SAINT FRANCIS, History

Assisi owes its fame to the well-known Saint Francis who was born here in 1182.

The son of a prosperous fabric merchant, Pietro di Bernardone, and a noblewoman named Giovanna, in his youth he took part in the wars with the nearby cities, and was captured and imprisoned for a year. During his imprisonment, he reconsidered his comfortable life, opening his heart to profound compassion for the poor, the lepers and the disadvantaged. Once freed, he laid down his weapons, left his family, dramatically renounced his wealth and embarked on a life of penance and solitude in complete poverty. He began preaching the Gospel, and his first disciples, enthralled by his words, began to follow him. He later went to Rome and obtained approval from the Pope to found a new religious order.

He traveled in the East to talk with Muslim peoples, and walked the streets and squares preaching and attracting increasingly large crowds of disciples, whom he called “brethren”, or “brothers”, as no one had done before him....