St. Francis of Paola
Feast 04-02 · Canonized 1519
Patron of
About
Francis was born in 1416 in Paola, Calabria, in southern Italy. His parents had prayed for a child through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, and they named him in gratitude. As a young man he spent a year with the Franciscans before withdrawing to a cave to live as a hermit.
Disciples gathered around him, and he founded the Order of Minims, whose members embraced a life of humility, penance, and perpetual Lenten abstinence. His reputation for holiness and miracles spread, and in 1483 King Louis XI of France, gravely ill, summoned him to the royal court, where he remained as a spiritual counselor until the king's death.
Francis died on April 2, 1507, at the age of ninety-one. He is venerated as the patron saint of sailors, mariners, and naval officers, and his feast is celebrated on April 2.
Prayer
St. Francis of Paola, who crossed the sea on your cloak when the boatman refused you passage, pray for sailors and for all who travel, that God may carry them safely home. Amen.