance and approval, this community developed into the Order of Minims, whose members vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, and a “fourth vow” of perpetual abstinence from meat and animal products as a living sign of continual Lent. Francis founded monasteries across Calabria and Sicily and became widely loved for preaching conversion and for miracles attributed to his intercession, including the famed crossing of the Strait of Messina on his cloak. He is honored as patron of places including Altomonte and many towns in Calabria. His feast day is April 2.