Blessed Pica Bernardone
( Mother of St Francis of Assisi )
The Franciscan menologium says concerning the servant of God Pica,
that she not only gave bodily birth to St Francis, but by her prayers
and the example of her virtues gave him as a brightly shining light to
Holy Church.
Pica was descended from a noble French family of the Bourlemonts.
In France she was given in marriage to the wealthy Italian merchant,
Peter Bernardone of the house of Moriconi, the father of St Francis.
Concerning the birth of her first child, our Seraphic Founder, an
old manuscript, which is preserved in the Vatican, relates the
following: When Pica had for several days suffered the severe pains of
labor, there appeared an unknown stranger, in pilgrim’s garb, and
announced to the mother that her child would not come into the world
until she had been conveyed to a stable. Tradition relates that the
chapel which now bears the title, “To St Francis the Little One,” was
the stable wherein the mother happily gave birth to her first son.
When the child was carried about later, the manuscript continues,
again a mysterious stranger came, made the Sign of the Cross on the
child’s right shoulder, and recommended that the greatest care be
tendered the child. Being a truly Christian mother, Pica did that. One
can readily assume that it was she who animated the boy who, as St
Bonaventure records, grew up from his earliest youth with a passionate
love for the poor.
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