St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1182 at Assisi in Umbria to Piero Bernardone, a wealthy cloth merchant and Pica who it is thought originally came from the South of France. Baptised John, his father re-named him Francis as a token of his love of France. As a young man he is described as wordly, proud and vain although kind and affable and willing to give to the poor.

In the 12th and 13th centuries Italy consisted of several small states which frequently waged war upon each other. In 1201 Francis was involved in an attack upon Perugia, a town nearby. He was taken hostage and held in prison for months. In 1205 he was due to take part in an attack on Apulia when he had a dream in which God asked him who could do more, the servant or the master. Francis interpreted this as meaning that he had been serving the servant and not the master and abandoning dreams of becoming a knight returned to Assisi to care for the sick.

In 1206 whilst praying in a dilapidated church the cross spoke to him, asking that he repair the church so Francis took some of his father's cloth and sold it giving the money to the priest to repair the church. His father imprisoned him in a cellar and eventually took him before the bishop. Francis renounced his father so that he may belong only to God. He abandoned his fine clothes, his possessions, his rights and the privileged life he had been living in order to help the sick and the lepers, and the derelicts and outcasts from society. He took on the clothing of a poor farmhand, the tunic which to this day is the trademark dress of the religious order he founded - the Franciscans.

From 1210 until 1221 Francis sent his followers into the world to preach to the poor and the humble. He retired from governing the Franciscan Order and took to a life of prayer, contemplation and fasting receiving the Stigmata (the wounds of Christ) in 1224. Francis died on 3rd October 1226 and was canonised in1228. The feast day of St. Francis is 4th October.

For a much more detailed biography of S. Francis go to
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm