Saint Francis of Assisi

Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, the son of Pietro Bernardone, a prosperous cloth merchant who travelled often to France buying and selling fine fabrics. The family had money, and Francis grew up knowing it — fine clothes, a generous allowance, and the easy confidence of a young man who never had to want for anything.

He was charming, funny, and a natural leader among Assisi's young nobility, the kind of person others fell in step behind without quite knowing why. He spent his nights at parties and his days dreaming of chivalry, hoping to win glory as a knight the way troubadours sang about in their songs.

Nothing about those years hinted at what was coming. If anything, Francis seemed like the last person destined for a life of poverty and prayer — he loved comfort, loved being liked, and loved the idea of becoming someone important in the eyes of the world.