Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (c. 1181 – October 3, 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian spiritual person, poet, and Catholic friar who started the religious group called the Franciscans. He wanted to live a simple Christian life and chose to become a beggar and a traveling preacher.
Francis is one of the most respected people in Christianity. Pope Gregory IX declared him a saint on July 16, 1228. He is often shown wearing a brown robe with a rope around his waist, tied with three knots that represent Christian teachings about poverty, purity, and obedience.
In 1219, Francis traveled to Egypt to try to persuade Sultan Al-Kamil to stop the Fifth Crusade. In 1223, he helped create the first live nativity scene during a Christmas celebration in Greccio. According to Christian tradition, Francis showed wounds on his hands and feet, similar to those Jesus had, after seeing an angel in a religious vision in 1224.
Francis is known for caring about animals and nature. Churches began blessing animals on his feast day, October 4, which became World Animal Day. He was deeply devoted to the Eucharist, a Christian sacrament. Along with Catherine of Siena, Francis was named the patron saint of Italy. He is also the namesake of the city of San Francisco. His feast day for the stigmata is celebrated on September 17.
Names
Francis, known in Italian as Francesco d'Assisi and in Latin as Franciscus Assisiensis, was given the name Giovanni by his mother. His last name, di Pietro di Bernardone, comes from his father, Pietro di Bernardone. Pietro was in France for work when Francis was born in Assisi, a small town in Italy. When Pietro returned, he began calling his son Francesco, which means "Free man" or "Frenchman," possibly because he admired French culture and his success in business.
Biography
Francis of Assisi was born around 1181. He was one of the children of Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, an Italian silk merchant, and Pica di Bourlemont, a French noblewoman from Provence. Little is known about Pica except that she was from a noble family.
Francis was spoiled by his parents and lived a lively, wealthy life as a young man. He enjoyed the music of troubadours and was interested in things from Transalpine regions. He was described as handsome, clever, and generous with money. He wore fine clothes and spent money freely. Many writers who describe saints note that Francis had rich friends and enjoyed worldly pleasures. However, he began to feel disappointed with the world early in life, as shown in the story of the beggar. In this story, Francis was selling cloth in the marketplace when a beggar asked for help. After finishing his work, Francis gave the beggar all the money he had. His friends laughed at him, and his father was angry.
Around 1202, Francis joined a military campaign against Perugia and was captured at Collestrada. He spent a year as a prisoner and became sick, which made him think about his life. When he returned to Assisi in 1203, he went back to his carefree lifestyle. Two years later, he traveled to Apulia to join the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. However, a vision made him return to Assisi and stop caring about worldly matters. He began avoiding games and feasts with his friends. When asked if he planned to marry, he said, "Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen," meaning "Lady Poverty."
During a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis joined poor people in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica. He spent time alone, praying to God for guidance. He had a vision of Jesus in a ruined chapel near Assisi called San Damiano. In the vision, Jesus told him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My church, which is falling apart." Francis took this as a call to fix the chapel where he was praying. He sold some cloth from his father’s store to help the priest there. When the priest refused the money, Francis angrily threw the coins on the ground.
To avoid his father’s punishment, Francis hid in a cave near San Damiano for about a month. When he returned, he was hungry and dirty. His father dragged him home, beat him, and locked him in a storeroom. His mother freed him when his father was away, and Francis went back to San Damiano. He stayed with the priest there but was later brought before the city leaders by his father. His father tried to make him give up his inheritance. During legal discussions with the Bishop of Assisi, Francis gave up his father and his family wealth. Some accounts say he stripped off his clothes to show this, and the bishop covered him with his own cloak.
For the next few months, Francis lived as a beggar in the hills near Assisi. He worked as a helper in a nearby monastery. A friend later gave him a pilgrim’s cloak, girdle, and staff. He returned to Assisi and collected stones to rebuild the chapel of St. Damiano. He carried the stones himself and rebuilt the chapel over time. Over two years, Francis lived a life of penance, repairing other ruined chapels near Assisi, including San Pietro in Spina and the Porziuncola, a small chapel of St. Mary of the Angels. This became his favorite place. He also helped care for people with leprosy near Assisi.
One morning in February 1208, Francis was at a Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels. The Gospel that day was about Jesus sending his disciples to spread the message of God’s Kingdom. Inspired by this, Francis decided to live a life of poverty. He got a simple woolen tunic worn by poor farmers and tied it around himself with a rope. He traveled through the countryside, urging people to live righteously, love others, and seek peace. He did not have permission to preach, which made his work unusual.
Francis’s actions inspired others. Within a year, he had 11 followers. They lived simply in a deserted leper colony near Assisi. They traveled through Umbria, sharing their message with people they met.
