Alone with God: Saint Francis Secret Lenten Retreat

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In Chapter 7 of The Little Flowers, Saint Francis withdraws from the world at the beginning of Lent, seeking solitude on a small, uninhabited island in Lake Perugia. On the night of Ash Wednesday, he asks a devoted friend to row him there in secret, desiring that no one know where he has gone. He brings with him only two small loaves of bread and asks not to be retrieved until Holy Thursday. Alone among brambles and dense undergrowth that form a kind of natural shelter, Francis gives himself entirely to prayer and contemplation.

According to the account, he fasts for the whole of Lent, consuming only half of one loaf. The detail is striking in its simplicity: one whole loaf remains untouched, and half of the other is eaten. The text suggests that Francis did this in reverence for Christ’s forty-day fast in the desert. Yet the half-loaf also carries another meaning — it becomes a safeguard against spiritual pride. By taking just enough to sustain life, he avoids both indulgence and the subtle temptation of vainglory, choosing instead humility and hidden fidelity.

In time, the place of his solitude becomes a site of devotion. What began as a secret act of love between Francis and God eventually draws others, and a village rises there in memory of his Lenten retreat. The story reminds us that holiness often begins in obscurity — in silence, in self-denial, in the quiet desire to be conformed to Christ. Only later does the world discover what was first lived unseen.

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