Novena to St Francis Of Assisi

The novena to St Francis of Assisi is a nine-day prayer to the Poverello — the little poor man of Assisi, marked in his own flesh with the wounds of Christ — asking his intercession in any necessity: for the poor and the anxious, for peace of soul, for a sick or beloved animal, and above all for the grace to love God as he loved Him. It is traditionally prayed from 25 September to 3 October, the nine days leading up to his feast on 4 October. Below we give the complete novena day by day, the famous Peace Prayer that closes it, the versions the devout most often seek — for animals and pets, the shorter form, the three-petition form, the prayer to be inflamed with the fire of divine love — and the true story of the saint. If you are new to this form of prayer, see first our guide to what is a novena.

The full novena to St Francis of Assisi (nine days)

This is the complete nine-day novena in the traditional Franciscan form, Nine Days of Prayer in Any Necessity, Petitioning the Aid of Saint Francis, prepared by the Franciscan Friars, T.O.R. Each day opens with a verse of the Psalms, continues with the day's prayer — in which you name your own intention where marked — and closes with the Prayer for Peace (the Prayer of St Francis) given in full at the end.

St Francis of Assisi novena — Day 1 (25 September)

O God, come to my assistance. (Psalm 70:2)

Heavenly Father, You know all things and nothing is hidden from You. In Your mercy and kindness, and through the intercession of Saint Francis, come to my aid in my present distress and grant my humble petition (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: show your humility by doing a good deed for someone. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

St Francis of Assisi novena — Day 2 (26 September)

Hear me, O Lord, and have pity on me. (Psalm 30:11)

Father in heaven, Your love for us never falters in spite of our transgressions and failures. Please show Your mercy for me in my difficulty (mention your request). Through the intercession of St Francis and for the sake of Christ, our Saviour, have pity on me. Amen.

Your offering today: see the suffering Christ in someone around you. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 3 (27 September)

Lord, be not far from me. (Psalm 38:22)

Loving Father, You are not far from any of us, since in You we live, move, and have our being. Increase my awareness of Your presence, and through the intercession of Saint Francis take care of my pressing need (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: throughout the day, give your cares to the Lord. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 4 (28 September)

Make Your ways known to me, O Lord. (Psalm 25:4)

Father Almighty, Your ways and purpose are often hidden from us. Guide me now and, through the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi, I beg You, in my sorrow, and by Your power, to let me know Your will regarding my special need (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: consider how you can do God's will. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 5 (29 September)

O Lord, grant safety to those who long for it. (Psalm 12:6)

In You, Heavenly Father, I confidently place my trust. In Your hands I leave all my anxieties, with faith in Your care for me. From You, and through the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi, I await relief from my present distress (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: for God's sake, help some person whom you may not like. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 6 (30 September)

O Lord, do not chastise me with Your anger. (Psalm 6:2)

Merciful Father, You know my weakness and disobedience. Yet You are ever ready to forgive and be gracious to me in my trouble. In Christ's name, and through the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi, quickly come to help me (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: banish from your mind and tongue unkind words and thoughts. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 7 (1 October)

The Lord is a stronghold in times of distress. (Psalm 37:39)

Father in Heaven, You never reject those who seek Your help and are ever ready to comfort the sorrowful. Through the intercession of Saint Francis, and in Christ's name, I implore You to have pity on me in my needs (mention your request), and to rescue me from all afflictions. Amen.

Your offering today: in imitation of Christ and St Francis, do good to those who may dislike you. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 8 (2 October)

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. (Psalm 34:19)

Your goodness, Heavenly Father, responds speedily to our sorrow. In my distress I call upon You to hear and answer my prayers (mention your request). In You, O God, I will continue to trust despite everything. I ask this request in Christ's name and through the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi. Amen.

Your offering today: help someone you know who is in need of your friendship and support. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

Novena to St Francis of Assisi — Day 9 (3 October)

The Lord will set me free and rescue me because He loves me. (Psalm 18:20)

Gracious Father, I will thank You each day for Your merciful goodness to me. With Your help I will ever praise Your kindness in my trouble. Please assist me now, as I faithfully follow Christ my Saviour and call upon the friendship and intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi, by granting my petition (mention your request). Amen.

Your offering today: in gratitude, be good to others. Conclude with the Prayer for Peace.

The Prayer for Peace (Prayer of St Francis)

Say this prayer at the close of every one of the nine days:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

A word of honesty belongs here, since we value it: this beloved "Peace Prayer" is not found in the writings of St Francis himself and first appears in French in 1912. It is entirely orthodox and breathes his spirit, which is why it is universally attached to his novena; but those who wish a prayer from his own hand may prefer the Absorbeat below.

