Francis of Assisi

Saint

Saint Francis of Assisi

O.F.M.

Ecclesial status	Saint
Born	1181 or 1182, Assisi, Papal States
Birth name	Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone
Religious institute	Order of Friars Minor
Ordained ministry	Deacon
Died	3 October 1226, near Assisi
Canonization	16 July 1228 by Pope Gregory IX
Commemoration	Memorial, 4 October
Patronage	Ecology, animals, merchants, peace, and Italy

Francis of Assisi, O.F.M., was an Italian deacon, founder of the Order of Friars Minor, and an influential witness to evangelical poverty, penance, fraternity, peace, care for creation, and conformity to the crucified Christ.

Devotional status: Approved devotion

Overview

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. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he became a beggar and an itinerant preacher.

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.

In 1219, Francis went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the sultan Al-Kamil and put an end to the conflict of the Fifth Crusade. In 1223, he arranged for 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.

Francis is associated with patronage of animals and the environment. It became customary for churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October, which became World Animal Day. Francis was noted for his devotion to the Eucharist. Along with Catherine of Siena, Francis was designated patron saint of Italy. He is also the namesake of the city of San Francisco. The feast of Francis' stigmatization is 17 September.

Youth and conversion

Francis was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone around 1181 or 1182 into a prosperous merchant family in Assisi. His father called him Francesco and prepared him for commerce, while the young man desired chivalric glory and delighted in feasts and companionship. War between Assisi and Perugia brought captivity and illness. A later attempt to join a military expedition ended when Francis turned back after discerning that God was redirecting his ambition.

His conversion unfolded through prayer, illness, generosity to the poor, and an encounter with a leper whose presence had once repelled him. What had seemed bitter became sweetness as Francis embraced the excluded man and recognized Christ. Praying before the crucifix at San Damiano, he heard a call to repair the Lord's house. He first rebuilt neglected chapels with his hands, then gradually understood the wider summons to renew the Church by living the Gospel.

Renunciation before the bishop

Conflict with Pietro Bernardone culminated before the bishop of Assisi. Francis returned his father's property and clothing and declared his new reliance on the Father in heaven. The act was not contempt for family duties as such; it marked a radical and public break with claims that obstructed his vocation. Bishop Guido covered him with a mantle, placing his evangelical dispossession within ecclesial care rather than private rebellion. Francis would remain intensely obedient to the Catholic Church and its ministers.

The Friars Minor

Companions gathered as Francis preached penance, peace, and conversion. Their primitive rule consisted chiefly of Gospel passages and a form of life centered on obedience, chastity, poverty, manual work, itinerant preaching, and fraternity. Around 1209 Francis went to Rome, where Pope Innocent III gave oral approval to the emerging brotherhood. The group became the Order of Friars Minor: lesser brothers who sought no privileged social rank and served among ordinary people.

Rapid growth brought missions, provinces, learning, houses, and disputes over how absolute poverty could be lived by a large international order. Francis was not an administrator capable of solving every institutional problem, yet he did not reject lawful organization or papal authority. The definitive Rule approved by Honorius III in 1223 joins evangelical rigor to an ecclesially confirmed form. Francis insisted that the friars live according to the Holy Gospel in obedience to the pope and the Roman Church.

Clare and the wider Franciscan family

Clare of Assisi received Francis's preaching and founded the community that became the Poor Clares, defending a contemplative form of corporate poverty. Lay penitents and married people also sought to share Franciscan conversion without abandoning their state of life, contributing to the later Secular Franciscan Order. These branches possess distinct vocations and governance. Francis is father of a spiritual family, not the proprietor of one uniform institution or a pretext for dissolving differences between religious and secular life.

Poverty, obedience, and Eucharistic faith

Francis chose Lady Poverty because the poor and crucified Christ had first given himself. Poverty removed barriers to fraternity, exposed dependence on providence, and freed the friars for mission. It was never permission to neglect the vulnerable or despise material creation. Francis treated goods as gifts rather than possessions of the isolated self. His severity toward himself must be read with his commands that superiors show mercy, that sick brothers receive care, and that no friar appropriate power over another.

Popular portraits sometimes make Francis a harmless opponent of doctrine and institutions. His own writings show intense Catholic faith: reverence for priests because of the Eucharist they consecrate, devotion to the Body and Blood of Christ, obedience to the Church, confession of the Trinity and Incarnation, and insistence on conversion from sin. He could admonish corrupt clergy while refusing contempt for the sacramental office. Reform came through holiness within communion, not construction of a purer church against the Church.

Peace and the Sultan

During the Fifth Crusade Francis crossed to the Muslim camp and met Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. The sources present courage, courtesy, desire for martyrdom, and explicit Christian witness rather than religious indifferentism. He did not secure the Sultan's conversion or end the war, but he returned unharmed. His Rule instructed missionary friars either to live peaceably among non-Christians or, when God willed, to proclaim the word openly. Franciscan peace joins truth, humility, penance, and willingness to suffer rather than coercion or concealment of Christ.

