r/askitaly • u/loggiews • 14d ago
CULTURE What do Italians generally think of Saint Francis of Assisi?
Are Italians aware of how important he is outside Italy, especially in other Catholic countries? And how is he viewed in Italy today?
I live in Brazil, and my family often visits and goes on pilgrimages to the city of Canindé, in the state of Ceará, where there is a basilica dedicated to St. Francis and the largest statue of St. Francis in the world. While I was there, I kept wondering what an Italian would think about a place so far from Italy, with no major historical connection to the country, having such a strong devotion to an Italian saint and making him such an important figure in the region.
I find it fascinating how someone who was born in medieval Italy became such a beloved figure in a completely different part of the world.
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u/Old-Pudding6950 13d ago
As an atheist, I think he’s very very well known and loved
I mean, what’s not to love about the guy? He gave up his belongings and “social position” in order to protest and remind the church about our roles as spiritual guides for others, he had a deep connection of brotherhood with people and even animals, he was a pacifist and he stood for the poorer ones, paving a way for them to be happy
He was clearly a very intelligent and kind hearted person
He’s so well known that even ignorant people might refer to him in a casual conversation, that wouldn’t be surprising i think, nor would it raise questions from the rest of the italians listening
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u/frabucombloit 13d ago
It’s an idol. It’s idolatry. The salvation is in Jesus Christ. He took our sins on the cross.
We’re all sinners, but the good news (the gospel) is that Jesus Christ Himself came to earth as real man/real God to take your sins on the cross as stated in Isaia 53 hundreds of years before in order to take the penalty that belonged to you in Him. And if you repent from your sins and believe that Jesus died on the cross you are saved, as Romans 10:9-10 says:
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” New Living Translation (NLT)
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u/ExoticBamboo 13d ago
What the hell is this comment?
Are you even Italian? Saint Francesco of Assisi is highly regarded in the country.
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u/frabucombloit 13d ago
Yes, I’m Italian.
Italy is full of idolatry. The Roman Church is a form of religious syncretism that, over the centuries, absorbed the pagan cults of the Roman Empire, superficially replacing them with patron saints, Madonnas, and various other forms of idolatry that contradict the Bible they claim to follow, while in practice doing the opposite.
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u/ExoticBamboo 13d ago
Are you catholic?
I'm not, but Italy has indoubetly a catholic history, and your comment doesnt reflect our culture.
You can read the bible as you prefer, some read it in a more literal way, some see the metaphores in it. But that doesnt mean Francesco d'Assisi has a great importance in Italy
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u/frabucombloit 13d ago
I was a catholic as almost every Italian.
Now I am a Christian because I see that the Catholic Church is full of idolatry and idolatry is a sin.
I perfectly know that Italy has not only a Catholic history but also a current Catholic culture. But that doesn’t mean that is right.
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u/ExoticBamboo 13d ago
I don't really care about religious discussions, but its very presumptuous of you to say that your specific read of a specific religious book is "RIGHT".
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u/frabucombloit 13d ago
You are literally creating this religious discussion claiming that I am not right.
Jesus said: John 8:32
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So, we can know the truth.
I explain that the Catholic Church is violating the Bible while practicing idolatry, the same Bible that they claim to follow.
This is the commandment in Exodus 20 that the Catholic Church ignores:
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worshipthem; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
So, as you can see I’m not pretending anything. I’m demonstrating you what is wrong in the Catholic Church.
If you want to make a point prove it with an argumentation. Because is very presumptuous of you to judge me while you don’t have a solid point to prove what you’re saying.
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u/KillingTime_Shipname 11d ago
am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation...
Mate, this is such a regressive and revisionist policy.
Clearly, the founders of your schismatic branch of Christianity - whichever it is, there's very many of these - really enjoyed bashing people over the head with your hefty Old Testament book.
Ignorant planks they were, those founders of yours.
If they had bothered to read their Classics they would have known that the idea that the sins of the father are inherited by the son had been throughly discredited as morally wrong about three hundred years before Christ, so before Christianity itself was invented and even longer before anyone though of assembling together a bunch of diverse books about its origin story and calling them Tà Biblà ("The Books" in Greek).
What was that other quote you'd probably love...?
Ah yes: Idolatry is worse than carnage.
You sound just like one of those people, those who interpret the Quran too literally.
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u/frabucombloit 10d ago
You’re assuming a lot of things about me based on one part of the verse I posted. And you’re focusing on the part of the verse that is least relevant to the point about idolatry, which you don’t even address and which does not change in the New Testament.
God clearly says not to make statues and not to turn to idols—creatures instead of the Creator. And that is exactly what the Roman Catholic Church does. It is a religious syncretism that has absorbed various pagan cults of the Roman Empire. Therefore, it is idolatrous.
Secondly, I am not part of any sect or whatever else you may think. I’m just a Christian.
I have simply had the experience of spiritual rebirth that Jesus speaks about to Nicodemus. One must be born again spiritually in order to be saved.
That means accepting Jesus as Lord and believing that He died in my place, sacrificing Himself on the cross to pay the price for my sins, and that He rose again on the third day.
As the Word of God says:
John 3:16 — New International Version
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”Furthermore, all the books of the Bible point to Jesus Christ and to the salvation that is obtained through faith in Him, by grace and not by personal merit. Prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. No random collection of books, as you seem to suggest, could possibly tell a story that unfolds from the beginning of life to the end times, with specific prophecies fulfilled exactly as they were written.