In 1209, Francis created a simple rule for his followers called the "Primitive Rule," based on Bible verses. The rule said, "Follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and walk in His footsteps." He took 11 followers to Rome to ask Pope Innocent III for permission to start a new religious order. When they arrived, they met Bishop Guido of Assisi and Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, who was the Pope’s spiritual advisor. The Cardinal supported Francis and helped him speak to the Pope. After several days, the Pope agreed to let the group start their work informally, saying they could return for an official meeting when God blessed them more. The group was tonsured, which showed the Church approved of them and protected them from being accused of wrongdoing. Though some advisors thought Francis’s way of life was impractical, the Pope later agreed to support the order after a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica. This happened on April 16, 1210, and marked the official founding of the Franciscan Order. The group, called the "Lesser Brothers" or "Friars Minor," lived in the Porziuncola and preached in Umbria before spreading throughout Italy. Francis was later ordained a deacon but not a priest.
In 1211, Francis was preaching at San Rufino in Assisi when Clare of Assisi, a young noblewoman, heard him and wanted to live like him. Her cousin Rufino also joined. On the night of Palm Sunday, March 28, 1212, Clare secretly left her family’s home. Francis welcomed her at the Porziuncola and helped start the Order of Poor Clares. He gave her a religious habit similar to his own and placed her and other young women in a nearby Benedictine monastery until a proper home could be built. Later, they moved to San Damiano, living in small huts. This became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order, now known as the Poor Clares.
For those who could not leave
Character and legacy
Francis aimed to copy Christ’s life and actions, showing great respect for the Eucharist and the priests who performed the sacrament. He taught, “Your God is part of your life, He lives in your neighbors and in every person.” Francis and his followers valued poverty highly. In his final written work, the Testament, he stated that complete personal and group poverty was essential for members of his order. Pope Leo XIV described Francis’s life as one of “self-emptying,” meaning he gave up comfort and possessions, moving from wealth to simplicity, from speaking much to silence, and from owning things to giving them freely.
Francis believed nature reflected God’s greatness. He called all creatures “brothers” and “sisters,” and he preached to birds. He is said to have convinced a wolf in Gubbio to stop attacking people if they fed it regularly. Francis saw all people as connected through God and said, “I would not be a friend of Christ if I did not care for those He died for.”
Francis’s visit to Egypt and efforts to build peace with Muslims had lasting effects. After the Crusader Kingdom fell, Franciscans were allowed to stay in the Holy Land and became the “Custodians of the Holy Land” for the Catholic Church.
Around 1220, Francis created the first known Nativity scene, or presepio, in Greccio. He used real animals, a straw-filled manger, and an ox and donkey to make the scene lifelike. This helped people experience the birth of Jesus more directly. His biographers, Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure, described the manger as simple and beautiful, used as an altar for the Christmas Mass.
Francis taught that God made the world good but that humans need to seek forgiveness for their sins. He saw God in nature and praised creation in his Canticle of the Sun, thanking God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Stories about Francis often highlight his love for animals and the environment. The Fioretti, a collection of legends after his death, includes tales like Francis preaching to birds and negotiating with a wolf in Gubbio. Some people mistakenly think Francis was a vegetarian, but historical records show he ate meat, including shrimp pie.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II named Francis the patron saint of ecology. He encouraged Catholics to care for nature, saying they should avoid harming it and instead protect it for future generations. In 2015, Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudato si’, inspired by Francis’s teachings, focusing on caring for the environment. This led to the Laudato Si’ Movement, which promotes ecological care globally.
Francis’s feast day is on 4 October. A secondary feast for his stigmata, on 17 September, was added to the church calendar in 1585 but later removed and restored multiple times. Today, it appears in some local calendars and the Franciscan Order’s schedule.
Francis is honored in the Catholic Church, Lutheran, Anglican, and Old Catholic Churches on 4 October. His feast day marks the end of Creationtide, a season beginning on 1 September. It is common for people to bring pets to church for a blessing on this day.
In 2013, Pope Francis chose his name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, inspired by his care for the poor. This was the first time a pope took the name of a saint. Pope Pius XII named Francis a patron saint of Italy in 1939, alongside Catherine of Siena.
Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology, and the Laudato Si’ Movement follows his teachings. He is also considered the patron against certain illnesses, though this is not fully detailed in the original text.
In art
The Franciscan Order encouraged people to honor the life of Saint Francis after he was declared a saint. Artists began showing Saint Francis in paintings and sculptures shortly after he died. The order asked artists to create many artworks for Franciscan churches. These artworks showed Saint Francis with holy figures or scenes from his life. Large early paintings on walls in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi include some of these works.
There are many paintings and sculptures from the 1600s and 1700s showing Saint Francis of Assisi and a musical angel in churches and museums across western Europe. The names used for these artworks vary. Some describe Saint Francis as "consoled," "comforted," in "ecstasy," or in "rapture." The presence of the musical angel is sometimes included in the title and sometimes not.
Media
Many books have been written about him. The following suggestions are from a Franciscan friar named Conrad Harkins, who lived from 1935 to 2020. He was the director of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University.