Creation and praise

Francis's Canticle of the Creatures praises God with Brother Sun, Sister Moon, wind, water, fire, earth, those who forgive, and Sister Bodily Death. The creatures are siblings because all come from one Creator, not because nature is divine. The canticle is profoundly Christ-centered and sacramental: material realities become occasions of praise, responsibility, humility, and reconciliation. Francis's preaching to birds and traditions concerning the wolf of Gubbio express this restored relation without turning him into a modern nature sentimentalist.

Pope Francis placed the saint at the beginning of Laudato Si' as an example of integral ecology in which care for nature, justice for the poor, interior peace, and commitment to society are inseparable. This application develops a real Franciscan intuition while remaining a modern act of papal social teaching. Saint Francis's own first concern was praise of the Most High and conformity to Christ. Ecological patronage is authentic when it preserves that theological center.

Stigmata and final years

In 1224, during prayer and fasting on Mount La Verna, Francis received the stigmata: wounds corresponding to those of the crucified Christ. Early testimony from Brother Leo and Thomas of Celano treats the signs as bodily and extraordinary, while Francis attempted to conceal them. The Church receives the event within his recognized sanctity. The stigmata did not make him another redeemer; they manifested grace conforming a disciple to the one saving Passion of Christ.

Illness, eye disease, internal conflict within the order, and physical weakness marked his final years. Near death he composed the Testament, blessed his brothers, asked to hear the Passion according to John, and was laid on the bare earth at the Portiuncula. He died on the evening of 3 October 1226. Pope Gregory IX canonized him on 16 July 1228 and soon laid the foundation stone of the basilica at Assisi.

Transitus

Franciscans commemorate Francis's passage from death to life on the evening of 3 October in the devotion known as the Transitus. It prepares for rather than replaces the Church's liturgical Memorial on 4 October. The celebration recalls Psalm singing, the Gospel of the Passion, his blessing, death, and entry into glory. Properly observed, it directs affection for Francis toward repentance, Eucharistic faith, fidelity to vocation, and hope of resurrection in Christ.

Cult and enduring mission

The Roman Rite celebrates Saint Francis of Assisi on 4 October as a Memorial with white vestments. He is principal patron of Italy and patron of those who promote ecology, as well as of animals, merchants, and many communities. Blessings of animals near his feast are popular sacramentals and should retain their orientation to praise of the Creator and responsible care, rather than becoming a substitute for the liturgy or a vague celebration of pets.

Francis has inspired reformers, missionaries, artists, peacemakers, and servants of the poor far beyond his religious family. He was neither an enemy of the hierarchy nor a romantic individualist, neither a pantheist nor a political mascot. He was a Catholic penitent, deacon, founder, and stigmatist whose radicalism came from taking Christ, the Gospel, the Eucharist, and ecclesial obedience with uncompromising seriousness.

Conformed to the Crucified

The Church venerates Francis in heaven and invokes his intercession for conversion, peace, the poor, creation, and religious life. His joy cannot be separated from penance, nor his poverty from obedience and charity. To honor him is to receive the crucified and risen Christ, repair the Church through holiness, serve those treated as lesser, and praise the Creator with every gift entrusted to human care.

Names

Francis (Italian: Francesco d'Assisi; Latin: Franciscus Assisiensis) was named Giovanni by his mother. His surname, di Pietro di Bernardone, comes from his father, Pietro di Bernardone. His father was in France on business when Francis was born in Assisi, a small town in Italy. Upon his return, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco ("Free man" or "Frenchman"), possibly in honour of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.

Biography

Early life

Francis of Assisi was born c. 1181, one of the children of an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a prosperous silk merchant, and a French mother, Pica di Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from Provence.

Indulged by his parents, Francis lived a high-spirited life, typical of a wealthy young man. As a youth, he became a devotee of troubadours and was fascinated with all things Transalpine. Francis was handsome, witty, gallant and delighted in fine clothes. He spent money lavishly. Although many hagiographers remark about Francis' bright clothing, rich friends, and love of pleasures, his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded Francis came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar". In this account, Francis was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the end of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his purse. Francis' friends mocked him for his charity while his father scolded him in rage.

Around 1202, Francis joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada. He spent a year as a captive, during which an illness caused Francis to re-evaluate his life. However, upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. Two years later, Francis left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. A strange vision made him return to Assisi and lose interest in worldly life. According to hagiographic accounts, thereafter Francis began to avoid the sports and feasts of his former companions. A friend asked him whether he was thinking of marrying, to which Francis answered: "Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen", meaning his "Lady Poverty".

On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica. He spent some time in lonely places, asking God for divine illumination. Francis said that he had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." Francis took this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, so Francis sold some cloth taken from his father's store to assist the priest there. When the priest refused to accept the ill-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the floor.

In order to avoid his father's wrath, Francis hid in a cave near San Damiano for about a month. When he returned to town, hungry and dirty, Francis was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a small storeroom. Freed by his mother during Bernardone's absence, Francis returned at once to San Damiano, where he found shelter with the officiating priest, but Francis was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from San Damiano, sought also to force his son to forgo his inheritance by way of restitution. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony. Some accounts report that Francis stripped himself naked in token of this renunciation and the bishop covered him with his own cloak.

For the next couple of months, Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi. He spent some time at a neighbouring monastery working as a scullion. Francis then went to Gubbio, where a friend gave him alms, the cloak, girdle and staff of a pilgrim. Returning to Assisi, Francis traversed the city, begging stones for the restoration of St. Damiano. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and rebuilt it over time. Over the course of two years, Francis embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them San Pietro in Spina (in the area of San Petrignano in the valley about a kilometre from modern Rivotorto, on private property and once again in ruin); and the Porziuncola, the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels in the plain just below the town. This later became Francis' favorite abode. By degrees, he took to nursing lepers, in the leper colonies near Assisi.

Founding of the Franciscan Order

Order of Friars Minor (OFM)

One morning in February 1208, Francis was taking part in a Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, near which he had by then built himself a hut. The Gospel of the day was the "Commissioning of the Twelve" from the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus' disciples are commissioned to go and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty. Having obtained a coarse woollen tunic, the dress then worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants, Francis tied it around himself with a knotted rope and went about exhorting the people of the countryside to penance, brotherly love and peace. His preaching to ordinary people was unusual as Francis had no license to do so.

Francis' example attracted others. Within a year, he had 11 followers. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted leper colony of Rivo Torto near Assisi. They spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, and through their earnestness toward people they encountered, often deeply impressed them.

In 1209, Francis composed a simple rule for his followers ("friars"), the Regula primitiva or "Primitive Rule", which came from verses in the Bible. The rule was "to follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps." He then led 11 followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent Francis to the Pope. After several days, the Pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official audience. The group was tonsured. This was important in part because it recognized Church authority and prevented his following from accusations of heresy, as had happened to the Waldensians decades earlier. Though a number of the pope's counsellors considered the mode of life proposed by Francis to be unsafe and impractical, following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica, he decided to endorse Francis's order. Per tradition, this occurred on 16 April 1210 and constituted the official founding of the Franciscan Order. The group, then the "Lesser Brothers" (Order of Friars Minor also known as the Franciscan Order or the Seraphic Order), were centred in the Porziuncola and preached first in Umbria, before expanding throughout Italy. Francis was later ordained a deacon, but not a priest.

Poor Clares and Third Order

From then on, the new order grew quickly. Hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1211, the young noblewoman Clare of Assisi sought to live like them. Her cousin Rufino also sought to join. On the night of Palm Sunday, 28 March 1212, Clare clandestinely left her family's palace. Francis received her at the Porziuncola and thereby established the Order of Poor Clares. He gave Clare a religious habit, a garment similar to his own, before lodging her, her younger sister Caterina, and other young women in a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns until Francis could provide a suitable monastery. Later, he transferred them to San Damiano, to a few small huts or cells. This became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order, currently known as Poor Clares.

For those who could not leave their affairs, Francis later formed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance, a fraternity composed of either laity or clergy whose members neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows. Instead, they observed the principles of Franciscan life in their daily lives. Before long, the Third Order – currently titled the Secular Franciscan Order – grew beyond Italy.

Missionary work during the Fifth Crusade

In the late spring of 1212, Francis set out for Jerusalem, but was shipwrecked by a storm on the Dalmatian coast, forcing him to return to Italy. On 8 May 1213, Francis was given the use of the mountain of La Verna (Alverna) as a gift from Count Orlando di Chiusi, who described it as "eminently suitable for whoever wishes to do penance in a place remote from mankind". The mountain would become one of his favourite retreats for prayer.

During the Fifth Crusade in 1219, Francis went to Egypt where a Crusader army had been encamped for over a year besieging the walled city of Damietta. He was accompanied by Friar Illuminatus of Arce and hoped to convert the Sultan of Egypt or be martyred in the attempt. The Sultan, Al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin, had succeeded his father as Sultan of Egypt in 1218 and was encamped upstream of Damietta. A bloody and futile attack on the city was launched by the Christians on 29 August 1219, following which both sides agreed to a ceasefire that lasted four weeks. Probably during this interlude, Francis and his companion crossed the Muslims' lines and were brought before the Sultan, remaining in his camp for a few days. Reports give no information about what transpired during the encounter beyond noting that the Sultan received Francis graciously and that Francis preached to the Muslims. He returned unharmed. No known Arab sources mention the visit.

According to some late sources, the Sultan gave Francis permission to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land and even to preach there. All that can safely be asserted is that Francis and his companion left the Crusader camp for Acre, from where they embarked for Italy in the latter half of 1220. Drawing on a 1267 sermon by Bonaventure, later sources report that the Sultan secretly converted or accepted a death-bed baptism as a result of meeting Francis.

Whatever transpired as a result of Francis' and al-Kamil's meeting the Franciscans have maintained a presence in the Holy Land almost uninterrupted since 1217 and remain there (see Custody of the Holy Land). They received concessions from the Mameluke Sultan in 1333 with regard to certain Holy Places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and (so far as concerns the Catholic Church) jurisdictional privileges from Pope Clement VI in 1342.

Reorganization of the Franciscan Order

The growing order of friars was divided into provinces; groups were sent to France, Germany, Hungary and Spain and to the East. Upon receiving a report of the martyrdom of five brothers in Morocco, Francis returned to Italy via Venice. Cardinal Ugolino di Conti was then nominated by the pope as the protector of the order. Another reason for Francis' return to Italy was that the Franciscan Order had grown at an unprecedented rate compared to previous religious orders, but its organizational sophistication had not kept up with this growth and had little more to govern it than Francis' example and simple rule. To address this problem, Francis prepared a new and more detailed Rule, the "First Rule" or "Rule Without a Papal Bull" (Regula prima, Regula non bullata), which again asserted devotion to poverty and the apostolic life. However, it also introduced a greater institutional structure, though this was never officially endorsed by the pope.