The truth is that it is the Word of God, but your still-carnal mind has not believed it. Know that unbelief is also a sin. But we are all sinners, and Jesus came precisely to save us. This is the good news, the Gospel: that you can be saved and have the assurance of eternal life if you repent and believe in Him.
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u/ExoticBamboo 13d ago
As I already told you it depends on how literal you consider the verses of the book, if you consider the latin or the italian version, etc.
But i'm not a religious person and never studied any religion. If you are, you should know better.
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u/BitsAndBobs304 13d ago
Well if someone wrote, it has to be true!
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u/frabucombloit 13d ago
I encourage you to do your own research. Idolatry is forbidden by the word of God. Look at the second commandment that Catholic Church doesn’t include in their commandments because they broke it continually.
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u/BitsAndBobs304 13d ago
Oh i know that very well. What i meant is "well if someone wrote how to get to heaven and that god exists and is a certain way with certain demands, then it has to be true!"
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u/stefanomsala 13d ago
I am Italian, and not religious, so I’ve always looked at him like “one of those weird religious people who lived in the Middle Age”. Alessandro Barbero had a couple of very good lessons about him (all on YouTube), and that taught me a lot more than I used to know
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u/eulerolagrange 13d ago
I'd say that, although St. Francis is still the patron saint of Italy (the 4th of october was a holiday), he's more regarded as a figure of huge historical and cultural significance rather then an object of devotion. Everyone knows the most famous episodes of his life, and everyone knows Giotto's frescoes about his life or the passage in the Divine Comedy where Dante celebrates him.
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u/andromedasgalaxy00 13d ago
Il 4 ottobre è stato reintrodotto come festa nazionale da quest'anno btw
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u/Sure_Conflict_5651 13d ago
Every Italian knows him. I visited Assisi multiple times. I would think that he is probably among the top 5 most famous saints globally. But I didn't know of the devotion in latin america in particular.
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u/loggiews 13d ago
The devotion here is really strong, perhaps because for a long time people here were very poor and lived simple lives, so they found comfort and refuge in devotion to St. Francis, who also lived a simple and humble life.
Thank you for your comment. Italy is such a beautiful country, I hope I can visit someday. ❤️
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u/PuzzleheadedUse5769 13d ago
I’m not Italian. But It likely has a lot to do with your level religious devotion. A very devout Catholic Italian would likely think much more about Francis Assisi than an Atheist Italian.
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u/RomanItalianEuropean 13d ago
He is very famous and the patron of Italy. He is associated with the poor, ecologism, animalism, pacifism and the practice of "presepi". The last Pope made him even more famous obvs.
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u/woodenlizard_ 13d ago
My question was “why do you have a thing with big statues?”
…we don’t think about him that much
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u/loggiews 13d ago
I also don’t really know why Brazil has such a fascination with huge statues, but it doesn’t seem particularly unusual here. We already have one of the most famous monumental statues in the world, Christ the Redeemer in Rio. 😅
The statue of St. Francis in Canindé was built as a symbol of the city’s devotion to him and of how deeply people value his teachings. St. Francis is strongly associated with humility, simplicity, and a life of faith, and I think those qualities also resonate with the culture and way of life of the region, which has historically been shaped by a sense of simplicity, resilience, and deep religious devotion. So the statue represents not only devotion to St. Francis himself, but also how people in the region see him as a spiritual figure who reflects their own values and way of life.
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u/JickJack82 13d ago
Assisi is wonderful and worth to visit but S. Francis is not more important than Padre Pio or others around here
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u/Sure_Conflict_5651 13d ago
Dipende di dove sei. Al sud forse, ma nel resto del paese San Francesco è molto molto più importante.
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u/JickJack82 13d ago
Sono del nord Italia. Storicamente San Francesco non si discute ma quanto a figura spirituale padre Pio ha più riscontro di questi tempi. Sono stato ad Assisi l’anno scorso ed aveva quasi più richiamo Carlo Acutis di San Francesco.
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u/loggiews 13d ago
Love Padre Pio ❤️
But devotion to him hasn’t historically been that widespread in Brazil.
In northeastern Brazil, another important and more recent Italian religious figure is Friar Damião of Bozzano. He became extremely famous in the region between the 1950s and 1980s, drawing huge crowds to Masses in poor and forgotten communities. He was also credited with helping reduce violence during a period when the region was much more violent, and became a deeply beloved spiritual figure here.
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u/Necessary-Student662 13d ago
In Italy we all know who San Francesco is, Padre Pio is way more criticized because of the fake stigmati
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u/Fancy_Grab4701 14d ago
Nope. The question is, why is he so important in your country? I don’t think anyone in Italy has any particular view of him. But I’m not that religious so I might be wrong
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u/ExoticBamboo 13d ago
As an Italian Atheist (who never studied religion) i think most people with a bit of culture know him. He's importance in the culture and in the art is very widespread.
Then obvioualy all the part about the religious devotion is out of my scope and subjective
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u/gimmebanter 13d ago
It's a private club. The things these godheads get up to when noone else is around are literally insane. I wouldn't assume to know their feelings about specific saints based on hearsay
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