Francis of Assisi, Saint (1182–1226) Italian founder of the Franciscans, b. Giovanni di Bernardone. The son of a wealthy merchant in Assisi, Francis renounced his worldly life for one of poverty and prayer in 1205. In 1209, he received permission from Pope Innocent III to begin a monastic order. The Franciscans were vowed to humility, poverty and devotion to the task of helping people. In 1212, with St Clare, he established an order for women, popularly called the Poor Clares. In 1224, while Francis prayed on Monte della Verna, near Florence, the stigmata wounds of the Crucifixion appeared on his body. He was canonized in 1228. His feast day is October 4.
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