St. Francis of Assisi: Stigmata & Praise      October 4th was the feast day for St. Francis of Assisi. Everybody loves St. Francis!       What St. Francis loved most of all was Jesus! One of the prayers in the Liturgy for his feast day refers to “the mystery of the Cross which St. Francis so ardently embraced.”       In 1224, two years before his death, on a morning near to September 14th (Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross), St. Francis was praying alone on a mountain top. (Well, Brother Leo was supposed to be somewhere else, but he snuck back to stay and observe his beloved father “alone” at prayer, which is how we know the story.) Francis was in the midst of a 40-day fast, praying fervently, in deep contemplation with ecstasy.       Then it happened: a vision of a gleaming six-winged seraph descending from heaven. As the seraph quickly flew towards him, Francis could see that the s...