How Francis of Assisi Preached: Peace First, Praise, Then Keep It Short
Francis of Assisi took preaching out of the cathedral and into piazzas, fields and village squares. No sermon text of his survives, so we studied eight of his sermons as they come down to us: his Rule’s model exhortation, his Admonitions, his letters, the Canticle of Brother Sun and the accounts of people who heard him. The shape is simple: greet with peace, praise God, call for a turn, press forgiveness, and stop.
Who Francis of Assisi was
Francis left a merchant’s life in Assisi around 1206 and gathered a band of brothers. He was a deacon who was never ordained a priest. Around 1210 Pope Innocent III approved his way of life, with the charge to “preach repentance to all.”
He preached across Italy, in Egypt before Sultan al-Kamil in 1219, and in Bologna in 1222. His Later Rule, approved on November 29, 1223, told every friar to preach “with brevity of speech, because the Lord made His word short upon earth.” He died on October 3, 1226, and was canonized on July 16, 1228, less than two years later. Twenty-eight of his Admonitions to his friars survive.
The shape of a Francis sermon
Every piece we studied uses plain words. There are no learned divisions and no Latin display. Thomas of Celano says he spoke “with simple words but largeness of heart,” and that he preached to a huge crowd as if to one person.
He often starts with God, not with the hearer. Thanks for creation and redemption, or “Most high, omnipotent, good Lord,” comes before anyone is asked to change. Then comes the call to turn now, and forgiveness or peace pressed on the people in front of him.
He likes to set “blessed” beside “woe,” and he quotes Scripture bare, then presses it. Christ’s humility sits near the center: poverty, the manger, the cross. Death is often named as the horizon.
And he makes the truth visible. At Greccio he staged a manger with a live ox. Near Bevagna, the story goes, he told a flock of birds to love their Creator and praise him always. Most of these pieces end with a blessing, a doxology or a charge to persevere.
What made his preaching different
Peace first
He opened with “The Lord give you peace.” In Bologna, Thomas of Split says, the whole aim of the sermon was to end hatred and make peace.
Praise before demand
God is blessed before anyone is called to change. Praise and thanks come first, and the demand follows.
Short and shown
He used few words, plus a scene people could see: a manger with an ox and an ass, a flock of birds, sun and fire.
What others said
“This unlettered man’s sermon became the source of not a little amazement for the many educated people who were present”
— Thomas of Split, who heard him preach at Bologna, 1222
“His word was like a blazing fire piercing through the inmost heart.”
— Thomas of Celano, biographer, 1229 (First Life, ch. 10)
What to take into your own pulpit
Praise before you press
Francis blessed God before he asked anything of anyone. A call to change lands differently after the room has seen who God is.
Let them see it
A manger with a live ox said more than a lecture on the Incarnation. Look for the scene that makes your point visible.
Say less
He told his friars to preach with brevity of speech. Plain words and a short sermon can carry real weight.
Those are the ideas. The guide turns them into ten steps you can follow this week, plus the sermons we studied and a fill-in outline in his shape.
Free PDF · Preach Like the Greats
Learn to preach like Francis of Assisi.
This post is the overview. The guide has the research and the method.
- The 8 texts and eyewitness accounts we studied
- Ten steps to preach the way he did
- His sermon outline, movement by movement
- A fill-in template for your own text, 9 pages
Common questions
What was Francis of Assisi’s preaching style?
Short, plain and visual. He greeted people with peace, praised God before asking anything, called for a turn to God, pressed forgiveness, and often made the point visible with a scene people could see.
How did Francis of Assisi structure a sermon?
Loosely, and briefly. In the texts we studied he usually praised or thanked God first, called people to penance, set “blessed” beside “woe,” quoted Scripture plainly and pressed it, and ended with a blessing, a doxology or a charge to persevere.
Did Francis say “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words”?
There’s no record that he did. As Glenn T. Stanton put it in 2015, “Our good Francis never said it or anything close.” What we do have shows a man who preached with words, plain ones, and kept them few.