Brother Peter was succeeded by Brother Elias as Vicar of Francis. Two years later, Francis modified the "First Rule", creating the "Second Rule" or "Rule With a Bull", which was approved by Pope Honorius III on 29 November 1223. As the order's official rule, it called on the friars "to observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our own and in chastity". In addition, it set regulations for discipline, preaching and entering the order. Once the rule was endorsed by the pope, Francis withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1221 and 1222, he crossed Italy, first as far south as Catania in Sicily and afterwards as far north as Bologna.

Stigmata, final days and sainthood

While Francis was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a 40-day fast in preparation for Michaelmas (29 September), he is said to have had a vision on 17 September 1224, three days after the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, following which Francis displayed stigmata resembling the wounds on the hands and feet of crucified Christ. Brother Leo, who had been with Francis at the time, left a clear and simple account of the event, the first definite account of the phenomenon of stigmata. "Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ." The apparent stigmata have been thought to be due to purpura on the hands and feet, a known complication of the quartan malaria Francis is thought to have suffered from.

Suffering from these stigmata and from trachoma, Francis received care in several cities (Siena, Cortona, Nocera) to no avail. He began to go blind and the bishop of Ostia ordered that his eyes be operated on which meant cauterizing the eyes with hot irons. Francis claims to have felt nothing at all when this was done. In the end, he was brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here, Francis spent his last days dictating his spiritual testament. Francis died on the evening of Saturday, 3 October 1226, singing Psalm 141, "Voce mea ad Dominum". On 16 July 1228, Francis was declared a saint by Pope Gregory IX (the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, a friend of Francis and Cardinal Protector of the Order). The next day, the pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Francis was buried on 25 May 1230, under the Lower Basilica, but his tomb was soon hidden on orders of Brother Elias to protect it from Saracen invaders. Francis' burial place remained unknown until it was rediscovered in 1818. Pasquale Belli then constructed a crypt for the remains in the Lower Basilica. It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present form by Ugo Tarchi. In 1978, the remains of Francis were examined and confirmed by a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul VI and put into a glass urn in the ancient stone tomb. His skeleton was put on public display for the first time in 2026.

In 1935, Edward Frederick Hartung concluded that Francis had probably contracted trachoma while in Egypt, and had died, aged 45, of quartan malaria. This interpretation was published in the Annals of Medical History.

Relics and tomb

Francis's remains were transferred from the church of San Giorgio to the new Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi in 1230. To protect them against theft, they were concealed beneath the high altar within stone and iron structures. Excavators rediscovered the burial on 12 December 1818 after fifty-two nights of work. The remains were examined and returned to the stone sarcophagus.

An examination in 1978 recorded bones and ashes; an eighteen-day exhibition accompanied that inspection. Further private inspections took place in 1994 and 2015. Custody of the sarcophagus is shared through two keys held by the bishop of Assisi and the custos of the basilica.

For the eighth centenary of Francis's death, the remains were carried from the crypt to the Lower Basilica on 21 February 2026. Public veneration began the following day, with the exhibition scheduled through 22 March. The transfer was accompanied by a procession, incense and First Vespers of the First Sunday of Lent.

Character and legacy

Francis' character

Francis set out to replicate Christ and literally to carry out his work. This is important in understanding Francis' character, his affinity for the Eucharist, and his respect for the priests who carried out the sacrament. Francis preached: "Your God is of your flesh, He lives in your nearest neighbour, in every man."

Francis and his followers celebrated and even venerated poverty, which was so central to his character that in his last written work, the Testament, Francis said that absolute personal and corporate poverty was the essential lifestyle for the members of his order. Pope Leo XIV identifies several dimensions in which Francis' life embodied a "self-emptying" approach: "from the palace to the leper, from eloquence to silence, from possession to total gift".

Francis believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his "brothers" and "sisters"; he even preached to the birds, and supposedly persuaded a wolf in Gubbio to stop attacking some locals if they agreed to feed the wolf. Francis' deep sense of brotherhood under God embraced others and he declared that "he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not cherish those for whom Christ died".

Francis's visit to Egypt and attempted rapprochement with the Muslim world had far-reaching consequences, long past his own death, since after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom, it would be the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who would be allowed to stay on in the Holy Land and be recognized as "Custodians of the Holy Land" on behalf of the Catholic Church.

At Greccio near Assisi, around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by setting up the first known presepio or crèche (Nativity scene). His nativity imagery reflected the scene in traditional paintings. Francis used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses, especially sight. Both Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure, biographers of Francis, tell how he used only a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey. According to Thomas, it was beautiful in its simplicity, with the manger acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.

Nature and the environment

Francis preached the Christian doctrine that the world was created good and beautiful by God but suffers a need for redemption because of human sin. As someone who saw God reflected in nature, "St. Francis was a great lover of God's creation..." In the Canticle of the Sun, he gives God thanks for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire and Earth, all of which he sees as rendering praise to God.

