At the start of every year, the pope designates a new theme for the church called a Jubilee Year, to focus on different spiritual topics, address global issues, and unify the church.  Pope Leo declared this year’s theme is a Franciscan Jubilee Year as the church celebrates the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi in 1226.

This spring, a visiting Franciscan friar from the Diocese of Rochester, Fr. Brendan Buckley, celebrated mass and then gave a presentation downstairs about the importance of St. Francis’ life and the lessons he taught.  

The friar also spoke about some of the stories from St. Francis’ life and how we can relate our lives to his.  

Addressing the pope’s theme choice, Buckley said, “I think part of it was he’s following Pope Francis, who picked that name because of that sense of peace that is needed.”

 St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar born in Assisi, Italy in 1181.  He lived a simple life of humility and service to the poor, renouncing wealth and materialistic things.  

He is remembered for his deep love of nature and creation, most famously making him the patron saint of ecology and animals.  His life was committed to peace and reconciliation, which has impacted many lives today.

“Francis is probably one of the most well-known of all the saints, and he’s known even by non-Christians,” said Buckley.

Discovering peace

After going around the table to do introductions, Brendan began his talk with stories of St. Francis of Assisi’s peaceful lifestyle. Buckley told the story of the “Wolf of Gubbio” to the parishioners, which is one of the most famous stories from Francis’ time. 

In the town of Gubbio, there was a large wolf that was killing the town’s livestock and scaring the townspeople.  Eventually, St. Francis took it upon himself to face the wolf by himself to prevent the issue.  He calmly approached the wolf, made the sign of the cross instead of attacking.

Francis then explained to the wolf that his hunger was creating issues and causing fear.  They ended up making a deal. If the townspeople fed the wolf, it would have to stop attacking their livestock.  The wolf complied, and the issue was resolved.

“I think it’s very hard for us in this world, I know it is for me, to see the things that are going on and feel peace,” said Katy Teeter, a longtime parishioner, of Immaculate Conception church.

Finding peace isn’t always easy. Buckley explains how most Christians do so. 

“If you want true peace, it has something to do with how you settle your soul, how you settle your heart.  As Christians, it’s through the power of the death and resurrection of the Lord,” said Buckley.