Francesco di Pietro Bernardone d’Assisi is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, a religious reformer, the founder of three different religious orders within the “Franciscan Family” (the Franciscan Order, the Order of Poor Clares, and the Third Order of Francis), the Patron Saint of Europe, the Patron Saint of Ecology, and the author of the first poem in the Italian vernacular.
The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis was born and raised in Assisi, a town in the central Italian region of Umbria, at the time a very prominent center for commerce and business. A typical member of the rising Assisian middle-class, he is believed to have led a care-free life of enjoyment and luxury until his early twenties. Participation in the war against Perugia and a serious illness stimulated the
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Citation: Vettori, Alessandro. "Saint Francis of Assisi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1612, accessed 21 November 2024.]
