FRANCIS OF ASSISI, Saint, Italian founder of religious order: b. Assisi, Umbria, Italy, 1182; d. Assisi, 4 Oct. 1226. Saint Francis of Assisi is the founder of the Friars Minor who are usually styled Francis cans (q.v.). His family name was Bernardone. At baptism he was called John. Whether it was because his father, who was a merchant, was at the Arne largely engaged in French trade, or because of the saint's own familiarity with the French language, the name Francis eventually superseded that of John. As a youth he was remarkable for his piety and the spotless purity of his life, but is re proached with a worldly vanity in dress which his wealth enabled him to indulge in. A change of heart came over him in consequence of a year's confinement as a prisoner of war; a se rious illness helping the transformation. He began to dispose of his property for the pur pose of repairing dilapidated churches. Irri tated by his extravagance his father treated him with the greatest cruelty; the trouble ending by the saints abandonment of everything, even his worldly apparel, and he assumed the dress of a common laborer. His zeal for Church restoration grew in intensity, and being no longer able to devote his own patrimony to the work he obtained the necessary means by beg ging; he himself laboring at the buildings with his own hands. His affection was lavished also on the poor and especially upon lepers. He lived in the extremest poverty, practised the greatest austerities and for a time was looked upon as a madman. Distinguished and learned men, however, began to associate with him and follow his way of life. Though not a priest (and he never became one) he began to preach everywhere on the necessity of penance. As those were the days in which Barbarossa was raging against the Church, both religion and morality needed reformation and the preacher was, eagerly listened to by all classes. When the number of his followers increased, the de sire to institute a new religious order developed, and for that purpose he betook himself to Rome, but Innocent III, then sovereign pontiff, treated the proposal with indignation. Francis persevered, and the request was granted. The new community, known first as the Preachers of Penance, increased with astonishing rapidity, and at the first general chapter more than 5,0W friars assembled • some from the humble classes of life, others already famous in Church and State. The foundation of the order coincided with the great Lateran Council, the spirit of which was against the formation of any new religious order. In spite of this, however, there
seemed to be a tacit consent to allow the new movement to proceed. It was when Pope Honorius finally gave the necessary authoriza tion that Francis met the Spanish canon Domi nic, who was in Rome to found his own Order of Preachers, commonly known as Dominicans (q.v.). The two saints met in church and in stinctively recognized each other, becoming immediately most devoted friends. The visions and miracles reported of Francis are bewilder ing in their number and character. In the hope of martyrdom he made several attempts to preach the gospel to the Mohammedans. His prayer and austerities were continued, his ec stasies frequent, and while on Mount Alverno he received on his person what are known as the stigmata, namely, bleeding wounds on the hands, feet and side, corresponding to the marks on the crucified body of the Saviour. Wherever he went he was honored as a saint ; and his preaching was irresistible in its and stirring appeals to repentance of life he laid down for his followers on the strictest poverty, that is, nu and dependence on the alms of the :I., This extreme rigor almost immediately dissension in the order. Parties we ts-1 and the Friar General Elias, who t appointed by Francis, was its bittem, nent, going so far as to leave the ccti to side with Barbarossa, who was thc t warfare with the Church. Nevertheett friars continued to increase in nuirterz spread everywhere, preaching the gier carrying the faith into distant countnt sides his order for men, he established z•.-1 for women, commonly known as Clares, so called from Saint Clare, the perior. There is still another section Third Order of Saint Francis, for en t women living in the world, who follow gated and adapted form of the rule _1 friars. All three have given a vast c=et saints and scholars to the Church died at the age of 45, 19years after lishment of his order. The extreme 41 simplicity and amiability, and per* poetry, of the saint's character, but is his love of created nature, have had in our own days of developing a sing:11 for him on the part of many outside b olic Church. The movement was st.-• Paul Sabatier, a French Calvinist minis Franciscan societies for the study of of the saint and of everything conne:tr: him have been established in several ct.t_H of Europe.
Bibliography.— Segur, 'Popular Saint Francis' Francis' ; Saint Bonaventure, Saint Francis' ; Thomas de Celan°, Saint Francis' ; 'Franciscan Annals.'