Francis of Assisi

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (c. 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans.

Born into a wealthy family in Assisi, Italy, he was inspired towards a life of poverty and religious devotion as a young man and began his efforts by repairing chapels and caring for the sick in his hometown. Soon after, he gathered a band of followers in the city who joined in his lifestyle, and following a journey to Rome to meet Pope Innocent III, he received approval for the foundation of the Order of Friars Minor, which is commonly known as the Franciscan Order.

Under his leadership, the order rapidly increased in size. Notable events in his religious career include his meeting with Clare of Assisi, who founded the Second Order of St. Francis commonly known as the Poor Clares, his journey to Egypt in 1219 in an attempt to convert the sultan Al-Kamil and put an end to the conflict of the Fifth Crusade, and his arrangement of the first live nativity scene as part of the annual Christmas celebration in Greccio. According to Christian tradition, Francis displayed stigmata resembling the wounds on the hands and feet of crucified Christ during the apparition of a seraphic angel in a religious ecstasy in 1224 and died two years later in 1226 at the age of 44.

One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228. He is commonly portrayed wearing a brown habit with a rope tied around his waist, featuring three knots symbolizing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Francis is associated with patronage of animals and the environment and, along with Catherine of Siena, is patron saint of Italy.