Many of the stories that surround the life of Francis say that he had a great love for animals and the environment. The Fioretti ("Little Flowers") is a collection of legends and folklore that sprang up after Francis' death. One account describes how one day, while Francis was travelling with some companions, they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds." The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the power of his voice and not one of them flew away. He is often portrayed with a bird, typically in his hand.

Another legend from the Fioretti tells that in the city of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, was a wolf "terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals". Francis went up into the hills and when he found the wolf, he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt nobody. Then Francis led the wolf into the town and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had "done evil out of hunger", the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly. In return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this manner, Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator.

Some modern commentators and animal rights advocates have mistakenly portrayed Francis as a vegetarian. However, historical records indicate that he did consume meat, and his earliest biographers make no mention of Francis adhering to a meatless diet. Francis' favourite dish was shrimp pie.

On 29 November 1979, Pope John Paul II declared Francis the patron saint of ecology. On 28 March 1982, John Paul II said that Francis' love and care for creation was a challenge for contemporary Catholics and a reminder "not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and friendly environment even to those who succeed us." The same Pope wrote on the occasion of the World Day of Peace, 1 January 1990, that Francis "invited all of creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honour and praise to the Lord. The poor man of Assisi gives us striking witness that when we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples."

In 2015, Pope Francis published his encyclical letter Laudato si’, about the ecological crisis and "care for our common home", which takes its name from the Canticle of the Sun, which Francis of Assisi composed. It presents Francis as "the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically". This inspired the birth of the Laudato Si' Movement, a global network of nearly 1000 organizations promoting the Laudato si message and the Franciscan approach to ecology.

Feast day

Francis' feast day is observed on 4 October. A secondary feast in honor of the stigmata received by Francis, celebrated on 17 September, was inserted in the General Roman Calendar in 1585 (later than the Tridentine calendar) and suppressed in 1604, but was restored in 1615. In the New Roman Missal of 1969, it was removed again from the General Calendar, as something of a duplication of the main feast on 4 October and left to the calendars of certain localities and of the Franciscan Order. Wherever the Tridentine Missal is used, however, the feast of the Stigmata remains in the General Calendar.

Francis is honoured in the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion (with a Lesser Festival in the Church of England, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Episcopal Church USA) and the Old Catholic Churches, among other churches and religious communities on 4 October.

The Feast Day of Francis of Assisi marks the conclusion of the season of Creationtide in various Christian Churches that begins on the Feast of Creation (1 September). It is a popular practice on Francis' feast day for people to bring their pets and other animals to church for a blessing.

Papal name

On 13 March 2013, upon his election as Pope, Archbishop and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Francis of Assisi, becoming Pope Francis.

At his first audience on 16 March 2013, Pope Francis told journalists that he had chosen the name in honour of Francis of Assisi because of his concern for the poor. He recounted that Cardinal Cláudio Hummes had told him, "Don't forget the poor", right after the election; that made Bergoglio think of Francis. It is the first time a pope has taken the name.

Patronage

On 18 June 1939, Pope Pius XII named Francis a joint patron saint of Italy along with Catherine of Siena with the apostolic letter "Licet Commissa". Pope Pius also mentioned the two saints in the laudative discourse he pronounced on 5 May 1949, in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Francis is the patron of animals and ecology. As such, he is the patron saint of the Laudato Si' Movement, a network that promotes the Franciscan ecological paradigm as outlined in the encyclical Laudato Si'.

He is also considered the patron against dying alone; against fire; patron of the Franciscan Order and Catholic Action; of families, peace and needleworkers, and a number of religious congregations.

He is the patron of many churches and other locations around the world, including: Italy; San Pawl il-Baħar, Malta; Freising, Germany; Lancaster, Lancashire; Kottapuram, India; Buhi, Camarines Sur, Philippines; General Trias, Philippines; San Francisco; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Colorado; Salina, Kansas; Metuchen, New Jersey; and Quibdó, Colombia.

On 1 October 2025, the Italian Parliament passed a law that confirms 4 October as national feast.

Pilgrimage routes and the Year of St. Francis (2026)

Numerous pilgrimage routes lead to the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi, including Via di Francesco (St. Francis' Way), Cammino Francescano della Marca (Franciscan Way of the Marches), and Cammino di Assisi (Assisi Way). In Umbria, St. Francis' Way leads to Assisi from Florence or Rome. The routes are created through cooperation between local authorities and the Franciscans and usually begin in places associated with his life, such as Gubbio. The network of St. Francis' Ways (known also as Francesco's Ways) has been developed since the 1990s, mostly in Italy, to encourage people to follow his footsteps and visit churches, monasteries, universities, and other facilities founded by the Franciscans.

In 2025, to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Sun and 10th anniversary of Laudato si, the first local Way of St. Francis was created in Poland, in the Old Town of Poznań: the Poznań Way of St. Francis. It connects two Franciscan churches: at Bernardyński Square and Franciszkańska Street. He is the patron saint of peace-makers, so the route's description suggests spiritual tasks based on the Way of Peace in Rogalin near Poznań (one of Rogalin Ways), which are available in Polish, English, Russian, and Ukrainian. The tasks include prayer to the Holy Spirit, contemplation of nature, care for other people and wildlife, and promote a simpler, healthier lifestyle.