The novena to St Francis of Assisi for pets and animals

St Francis is the great patron of animals, who preached to the birds, tamed the wolf of Gubbio, and called every creature brother and sister in his Canticle of the Sun. It is right and Catholic to bring him a sick pet or a beloved animal — remembering always that we pray for the beasts as God's creatures placed in our care, not as though they had souls to be saved. To make this a novena for a sick pet or for animals, pray the nine days above, naming the animal and its need at (mention your request), and add this petition each day:

Good St Francis, you loved all of God's creatures. To you they were your brothers and sisters. Take our beloved animals (name them) into your care. Fill them with healing light and strength to overcome whatever weakness of body they bear, and let them be a joy and comfort to those who love them. Amen.

Many keep this novena for a sick animal at any time of year, and the whole family gathers on the feast of St Francis, 4 October, when the blessing of pets and animals is given in many parishes.

The short novena prayer to St Francis

If you seek a single, shorter prayer to say each day — the form used in some booklets alongside the Where there is charity and wisdom meditation of St Francis — this petition may be said nine days running, naming your intention:

O beloved St Francis, gentle and poor, your obedience to God and your simple, deep love for all God's creatures led you to the heights of heavenly perfection and turned many hearts to the Gospel way. Look kindly upon me, and obtain for me from God this favour I now ask (mention your request), if it be for the glory of God and the good of my soul. Teach me your poverty of spirit and your love, that with you I may praise and serve the Lord all my days. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.

The prayer to be inflamed with the fire of divine love (the Absorbeat)

Those who search for the novena to St Francis "inflamed with fire" are looking for the saint's own burning prayer, the Absorbeat, said to have risen from his heart as he received the stigmata on Mount La Verna. It is his in a way the Peace Prayer is not, and it may be joined to any day of the novena:

I pray You, O Lord, that the fiery and honey-sweet power of Your love may absorb my soul from all things that are under heaven, that I may die for love of Your love, as You were pleased to die for love of my love. Amen.

The three novena prayers to St Francis of Assisi

Older Franciscan booklets give a different and very traditional form, built on three petitions that recall the three great marks of the saint's life — his poverty, his tears over the Passion, and his stigmata. This is the form many still search for as the "three prayers" to St Francis; it may be said in place of, or together with, the daily prayers above. Open with the saint's own words (his 27th Admonition):

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor disquiet. Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither covetousness nor avarice. Where there is quiet and meditation, there is neither anxiousness nor dissipation. Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house, the enemy can find no way to enter. Where there is mercy and discernment, there is neither excess nor hardness of heart.

Then say the three petitions, adding a Glory be after each:

I. Glorious St Francis, who voluntarily renounced all the comforts and riches of your home to follow more perfectly the poverty and self-denial of Jesus Christ: obtain for us, we pray, a generous contempt of all things in this world, that we may secure the true and eternal goods of heaven. Glory be to the Father...

II. O glorious St Francis, who all your life continually wept over the Passion of the Redeemer and laboured most zealously for the salvation of souls: obtain for us, we pray, the grace of weeping continually over the sins by which we have crucified afresh our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be numbered among those who shall eternally bless His supreme mercy. Glory be to the Father...

III. O glorious St Francis, who, loving above all things suffering and the Cross, merited to bear in your body the miraculous stigmata, by which you became a living image of Jesus Christ crucified: obtain for us, we pray, the grace to bear in our bodies the mortifications of Christ, that so we may deserve to obtain the promised consolations. Glory be to the Father...

Close with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be, naming your intention.

How to pray the novena to St Francis of Assisi

A novena is nine days of prayer, taken from the nine days the Apostles and Our Lady prayed together between the Ascension and Pentecost. To pray this one well:

• Begin on 25 September, so that the ninth day falls on 3 October, the vigil of the feast — or start any day you have need, and simply pray nine days in a row.
• Pray at a fixed hour each day: the day's prayer with your intention named, closing with the Prayer for Peace.
• Name one intention and hold to it through all nine days.
• Keep the daily offering — the small act of charity each day proposes — for St Francis preached that prayer and deed belong together.
• Ask in submission, Thy will be done: a novena does not compel God, and the grace we name is not always the grace He sends, but He never leaves a faithful prayer empty. If you can, join it to Holy Mass, Confession, or the Rosary, and to the Litany of the Saints.

Who is St Francis of Assisi?

Francis was born at Assisi, in Umbria, about the year 1181, the son of Pietro Bernardone, a rich cloth-merchant. He passed a worldly youth in feasting and in dreams of knighthood, and in a war between the cities was taken prisoner at Perugia and held a year. A long sickness followed, and through it God began to turn his heart. Riding out once more for glory, he was stopped by a voice bidding him serve the Master rather than the man; and soon after, praying before the crucifix in the ruined church of San Damiano, he heard the Lord say, "Francis, go and repair My house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin." He took the words first of the stones, and sold his father's cloth to rebuild the little church; when his father dragged him before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis stripped off his very clothes and gave them back, saying that henceforth he had no father but God.

