Projects

The Loneliness & Longing of St. Francis of Assisi

A Film by
Gerard Thomas Straub

One goes more quickly
to heaven from a hut
than from a palace.
-St. Francis of Assisi

This film has a projected budget of $105,000 and to date we have raised $71,000. We are urgently looking for
17 individuals, churches or schools to donate $2,000 each to complete the film. Each donor will be thanked in the closing credits of the film. The SDF is 501(c) non-profit charitable organization and all donations are tax-deductible.

Hills of Umbria

He was a soldier,
eager to win glory
in battle;
yet, he became a
true ambassador
of peace,
introducing the
bold concept of
nonviolence
to an aggressively
violent society.

He was a fun-loving, wealthy playboy who loved to party;
yet, he became a pious man of prayer
who favored the company of the poor.

He was the son of a successful silk and fabric merchant;
yet, he preferred to dress in rags.

He was devoted to the Church;
yet, he respected those whose faith differed from his.

The Chapel of San Damiano

He was a holy man
who did not preach stirring sermons;
instead, he spoke to birds,
tamed wild animals
and embraced lepers.

Sky over Assisi

His education was limited,
yet his vision was unlimited;
he saw harmony in all of creation,
calling the sun his brother
and the moon his sister.

Francis' room at Greccio, Rieti Valley

He was a man of deep contemplation,
spending months alone in remote hermitages.

Yet he was a man of courageous action.
He was captured during a fierce battle
and spent a year in prison.
He walked barefoot over the Pyrenees.
He was shipwrecked during a storm at sea.

And during the Fifth Crusade,
he ventured into enemy territory in Egypt
in order to make peace with the Muslims.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

The rich, the famous and the powerful,
all sought his advice;
yet he sought the company of
the rejected and the outcasts of his society.

He was St. Francis of Assisi,

the most popular and most loved saint of all time.

The story of St. Francis is
a dramatic tale of epic proportions,
filled with triumphs and failures,
heroic deeds and unimaginable acts of charity.

Basilica of St. Claire

And what does this
saint from
13th century Italy
have to say to the
world at the dawn of
the 21st century?

He speaks to our
growing interest in
mysticism,
our concern for
the ecology,
our desire for simplicity,
our search for alternatives to violence,
our anxiety over the harsh plight the poor…
St. Francis speaks to our hunger for God.

His story is the timeless story of transformation.

This film will walk in
the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi
as some modern day followers of the saint
make a pilgrimage of transformation
through all the places in Italy
that helped shape the beloved saint.

Tomb of St. Francis

“The geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an interior journey.”
-Thomas Merton

“There is only one journey. Going inside yourself.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke

“Ideally, a human life should be a constant pilgrimage of discovery.”
- John O’Donohue

“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.”
-Claude Bernard

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore
for a very long time.”
-Andre Gide

“To beggars he wished to give not only his possessions but his very self.”
-St. Bonaventure

“He is truly great who is great in charity.”
-Thomas `a Kempis

“Another piece of advice for his friars was that they should put the same value
on money as on dung.”
-Thomas of Celano