The Christophers: St. Frances Combined Prayer and Good Works

Fr. Ed Dougherty, M.M.

Board Member

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March 9th is the Feast of Saint Frances of Rome, a 15th century aristocrat known for turning her home into a hospital during desperate times in Rome. Though she grew up dreaming of becoming a nun, Frances got married at an early age. Despite its being an arranged marriage, it is said to have been a happy one. The key to this happiness was that Frances focused on balancing her pursuit of the spiritual life with meeting the needs of her family as a wife and mother of three children.

When a terrible plague devastated Italy, Frances and her sister-in-law Vannozza tended to the sick and sold their possessions to buy provisions for their care. When resources ran out, they went door to door begging. After Frances lost two of her children to the plague, she was moved by compassion to open the doors of her home to help others fighting for their lives.

The time Frances spent working with Vannozza to combat the plague became one of many experiences that inspired her to found the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, a society of women that required no vows and simply combined prayer and good works. After establishing the community, Frances remained at home caring for her husband, who had been wounded in battle. Later in life, after her husband passed away, she came to live with the Olivetans and dedicated all her efforts to serving the poorest of the poor.

It is said that Frances experienced ecstasies and visions and could read the secrets of consciences. She was credited with over 60 healings in the proceedings that led to her canonization in 1608.

Even in her lifetime, miraculous events were associated with Saint Frances. One story tells of how she angered her father-in-law by taking from the family’s supplies to give to those in need. He forbade her to do this and took the keys to the supplies away from her. But then he discovered that, after Frances prayed, the corn bin and wine barrel she’d been taking from were miraculously replenished, so he gave the keys back to her.

Another story tells of Frances delivering her son, Battista, to be held as a hostage by the commanding general of the Neapolitans, who were at war with her husband’s papal troops. On the way to hand Battista over, Frances stopped at a church, where she implored our Blessed Mother to protect her son. A short while later, she met with the soldiers tasked with bringing Battista into captivity. However, when the soldiers tried to put him on a horse to take him away, the horse wouldn’t budge. Even when they whipped the horse, it still would not budge. Finally, seeing the hand of God at work in the horse’s obstinance, the soldiers returned Battista to Frances and went on their way.

After her death in 1440, the people named her the “Advocate of Rome,” and today she is recognized by the Church as one of Rome’s co-patrons. Her life story exemplifies how God can make saints of people from all walks of life, and He meets us in the space beyond our hopes and dreams in the reality of what we are given.

Frances wanted to take the path to sainthood through religious life, but when circumstances led her on a different path, God still made a way for her to achieve sainthood. May Saint Frances of Rome inspire people around the world to find their own unique path to sainthood.

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