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Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Wednesday, March 9th, 2022. Today is also the feast day of St. Francis of Rome.

Now, St. Francis of Rome, she was born in 1384. She lived into the middle of the 1400s. And like her title says, she lived in the city of Rome. But what's interesting is during this time, Rome was such a dangerous

place to live. There was like violence and disease and all sorts of horrible things going on. It was so violent and terrible

that the Pope actually didn't live there during this time. He left and he lived in a castle in

France, which had all sorts of other problems associated with it. But Francis lived in a very

dangerous time. From the time that she was very young, she loved Jesus and desired to be a nun,

but her parents decided that it would be better if she got married. So she married a good man,

and she had three children, a pretty normal life. But remember, she lived in this crazy, violent time.

So while Francis was living there in Rome, Rome was

attacked, and her husband was forced to leave the city because he was a rich man and he was a target.

So she was left there with her sister-in-law, with all of their kids. And so their house was ruined. But St. Francis,

she's a saint because she was able to not just be fixated on her own needs or even the needs of

her family. She always looked to the needs of others as well. She was great about sharing the

food that they had, caring for the ill and the wounded, and even

bringing them into their dilapidated house so that part of it served as a hospital.

So after the invading armies stopped attacking Rome, then something else terrible happened.

The plague came through, and Francis had her own

children who died at the plague. But once again, remember, the sin of envy causes us to just

dwell on our own misery or our own successes and see what is happening to others as proof of what

is happening to us. But she focused on other people once more. She continued to care

for the ill. Eventually, her husband was able to come back. She continued to care for the ill. Her husband

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