Francis lived from 1181-1226.

Francis was the founder of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1209.

He was the son of a rich cloth merchant of Assisi, and helped his father until he was twenty. He was a prisoner during a border dispute, and afterwards devoted himself to prayer and service to the poor. During a visit to Rome, he was moved with compassion for the beggars in front of St.Peter's basilica and exchanged his robes with one of them, begging for alms the rest of the day.

On his return to Assisi, after being disowned by his father, he devoted himself to ministering to lepers. In 1208, while worshipping in the church of the Portliuncula, two miles from Assisi, he heard Jesus' words read, bidding his disciples to leave all and follow him, and at once understood them as apersonal call. His discarded his clothes, put on a long dark garment,with a cord around his waist, and set out to minister to the poor.

Before long, he had gathered a little band of followers. He drew up the first simple rule for the order in 1209. In 1212, his ideals were accepted by Clare, a noble lady of Assisi, who founded a similar society for women.

By 1221 Francis had lost control of the order, since his ideal of strict and absolute poverty, not only for the friars, but for the order as a whole, was impossible to maintain. His last years were spent in great suffering, but his joy never ceased. Not long before his death, he received, on September 14, Holy Cross Day, the marks of the stigmata, wounds in the same place as Jesus's wounds on the cross. He was canonized in 1228, and is buried in the basilica in Assisi.

His Feast Day is October 4.