Their story
Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone, nicknamed Francesco, was born in Assisi around 1181 to a rich cloth merchant. He spent his youth on parties and dreamed of knighthood. He was captured in a war with Perugia and spent about a year as a prisoner, then fell seriously ill. Afterward the old life no longer satisfied him. He met a leper on the road and, against his own disgust, kissed him.
Praying in the crumbling chapel of San Damiano around 1205, he heard the crucifix say: “Francis, go, rebuild my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” He took it literally, sold his father's cloth to pay for repairs, and was dragged before the bishop by his furious father. In front of the town he stripped off his clothes, handed them back, and said that from now on he would say only “Our Father who art in heaven.” Followers gathered; Pope Innocent III approved their simple rule in 1209 or 1210.
He went to Egypt during the Fifth Crusade (1217–1221, a failed Christian campaign against Egypt) in 1219 and met Sultan al-Kamil peacefully. He set up a living Nativity scene at Greccio in 1223. In 1224 on Mount La Verna he received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ. Nearly blind and ill, he composed the Canticle of the Creatures, praising God for Brother Sun and Sister Moon. He died on October 3, 1226, and was canonized (officially declared a saint by the pope) two years later. People follow him because he took the Gospel at its word and found joy, not loss, in having nothing.
