A city named after St. Francis

SAN FRANCISCO — New Year is the time for reflection, the time to ponder and evaluate our assets and limitations calmly. Let us listen to the Spirit: “My Child, you shall talk more freely to Me, learn to speak to Me of the problems and things which seem to disturb your vitality and hinder your progress and the ability to hear the voice in your soul…”

Only a strong and cheerful spirit, such as that of St. Francis of Assisi could freely talk to oneself and one’s Creator, as well as to every living soul. Throughout the ages, St. Francis has been known as the saint who freely talked to God through His humble creatures, Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Brother Wind and Sister Water. He spoke as well to Brother Wolf to stop pillaging the town of Gubbio. Since he understood that his real need was food, he fed the hungry wolf. The animal became gentle and obeyed the saint. Eventually the town-folk began to feed him and adopted him as a friend.

St. Francis’ prayers were so special that they were referred to as Chanticles. One morning the people saw a huge fire consuming the convent of San Francesco (as the Italians call him), and his disciples, the Porziuncula. Everyone formed a fire brigade to douse out the fire with buckets of water. When they reached the courtyard the people saw San Francesco and his monk companions so consumed in holy communion with God, that they all emanated a warm glow that simulated fire.

The young Italian men and women idolized Francis

San Francisco is the city named after St. Francis of Assisi. He is the beloved saint of the poor and rich alike.

Once upon a time on this lovely hill town of Umbria in central Italy, there lived a rich young cavaliero, Francesco, the son of a powerful silk trader. He was the toast of the town, for his heart was full and loving. The young noble men and women clustered around him to hear his songs and bask in his charms and energy. In their eyes, Francesco could do no wrong. But one day he became keenly aware of the people in want. Compared to his extravagant life, they did not have enough to clothe their bodies nor food to feed them and like the untouchable lepers they did not even have friends to keep them company.

To the great disappointment of his parents, he left home to do something more meaningful. He tried to fight for his province and became a soldier, but he was injured. While resting in a small broken-down church he heard the Lord speak, “Francesco, build my church.” Francesco hurried home and sold his father’s merchandise to rebuild the church. Although he was banished from home and disowned by his father, Francis never despaired but even saw the chance to be free to serve Our Lord full heartedly. Many of his friends joined him. One of them, a young noble lady, Clare, not only joined his mission but also persuaded her sisters and many of her rich friends to leave their homes and dedicate themselves to building the “church of God.”

The Franciscan order of men and women was born. These brown-robed monks built churches not only in Italy but all over the world. In the United States the 21 mission houses were founded along the coastline of California by Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan monk.

Rebellion against Mexico, the gold rush and cutthroats

Formerly a sleepy little Mexican village with 30 families living around the adobe Custom House guarded by a company of nine cavalry men, San Francisco was originally called, Yerba Buena or good herb. It became the site of a Franciscan mission in 1776. In 1846, the English-speaking Californians launched the so-called “Bear Flag Rebellion” against Mexican rule and won. Theirs was the shortest lived republic on record, lasting only 26 days. Then the big republic of the United States absorbed it. A year later 50 sailors and marines from the USS Portsmouth remained in San Francisco. Today, the original site at Keary Street is called Portsmouth Plaza, and nothing Spanish has remained.

If it had not been for the cry of “Gold” the place would have remained a sleepy village. This sent the “Forty-Niners” rushing to California from every point of the country. Only few found any gold worth shouting about. Soon, the diggers were committing suicide at the rate of 1,000 per year. But the gold rush transformed the town to a roaring, booming metropolis. Literally, anything went —provided one could pay for it. The town swarmed with hoodlums.

One of the most lucrative traders was “shanghaiing” doped seamen to ships bound for the Far East, particularly China. Irate citizens formed vigilance committees to clean up the town of the worst cutthroats. However, they hanged as many innocents as hoodlums. They degenerated into thuggery themselves. A new batch of vigilantes would re-organize to get rid of the previous lot, and so the cycle went on viciously.

Together with the gangsters came the women from New York, Paris, Vienna and Rio; “the cream and the gutter scrapings of the world’s harlots.” They did a roaring business. Some built mansions that left many pop-eyed with wonder. Along with them came a shipload of half-starved Chinese girls, sold by their parents to slave dealers in Chinatown. Attempts to clean up the children’s den, opium houses, and gambling parlors ended with failure until the earthquake…

The great earthquake

The night before the great earthquake of San Francisco, the immortal Enrico Caruso sang at the Opera House. By 5:13 a.m., April 1, 1906, almost all of the 400,000 residents lay fast asleep. The ground beneath the city went into convulsions. The earth was not shaking — it was “undulating and rolling like an ocean breaker,” an eyewitness said. It ruptured every major water line in the city and started a chain of fires. The firemen were helpless. Military troops finally had to dynamite the entire city block to stop the flames.

For three days the fire raged. About 28,000 buildings lay in ruins with 500 people buried underneath. A London newspaper dispatch wrote: “The city of San Francisco is no more.”

But the San Francisco that rose from the ashes was bigger, healthier and more beautiful than before. The fire had accomplished what the reformers could not — “scared the vice and violence out of its bones.” The new San Francisco expanded into a reasonably law-abiding, cultured, and somewhat intriguing metropolis.

The intriguing metropolis of San Francisco

An eight-hour drive from Los Angeles along the shoreline of California reveals the city’s narrow peninsula jutting out between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Alongside the former, lies the famous Long Beach, Malibu and the Big Sur alternately with the mission houses of San Juan Capistrano, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Carmel beaches. The latter is popularly known as the Bay Area.

San Francisco seems to be as precious as Hong Kong is to mainland China. Four long bridges, namely: the Golden Gate, the San Francisco Oakland Bridge, San Mateo Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge tie the peninsula close to the mainland. This golden city of 40 hills is scenically topped by Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower and Nob Hill.

Visitors and television directors (“The Streets of San Francisco”) prefer to film Russian Hill as a more colorful representative of San Francisco with its most crooked street snaking down the hill, garlanded with fuchsia-pink azalea bushes. The other symbol is the cable car or tram which follows the scenic view coursing through Powell Street. It goes down from the hills to Union Square where the famous old hotels, department stores and Chinatown cluster together. It is more of a roller coaster drive. One inevitably descends at a 35⁰ angle for every block. The other colorful area is Fisherman’s Wharf. The wise traveler usually books a hotel here.

The whole area is charmingly converted to a series of boutiques housed in Ghirardelli Square and an old fishing cannery called The Cannery and Pier 39. And then, there is the Maritime Museum, the Aquatic Park and Fort Mason. On the other side is Little Italy with its numerous trattorias, ristorantes, antipasti bars and gelato ice cream parlors managed by old-timer Italians, who make up 20% of San Francisco residents.

St. Francis lovingly guides the ‘modern missionaries’ with tolerant amusement

Saint Francis must still be affectionately guiding this city. This time, however, the saint would likely view with tolerant amusement certain human tastes and foibles that would mobilize the police squad elsewhere. Here, all types of individualists, oddballs and outsiders, have taken root: the bohemians of the 1930s, the beatniks of ‘50s, the hippies of the ‘60s, and the gays of the ‘70s. They have made the city the focal point of their demonstrations. And then, there is the active Save the Earth movement, Alcoholics Anonymous, Addicts Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, AIDS Anonymous, the Movement Against Drunken Drivers, and other reform groups which doubtless make up the modern missionaries of today.

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