The first environmental pilgrimage on this new Polish trail took place on 18 January 2026, so it initiated the celebration of the Year of St. Francis, proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV a week earlier to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Francis' death. Since spring, other local Ways of St. Francis have been created to encourage a change in the way we look at everyday matters, nature, and our hearts. In June 2026, Laudato Si' Movement encouraged its leaders (Laudato Si' Animators) to promote ecological spirituality by means of creating similar local Ways of St. Francis in other locations.

Outside Catholicism

Anglicanism

One of the results of the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church during the 19th century was the re-establishment of religious orders, including some of Franciscan inspiration. The principal Anglican communities in the Franciscan tradition are the Community of St. Francis (women, founded 1905), the Poor Clares of Reparation (PCR), the Society of St. Francis (men, founded 1934) and the Community of St. Clare (women, enclosed).

A U.S.-founded order within the Anglican world communion is the Seattle-founded order of Clares in Seattle (Diocese of Olympia), The Little Sisters of St. Clare.

The Anglican church retained the Catholic tradition of blessing animals on or near Francis' feast day of 4 October, and more recently Lutheran and other Protestant churches have adopted the practice.

Protestantism

Several Protestant groups have emerged since the 19th century that strive to adhere to the teachings of St. Francis.

There are also some small Franciscan communities within European Protestantism and the Old Catholic Church. There are some Franciscan orders in Lutheran Churches, including the Order of Lutheran Franciscans, the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary and the Evangelische Kanaan Franziskus-Bruderschaft (Kanaan Franciscan Brothers).

Orthodox churches

Francis is not officially recognized as a saint by any Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church has not pronounced any official view on the stigmata. The Orthodox saint, bishop and theologian Ignatius Brianchaninov referred to a particular hagiographer of Francis of Assisi as being in delusion:

"As an example of a book written in the state of delusion called opinion, we cite the following: 'When Francis was caught up to heaven,' says a writer of his life, 'God the Father, on seeing him, was for a moment in doubt to as [sic] to whom to give the preference, to His Son by nature, or to His son by grace-Francis.' What can be more frightful or madder than this blasphemy, what can be sadder than this delusion?".

Francis of Assisi received limited veneration by Orthodox Christians in the Middle Ages, and there are Orthodox icons of him at the Church of Panagia Kera at Kritsa, in Crete.

Francis' feast is celebrated at New Skete, an Eastern Orthodox monastic community in Cambridge, New York, United States, founded by Catholic Franciscans in the 20th century.

Joseph the Hesychast had Francis as his baptismal name, with the Greek tradition requiring a saint's name to be taken at baptism.

The Romanian Orthodox priest, iconographer and saint Arsenie Boca painted an icon of saints in Draganescu Church, which included Francis of Assisi.

Other religions

Outside of Christianity, other individuals and movements are influenced by the example and teachings of Francis. These include the philosopher Eckhart Tolle, who has made videos on the spirituality of Francis.

The interreligious spiritual community of Skanda Vale in Wales also takes inspiration from the example of Francis and models itself as an interfaith Franciscan order.

Main writings

• Canticum Fratris Solis or Laudes Creaturarum; Canticle of the Sun, 1224
• Oratio ante Crucifixum, Prayer before the Crucifix, 1205 (extant in the original Umbrian dialect as well as in a contemporary Latin translation)
• Regula non bullata, the Earlier Rule, 1221
• Regula bullata, the Later Rule, 1223
• Testament, 1226
• Admonitions, 1205 to 1209

For a complete list, see The Franciscan Experience.

Francis is considered the first Italian poet by some literary critics. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language and often wrote in Umbrian rather than Latin.

The anonymous 20th-century prayer "Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace" is widely attributed to Francis, but there is no evidence for it.

In art

The Franciscan Order promoted devotion to the life of Francis from his canonization onwards, and Francis appeared in European art soon after his death. The order commissioned many works for Franciscan churches, either showing him with sacred figures or episodes from his life. There are large early fresco cycles in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, parts of which are shown above.

There are countless seventeenth- and eighteenth-century depictions of Saint Francis of Assisi and a musical angel in churches and museums throughout western Europe. The titles of these depictions vary widely, at times describing Francis as "consoled", "comforted", in "ecstasy" or in "rapture"; the presence of the musical angel may or may not be mentioned.

