For gamers passionate about strategic simulations and building virtual worlds, few true life stories surpass that of the legendary St. Francis of Assisi. Born into extravagant privilege as the son of a wealthy merchant in 12th century Italy, Francis‘ radical spiritual awakening led him to renounce every earthly possession and social advantage in order to follow what he believed was Christ‘s original calling – serving the poor and marginalized with complete humility and joy.
Francis‘ seemingly reckless decisions to strip naked in the town square, kiss lepers and preach solely by faith defied all convention. Yet his guileless dedication sparked a movement that challenged religious hypocrisy, returned Christendom to its roots and endures globally still today. Like an epic RPG protagonist who levels up through spiritual experience points, Francis unlocked his full empathic healing powers once his conversion compelled him to help the helpless, without judgement towards NPCs (non-playable characters).
An Improvisational Beginning
Young Francis appeared an unlikely hero-in-the-making born in 1182 to prosperous salesman Pietro di Bernardone in the bustling merchant town of Assisi, located in the Umbrian valley below Florence. After an idyllic childhood being pampered as the spoiled son of nouveau riche parents who sold fine French fabrics, Francis seemed destined to inherit the family textile business. Though baptized as Giovanni, his doting father renamed him Francesco ("the Frenchman") for his fondness of fine French imports. Francis grew up accustomed to throwing lavish feasts, wearing expensive Parisian fashions and enjoying raucous holidays with his rowdy comrades.
But at age 20, Assisi’s long simmering rivalry with neighboring Perugia erupted into full scale urban combat. Eager to prove his masculine bravery, Francis enthusiastically joined his town’s cavalry unit against their hated foes. Yet romantic dreams of chivalric glory evaporated instantly for the untrained, inexperienced knight-wannabe when Perugia forces defeated Assisi and took noble hostages. Francis spent nearly a year imprisoned under brutal conditions that shattered his spirit.
Returning home in 1203 seriously ill and traumatized, Francis entered a period of intense self-reflection. He increasingly withdrew from former social circles to the bewilderment of family and friends. They mocked his strange behavior wandering the forests and abandoned chapels around Assisi in threadbare attire, appearing more destitute beggar than son of an elite shopkeeper.
Little did they realize Francis was stuck in religious RPG side-quests seeking to unlock his next level.
A Divine Calling Sets the Quest
Francis’ extended soul-searchingPHASE reached an inflection point during mass inside San Damiano, a dilapidated chapel outside Assisi’s walls. Kneeling before the crucifix altarpiece, Francis felt overwhelmed by the icon’s suffering yet loving eyes, which suddenly emitted an actual voice.
“Go repair my Church”, Christ implored, “as you see, it is all falling apart!”
Unsure what specifically this cryptic request meant, Francis initially followed the directions literally. He gathered building supplies by selling off his father’s expensive fabrics to rebuild San Damiano’s crumbling infrastructure. Soon this unauthorized vandalism-like activity funding the restoration of other ruined chapels provoked his father to drag Francis before Assisi’s bishop.
In a dramatic Boss Fight scene that became legendary, Francis definitively broke all parental, business and social ties by publicly stripping naked, renouncing his inheritance.
“Hitherto I have called Pietro Bernadone my father. But now I desire to say only ‘Our Father who art in Heaven,’” Francis declared, signifying his sole religious allegiance.
This public breakdown shocked townspeople. Yet for Francis, humbly begging for stonework in his threadbare tunic brought inexplicable joy compared to his former dissatisfying worldly life. His full spiritual calling was being revealed through focusing on manual tasks rather than craving empty pleasures and privileges.
Like a gaming pro gaining strength through grinding on lower level foes before encountering bigger adventures, Francis spent months patiently repairing sanctuaries as divine training to rebuild Christ’s church on earth.
Leaving High Society to Live Among Lowly Knights
After intensive prayer and charity work strengthened his fledgling faith, Francis sensed destiny summoning him towards an epic mythic pilgrimage relying solely on God and the kindness of common strangers. In 1208, the broke mendicant meekly entered Assisi’s main church requesting the priest’s blessing to walk about preaching for souls, money and even clothes now forbidden from his materialistic past.
Setting off with no staff, sandals or provisions, Francis embraced a code of brave poverty like an RPG hero leaving safe zones for wild level 1 monster lands. Roaming central Italy sharing parables, singing hymns and saying blessings brought genuine delight, especially when reaching settlements filled with battle-scarred knights, vagrant peasants and wretched outcasts considered the lowliest untouchable NPCs.
Initially Francis reacted with disgust towards Hooverville-like leper colonies crammed with society’s most desperate victims suffering infectious open skin diseases. But remembering Christ’s empathetic suffering, Francis discovered reservoirs of courage. His gaming guild spirit allowed him to embrace sick homeless “knights” with tender affection.
Francis kissed their wounds while identifying the divine light within each pus-oozing soul, providing provisions and prayers.Through serving the least fortunate victims, the once great social butterfly transformed into a humble honeybee spreading sweet words of charity.
News buzzed about this fearlessly compassionate friar who lovingly rescued discarded creatures like lambs, bees, even savage wolves; sincerely calling every being Brother or Sister. Francis’ guileless preaching attracted fellow NPC sympathizers.
