<previous St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology and founder of the Franciscan Order of Friars was born in 1181 in a wealthy merchant family under the name of Francesco Giovanni Bernardone. After living the life of a soldier as a young man fighting either the German emperor or the Pope, he suddenly gave away all his possessions to become a wandering friar. His reverence for nature is expressed in his "Canticle to the Sun" written in 1225, shortly before his death. His followers chose to live in poverty, abstinence from meat and service to the poor.

St Francis was in conflict with the church over the rule of his Order which is more a legal document and does not reflect St Francis's theology. The Pope Honorius III tried to use the St Francis movement as a milicia for his spiritual and temporal interests: fighting the German emperor. After St Francis death in 1226, the order diverged in two groups: the Spirituals and the Conventuals. The first group saw its leaders being burnt at the stake by Pope John XXIII. The second group sought compromise with the established Church. The extinction of the Franciscan order was saved by a new mission: converting the New World's native population.
next>

Read the excellent analysis of the life of St Francis by a French scholar: Saint Francois d'Assise, Le Goff, Gallimard, 1999.

return to References - back