Media

Films

• The Flowers of St. Francis, a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini. Francis was played by Nazario Gerardi, a Franciscan friar from the monastery Nocera Inferiore.
• Francis of Assisi, a 1961 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel The Joyful Beggar by Louis de Wohl, starring Bradford Dillman as Francis. Dolores Hart, who plays Clare, later became a Benedictine nun.
• Francesco di Assisi, a 1966 made-for-television film directed by Liliana Cavani, starring Lou Castel as Francis.
• The Hawks and the Sparrows, a 1966 film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Brother Sun, Sister Moon, a 1972 film by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Graham Faulkner as Francis.
• Francesco, a 1989 film by Liliana Cavani, contemplatively paced, follows Francis of Assisi's evolution from a rich man's son to a religious humanitarian, and eventually to a full-fledged self-tortured saint. Francis is played by Mickey Rourke.
• St. Francis, a 2002 film directed by Michele Soavi, starring Raoul Bova as Francis.
• Clare and Francis, a 2007 film directed by Fabrizio Costa, starring Maria Palma Petruolo and Ettore Bassi
• Pranchiyettan and the Saint, a 2010 satirical Indian Malayalam film
• Finding St. Francis, a 2014 film directed by Paul Alexander
• L'ami – François d'Assise et ses frères (The friend – Francis of Assisi and his brothers), a 2016 film directed by Renaud Fely and Arnaud Louvet starring Elio Germano
• The Sultan and the Saint, a 2016 film directed by Alexander Kronemer, starring Alexander McPherson
• Sign of Contradiction, a 2018 documentary film featuring commentary by Fr. Dave Pivonka, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa and others, focusing on a revealing of the true St. Francis to modern audiences.
• In Search of St. Francis of Assisi, documentary featuring Franciscan friars and others
• The Letter: A Message for our Earth, a 2022 film on YouTube Originals by Nicolas Brown, telling the story of Saint Francis and the encyclical 'Laudato Si'.

Music

• Franz Liszt:
  • Cantico del sol di Francesco d'Assisi, S.4 (sacred choral work, 1862, 1880–81; versions of the Prelude for piano, S. 498c, 499, 499a; version of the Prelude for organ, S. 665, 760; version of the Hosannah for organ and bass trombone, S.677)
  • St. François d'Assise: La Prédication aux oiseaux, No. 1 of Deux Légendes, S.175 (piano, 1862–63)
• Gabriel Pierné: Saint François d'Assise (oratorio, 1912)
• William Henry Draper: All Creatures of Our God and King (hymn paraphrase of Canticle of the Sun, published 1919)
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Fioretti (voice and orchestra, 1920)
• Gian Francesco Malipiero: San Francesco d'Assisi (soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1920–21)
• Hermann Suter: Le Laudi (The Praises) or Le Laudi di San Francesco d'Assisi, based on the Canticle of the Sun, (oratorio, 1923)
• Amy Beach: Canticle of the Sun (soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1928)
• Paul Hindemith: Nobilissima Visione (ballet 1938)
• Leo Sowerby: Canticle of the Sun (cantata for mixed voices with accompaniment for piano or orchestra, 1944)
• Francis Poulenc: Quatre petites prières de saint François d'Assise (men's chorus, 1948)
• Seth Bingham: The Canticle of the Sun (cantata for chorus of mixed voices with soli ad lib. and accompaniment for organ or orchestra, 1949)
• William Walton: Cantico del sol (chorus, 1973–74)
• Olivier Messiaen: St. François d'Assise (opera, 1975–83)
• Juliusz Łuciuk: Święty Franciszek z Asyżu (oratorio for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, 1976)
• Peter Janssens: Franz von Assisi, Musikspiel (Musical play, text: Wilhelm Wilms, 1978)
• Michele Paulicelli: Forza venite gente (musical theater, 1981)
• John Michael Talbot: Troubador of the Great King (1981), double-LP composed in honor of the 800th birthday of St. Francis of Assisi.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen: Luzifers Abschied (1982), scene 4 of the opera Samstag aus Licht
• Libby Larsen: I Will Sing and Raise a Psalm (SATB chorus and organ, 1995)
• Sofia Gubaidulina: Sonnengesang (solo cello, chamber choir and percussion, 1997)
• Steve Heitzeg: "Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace" from Blessed Are the Peacemakers (SATB chorus and orchestra, 1997)
• Juventude Franciscana: Balada de Francisco (voices accompanied by guitar, 1999)
• Angelo Branduardi: L'infinitamente piccolo (album, 2000)
• Lewis Nielson: St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (chamber concerto for violin, 2005)
• Peter Reulein (composer) / Helmut Schlegel (libretto): Laudato si' (oratorio, 2016)
• Daniel Dorff: Flowers of St. Francis (solo for Bass Clarinet, 2013)
• Mel Hornyak & Elliot Valentine Lee: Litany of the Martyrs, appears in Adamandi (musical number, 2022)

Selected biographical books

Hundreds of books have been written about him. The following suggestions are from Franciscan friar Conrad Harkins (1935–2020), director of the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University.

• Paul Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assisi (Scribner's, 1905).
• Johannes Jørgensen, St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography (translated by T. O'Conor Sloane; Longmans, 1912).
• Arnaldo Fortini, Francis of Assisi (translated by Helen Moak, Crossroad, 1981).
• Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis (Ο Φτωχούλης του Θεού, in Greek; 1954)
• John Moorman, St. Francis of Assisi (SPCK, 1963)
• John Moorman, "The Spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi" (Our Sunday Visitor, 1977).
• Erik Doyle, St. Francis and the Song of Brotherhood (Seabury, 1981).
• Raoul Manselli, St. Francis of Assisi (translated by Paul Duggan; Franciscan, 1988).