From that day he embraced Lady Poverty as a bride. Clad in a rough tunic bound with a cord, he went about preaching penance and the peace of Christ. Others joined him, and in 1209 he went to Rome, where Pope Innocent III approved his little rule; so was born the Order of Friars Minor, the lesser brothers. St Clare followed him into poverty and founded the Poor Clares; a Third Order gathered lay men and women into the same spirit. He preached to the birds and to a Sultan, made the first Christmas crib at Greccio in 1223, and loved all creation as the work of one Father, singing of Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

In September 1224, withdrawn in prayer on the lonely mountain of La Verna about the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he saw a seraph with six shining wings bearing the figure of the Crucified, and there was pierced in his own hands, feet, and side with the wounds of Christ — the first and most famous bearer of the stigmata. He wished, he said, to be transformed into the likeness of Christ crucified "not by the martyrdom of the flesh, but in his heart and by the fire of love." Worn by penance, near-blind, and burning with charity, he died at the Portiuncula on the evening of 3 October 1226, having asked to be laid on the bare earth, and singing the psalms to the last. Pope Gregory IX canonised him only two years later, in 1228; his feast is kept on 4 October, and the Church keeps a second feast, the Impression of the Sacred Stigmata of St Francis, on 17 September.

He is the patron of Italy, of the poor, of merchants, and of animals and all God's creatures, and — with his brother in the same Franciscan family, St Anthony of Padua — one of the best-loved saints of the whole Church. Those drawn to his wounds may also love the Chaplet of the Five Wounds, and those who wish another Franciscan intercessor, the novena to St Anthony.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do you pray the novena to St Francis of Assisi?

Traditionally you begin on 25 September and pray nine days in a row, so that the last day falls on 3 October, the eve of his feast. The feast of St Francis is 4 October. You may, however, pray this novena at any time of year when you have a need, since it is a novena "in any necessity."

What day is the feast of St Francis of Assisi?

His feast is 4 October — the day after his death in 1226. The Church also keeps a distinct feast on 17 September, the Impression of the Sacred Stigmata, commemorating the wounds of Christ he received on Mount La Verna in 1224.

Is there a novena to St Francis of Assisi for pets or sick animals?

Yes. Because St Francis is the patron of animals, the nine-day novena is very commonly prayed for a sick or beloved pet: pray the daily prayers above, name the animal and its need, and add the petition for animals given in this article. Remember that we ask God's mercy on His creatures placed in our care — the animals do not have immortal souls, but their good is truly a thing we may bring to God.

What is the Prayer of St Francis?

It is the prayer beginning "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace," said at the close of each day of the novena. It perfectly expresses the Franciscan spirit of peace and self-giving, though — in honesty — it is not from the saint's own pen but a French prayer first printed in 1912. St Francis's own burning prayer is the Absorbeat, "that the fiery and honey-sweet power of Your love may absorb my soul."

Is the novena to St Francis of Assisi the same as the one to St Francis Xavier?

No — these are two different saints. St Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) is the founder of the Franciscans, patron of animals and the poor, feast 4 October. St Francis Xavier (1506–1552) is the great Jesuit missionary of the Indies and Japan, feast 3 December, honoured by his own novena to St Francis Xavier, the "Novena of Grace." Be sure you are praying to the saint you intend.

Can I keep a printable copy or pray the novena on my phone?

Yes. The full text above may be copied and kept beside you for the nine days, or printed as your own booklet. The Iter Fidei app carries the complete novena with day-by-day reminders and audio, so it can be prayed from your phone without a printed sheet — useful for the many who look for a novena to St Francis "PDF." For a wider look at praying the Church's treasury on a phone, see our guide to the best Catholic prayer apps.

Does a novena to St Francis "always work"?

No prayer compels God, and to think so would be superstition, which the Church condemns. A novena "works" not by forcing an outcome but by drawing us into humble, persevering prayer and setting our need in the hands of a powerful intercessor. St Francis, who was conformed to Christ crucified, obtains for us what is truly best — the grace we named, or a better one. Pray in trust, and leave the answer to God.

Pray the full novena to St Francis of Assisi with day-by-day reminders and audio in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (Psalms 6, 12, 18, 25, 30, 34, 37, 38, 70); Butler's Lives of the Saints (St Francis of Assisi, 4 October; the Impression of the Stigmata, 17 September); the traditional Franciscan novena Nine Days of Prayer in Any Necessity, Petitioning the Aid of Saint Francis (Franciscan Friars, T.O.R.) and the traditional three-petition Franciscan novena; the Admonitions (27), the Canticle of the Creatures, and the Absorbeat prayer of St Francis; on the "Peace Prayer," its first printing (France, 1912); the canonisation of St Francis by Pope Gregory IX (1228).