Francis of Assisi — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He gave up everything to live as a beggar, founded an order that still wears his brown rope-knotted habit, and claimed the wounds of Christ appeared on his own body in 1224. The mystic who tried to convert a sultan and staged the first live nativity is now the patron saint of Italy and animals alike.

Biography

About

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone was born around 1181 in Italy and turned his back on comfort to become an itinerant preacher living in total poverty. He founded the Franciscans, a religious order built on that same radical simplicity. In 1219 he walked into Egypt during the Fifth Crusade, trying to convert Sultan Al-Kamil and stop the war. Four years later he arranged the first live nativity scene in Greccio, reshaping how Christmas would be celebrated. In 1224, during a religious ecstasy, he reported stigmata—wounds matching Christ's crucifixion—appearing on his hands and feet. He died on 3…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi

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Let every man abide in the art or employment wherein he was called. And for their labor they may receive all necessary things, except money. ...

— First Rule of the Friars Minor

Francis of Assisi

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Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation.

— The Counsels of the Holy Father St. Francis, Admonition 27.

Francis of Assisi

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When the spirit is lukewarm, and gradually growing cold as it moves from grace, flesh and blood inevitably seek their own interests.

— Thomas of Celano, The Life of Saint Francis, Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume 2, p. 293.

Francis of Assisi

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We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh, but, instead, we must be simple, humble and pure.

— “Later Admonition and Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance,” Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume 1, p. 48.

Francis of Assisi

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Hail, queen wisdom! May the Lord save thee with thy sister holy pure simplicity! O Lady, holy poverty, may the Lord save thee with thy sister holy humility!

— Quoted in Second Life (c. 1247) by Thomas of Celano as translated by Paschal Robinson in The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi (1905)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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