October 4, The Feast of St. Francis

Today the Pope visited the tomb of perhaps the greatest post-New Testament saint, Francis of Assisi, the saint whose name he adopted.

“He's great because he is everything. He is a man who wants to do things, wants to build, he founded an order and its rules, he is an itinerant and a missionary, a poet and a prophet, he is mystical. He found evil in himself and rooted it out.

“He loved nature, animals, the blade of grass on the lawn and the birds flying in the sky. But above all he loved people, children, old people, women. He is the most shining example of that agape we talked about earlier."

But he added: "I'm not Francis of Assisi and I do not have his strength and his holiness."

Not to get all mystical, but St. Francis' spirit does seem to reside in those who take his name. May the Holy Father and the great City lying to the north ever continue to do so.