These earliest disciples included ex-soldier Bernard of Quintavalle, who upon hearing Francis describe perfect joy as meaning facing scorn while helping lepers, immediately sold all possessions to fund medicines for these outcasts. Others like scholar Peter Catanii renounced careers to follow Francis’ teachings back to Jesus’ original Gospel values focusing on poverty and preaching versus fancy theology.
Spawning an Unorthodox Religious Order
This spontaneous movement condemning covetousness clearly threatened powerful secular and Church leaders. When their robed company grew beyond a dozen, Francis led his motley team to Rome seeking Pope Innocent III’s blessing on their unorthodox order in 1210.
Skeptical Cardinals mocked the raggedy band who audaciously defined themselves as the Order of Lesser Friars (Ordo Fratrum Minorum). Under official interrogation, the unlikely lay leader Francis convincing argued Christ had commissioned him to promote living by his words not just studying them.
Won over by Francis’ sincerity, Innocent gave permission to preach penance freely. Soon countless faithful peasants and gentle nobles across war-ravaged Europe joined Francis spreading Gospel teachings on ethical living by serving society‘s outcasts, funding disease treatment centers called Misericordias rather than financing armies.
Within a decade Francis’ founding club evolved into the Francescan Order with thousands of members embracing radical poverty to follow Jesus’ example caring for the common people versus chasing power politics within religious hierarchies.
They wandered as homeless preachers resembling Jesus’ 12 apostles practicing voluntary suffering while celebrating shocking concepts like honoring lice infecting their hair as blessed lifeforms. Like gamers forging brave new virtual worlds, Franciscans felt unbound by rules of the old world other than obedience to Christ’s command to love all people and creatures.
Innovating Religious Quest Structure
To sustain exponential membership growth by 1217, Saint Francis engineered solutions supporting players at different stages.
He first formally established the Poor Clares, an allied Roman Catholic religious order for women, represented in game as the Priestess class.
Next Francis designed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance open to married lay people and clergy not taking monastic vows to serve as non-playable allies (NPCs).
This three-branch quest dynamic became the core structure for promoting Francis’ vision. Friars handle quests like global missionary adventures, nuns focus on more domestic duties like crafting supplies plus education skills, and affiliated married NPCs assist through fundraising, political connections and melee combat when needed.
Franciscan Population Growth AD 1210-2020
| Year | Friars | Nuns | Third Order | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1210 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 1300 | Over 30,000 | Unknown | Est. 200,000 | Over 230,000 |
| 1500 | 200,000 | 150,000 | 1 million | 1.35 million |
| 1700 | 150,000 | 100,000 | 1.7 million | 1.95 million |
| 1900 | 17,000 | 150,000 | 8 million | 8.167 million |
| 1950 | 122,000 | 180,000 | 12 million | 12.3 million |
| 2020 | 14,000 | 20,000 | Unknown | Est. over 30 million |
Source: FranciscanLibrary.org Historical Records
Table data showcases the vast global reach still today from the earliest dozen who wandered preaching eight centuries ago!
Final Legendary Feat Unlocks His Ultimate Form
Despite chronic malaria diminishing his abilities over exhausting decades of quests across Europe and North Africa, Francis eagerly continued maximizing XP by serving overseas missions until collapsing frequently.
During his final epic quest up Mount La Verna in September 1224, the battle-scarred 44 year old living legend underwent a profound metamorphosis.
While fasting and praying inside a cave, Francis received the stigmata, experiencing severe wounds replicating those suffered by the crucified Jesus. This tremendous honor arriving on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross sealed Francis‘ status as among the greatest mythic Champions of Christ for all time.
Two years later in 1226, almost completely blind and barely able to eat, Francis finally let the decades long divine quest come to an end.
Singly joyfully despite extreme suffering, he welcomed Sister Death like a friend leading him into the next world after completing his earthly tour of duty adventuring alongside so many loyal allies who joined his radically unconventional campaign.
Enduring Impact on Religious Gameplay Strategies
The phenomenal success of Saint Francis of Assisi’s heroic rise from a leisure class pleasure seeker into Christianity’s most venerated spiritual soldier demonstrate his genius for disrupting status quo religious theories to emphasize applied compassion.
By launching a passionate back-to-basics campaign embracing Christ’s original 1st century principles, St. Francis essentially initiated a religious modding movement patching bugs warped by political ties or institutional legalism divorcing doctrine from practicing empathy.
His fearless example granting diseased outcasts dignity and launching the mendicant orderuess directly confronted the Church’s widespread political corruption and material decadence by returning priests to Gospel teachings helping commoners versus chasing secular power.
Yet Francis avoided self-righteously attacking ideological opponents like angry rival gamers. Through his lighthearted joy and supernatural patience enduring scorn, Francis led by applied practice versus theoretical debate – reforming religion simply by elevating love for all living beings over sterile dogmatic quarrels.
This strategic pacifist approach successfully re-centered vast sections of the Church hierarchy around Christ‘s core directive to serve the poor with humility for the next thousand years!
Over 800 years since his passing, the ongoing global Franciscan religious orders remain dedicated to practicing their beloved founder‘s humble vision caring for society’s lowliest members. Now followed by estimated tens of millions worldwide, the fascinating tale of God’s humble troubadour St. Francis calls each new generation to courageously transform the world through serving the less fortunate with joy.