Francis of Assisi, St, Giovanni Francesco Bernardone

Francis of Assisi, St, Giovanni Francesco Bernardone (1181/2–1226), experienced as a young man two serious illnesses and a spiritual crisis on a military expedition, in consequence of which he lived for a time in solitude and prayer and devoted himself to the relief of the poor, the sick, and the lepers. He was joined by disciples, the first members of the Franciscan order for which he drew up the rule in 1209, the principal characteristic of which was humility, in token of which they called themselves ‘Frati Minori’. The special notes of his teaching were poverty and love of nature (St Francis preaching to the birds is a favourite painter's subject). Two years before his death, after a period of fasting on Mount Alverno, he is said to have discovered on his body the stigmata, the marks made by the nails of Christ's Crucifixion. The Fioretti de San Francisco (Little Flowers of St Francis) is a 14th-cent. Italian narrative, partly legendary, of the doings of St Francis and his first disciples. His own Italian poem Cantico di Frate Sole (Canticle of Brother Sun) is a song or psalm in praise of God and his creations.