Prayer of St. Francis
The earliest copy is in a small French magazine, La Clochette, from December 1912, with no author named; St. Francis died in 1226 and no medieval source contains it. It became attached to his name when it was printed on the back of a holy card of the saint around 1920, and it went around the world during the two World Wars. It asks to be an instrument, not a source, of peace, which is a fair summary of how Francis lived.
Anonymous, La Clochette (1912); traditionally linked to St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.