Saint Francis Born: Patron of Poverty and Nature

Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone around 1181 in the Umbrian town of Assisi, the son of a prosperous silk merchant. His father nicknamed him Francesco, "the Frenchman," after the country where he conducted much of his trade. The young Francis lived extravagantly, spending his father's money on feasts and fine clothing, and fought as a soldier in a skirmish between Assisi and Perugia that ended with his capture and a year in prison. The imprisonment and a subsequent illness triggered a spiritual crisis that led him to renounce his inheritance publicly, reportedly stripping naked in the town square and returning his clothes to his father before the bishop of Assisi. He began living among lepers and beggars, repairing abandoned churches with his own hands, and preaching a radical return to the poverty described in the Gospels. By 1209, a small group of followers had gathered around him, and Pope Innocent III granted provisional approval for what would become the Franciscan Order. The order grew with extraordinary speed, attracting thousands of members across Europe within Francis's lifetime and becoming one of the largest religious movements in Christian history. Francis's theology emphasized direct experience of God through creation, humility, and service to the poor rather than through scholastic argument. His Canticle of the Sun, composed near the end of his life, is considered the first great work of Italian literature. He was canonized in 1228, just two years after his death, and remains the patron saint of animals and the environment.