Other

• In Rubén Darío's poem "Los Motivos del Lobo" ("The Reasons of the Wolf") St. Francis tames a terrible wolf only to discover that the human heart harbours darker desires than those of the beast.
• In Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov invokes the name of "Pater Seraphicus", an epithet applied to St. Francis, to describe Alyosha's spiritual guide Zosima. The reference is found in Goethe's Faust, Part 2, Act 5, lines 11,918–25.
• In Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams' chapter on the "Mystics" discusses Francis extensively.
• Francesco's Friendly World was a 1996–97 direct-to-video Christian animated series produced by Lyrick Studios that was about Francesco and his talking animal friends as they rebuild the Church of San Damiano.
• Rich Mullins co-wrote Canticle of the Plains, a musical, with Mitch McVicker. Released in 1997, it was based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, but told as a Western story.
• G. K. Chesterton's book St. Francis of Assisi, a biographical and philosophical explanation of St. Francis

• Elizabeth Goudge, the Twentieth century Church of England author, wrote a biography, My God and my all; the life of St. Francis of Assisi (Coward-McCann, New York, 1959); also known as, Saint Francis of Assisi (Gerald Duckworth, London, 1963)

See also

• Feast of Saint Francis
• St. François d'Assise, an opera by Olivier Messiaen
• Blessing of animals
• Fraticelli
• List of places named after St. Francis
• Pardon of Assisi
• St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint archive
• Society of St. Francis
• St. Benedict's Cave, which contains a portrait of Francis made during his lifetime
• St. Juniper, one of Francis' original followers
• Wolf of Gubbio
• Trinitarian indwelling

Prayers

• Canticle of the Sun, a prayer by Francis
• Little Office of the Passion, composed by Francis
• Prayer of St. Francis, a prayer often misattributed to Francis

External links

• "St. Francis of Assisi", Encyclopædia Britannica online
• "St. Francis of Assisium, Confessor", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• The Franciscan Archive
• St. Francis of Assisi – Catholic Saints & Angels
• Here Followeth the Life of St. Francis from Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend
• Colonnade Statue in St. Peter's Square
• Founder Statue in St. Peter's Basilica
• "The Poor Man of Assisi". Invisible Monastery of charity and fraternity – Christian prayer group. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018.
• Works by or about Francis of Assisi at the Internet Archive
• Works by Francis of Assisi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Saint Francis of Assisi Exhibition at the National Gallery, London, 6 May – 30 July 2023. Review: Julian Bell, "Opulence and Humility", The New York Review of Books, 17 August 2023. Review: Mary Wellesley "St Francis of Assisi", London Review of Books, 27 July 2023.

Further reading

• Acocella, Joan (14 January 2013). "Rich Man, Poor Man: The Radical Visions of St. Francis". The New Yorker. Vol. 88, no. 43. pp. 72–77. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
• Bonaventure, Saint Cardinal (1910). Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi. J.M. Dent; New York: E.P. Dutton.
• Brady, Kathleen (2021). Francis and Clare: The Struggles of the Saints of Assisi. Lodwin Press, New York. ISBN 978-1737549826.
• The Little Flowers [Fioretti] of Saint Francis (Translated by Raphael Brown), Doubleday, 1998. ISBN 978-0-385-07544-2.
• Valerie Martin, Salvation: Scenes from the Life of St. Francis, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. ISBN 0-375-40983-1.
• Giovanni Morello and Laurence B. Kanter, eds., The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi, Electa, Milan, 1999. Catalog of exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 16 March – 27 June 1999.
• O'Reilly, Bernard (1897). "Sayings of Brother Giles, one of the First Disciples of St. Francis of Assisi.". Beautiful pearls of Catholic truth. Henry Sphar & Co.
• Paul Moses, The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace, New York: Doubleday, 2009.
• Donald Spoto, Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi, New York: Viking Compass, 2002. ISBN 0-670-03128-3.
• Augustine Thompson, O.P., Francis of Assisi: A New Biography, Cornell University Press, 2012.ISBN 978-0-80145070-9.
• André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint, Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-30017894-4.

Bibliography

General references

• Brady, Ignatius Charles; Cunningham, Lawrence (29 September 2020). "St. Francis of Assisi". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
• Brooke, Rosalind B. (2006). The Image of St Francis: Responses to Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: University Press.
• Delio, Ilia (20 March 2013). "Francis of Assisi, nature's mystic". The Washington Post.
• Scripta Leonis, Rufini et Angeli Sociorum S. Francisci: The Writings of Leo, Rufino and Angelo Companions of St. Francis, original manuscript, 1246, compiled by Brother Leo and other companions (1970, 1990, reprinted with corrections), Oxford: Oxford University Press, edited by Rosalind B. Brooke, in Latin and English, ISBN 0-19-822214-9, containing testimony recorded by intimate, longtime companions of St. Francis.
• Francis of Assisi, The Little Flowers (Fioretti), London, 2012. limovia.net ISBN 978-1-78336-013-0.
• Bonaventure; Cardinal Manning (1867). The Life of St. Francis of Assisi (from the Legenda Sancti Francisci) (1988 ed.). Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books & Publishers ISBN 978-0-89555-343-0.
• Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1924). St. Francis of Assisi (14th ed.). Garden City, New York: Image Books.
• Englebert, Omer (1951). The Lives of the Saints. New York: Barnes & Noble.
• Karrer, Otto, ed., St. Francis, The Little Flowers, Legends and Lauds, trans. N. Wydenbruck (London: Sheed and Ward, 1979).
• Tolan, John V. (2009). Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923972-6.