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The saints

St. Francis of Paola

A hermit from Calabria whose order’s motto was a single word: charity.

Feast: 2 April · 1416 to 1507 · The Middle Ages · Paola, Calabria, and France

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Painting by Murillo of St. Francis of Paola, an old hermit leaning on a staff, praying.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Francis of Paola

A cave near Paola, Italy, 1430s

As a teenager, Francis went to live in a cave by the sea in southern Italy.1

Others came to join him, and they became the Minims, the least of all.1

Their motto was one word: Charity.

Patron of sailors and seafarers2

01St. Francis of Paola

Perpetual Lent

The Minims kept a fast like a lifelong Lent, without meat, eggs or dairy.1

The king of France, Louis XI, asked for him on his deathbed, and Francis spent his last years in France advising kings.1

Live it this week

Give up meat for the week

Francis’s friars kept a lifelong Lent. Go meatless for the whole week as a quiet offering, and give what you save to a food pantry.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Francis of Paola”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Francis of Paula”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.