Current Project: In the Footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi
(Pre-Production)

A Film by
Gerard Thomas Straub

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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

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