Francis Of Assisi, a saint of the Roman Catholic church, and founder of the order of Franciscans, born in Assisi in 1182, died near that city, Oct. 4, 1226. His father was Pietro Bernardone, a wealthy merchant, and his mother Pica Moriconi. Bernardone was travelling in France when the child was born, and the mother had him baptized under the name of Giovanni. On his return the father added the surname of Francesco, in remembrance of the country where he had made his fortune; and as the boy while growing up spoke French with ease, he was exclusively known as Francesco. He led a gay life until he was captured in a civil conflict of Assisi with Perugia, and kept for a year prisoner in the city of his enemies. During his detention he formed the design of renouncing the world; and fancying that he heard one day while praying in a church a voice from the crucifix, bidding him repair the falling walls of Christ's house, he gave the proceeds of some goods he had sold to the priest of the church, offering himself as an assistant. This act brought upon him the displeasure of his father, who threatened if he persisted to deprive him of his inheritance. But neither this threat nor the popular ridicule which saluted his seeming insanity could turn him from his purpose.

He formally renounced his right of heirship, emptied his pockets, and even stripped himself of his clothing, putting on the cloak of a laborer. He was then (1206) 24 years old. From this time he gave himself exclusively to works of piety and charity. He begged in the streets for money to repair the church, and assisted the masons by carrying the stones with his own hands. He frequented the hospitals, washing the feet and kissing the ulcers of the lepers. Sometimes he was stripped of his coarse raiment by robbers, and sometimes he gave it to the poor whom he met by the way. His exceeding humility in dress and demeanor began after a time to win sympathy for him. Prominent men desired to imitate him, and to become his companions. The rich merchant Bernardo de Quintavalle, in whose house Francis had been a guest, sold all his estate, distributed it to the poor, and came to pray with his friend. To him was soon joined a canon of the cathedral, Pietro di Catana. These brethren received the dress of Francis, a coarse robe of serge girded with a cord, Aug. 16, 1209, from which day the foundation of the Franciscan order properly dates.

At the beginning Francis and his companions occupied a little cottage just outside the walls of the city; but as their number increased they removed to the premises of the Portiuncula, which had been offered them by the Benedictines, refusing, however, to accept this as a gift. He slept upon the ground, with a block of wood or stone for his pillow, ate his scanty food cold, with ashes strewed upon it, sewed his garments with packthread to make them coarser, rolled himself in snow to extinguish the fires of sensual desire, obeyed the orders of his novices, fasted long and rigorously, and shed tears so freely that he became nearly blind. He preached wherever he could find hearers, yet he would never take priest's orders, and contented himself with the humble place of a deacon. He abhorred disputes and controversies, held up the spirit of peace as the only Christian spirit, and, amid the fierce and bloody contentions which desolated Italy in the 13th century, made his followers act everywhere as peacemakers. He was a zealous missionary, and made long journeys in behalf of the Catholic faith. His cherished design was to lay down his life in the Holy Land in behalf of Christ's religion. His first attempt to reach Syria proved ineffectual; contrary winds hindered his vessel.

But the plan was not relinquished, and after a brief sojourn in Acre, he joined the camp of the crusaders at Damietta in 1219.

He arrived only to witness the failure of the Christian army, but he was gratified in his desire for an interview with the Saracen chief, and was permitted to testify in presence of the infidels concerning Christ and the Christian faith. On the occasion of the formal approbation of his order in 1223, he preached a sermon before the sacred college, which seems to have been the last of his important public performances. His failing health and growing blindness confined him more and more to that favorite seclusion of the hill of Alverno, on which a nobleman had built a church and convent for the Franciscan brethren. In this solitude he gave himself more ardently to prayer and religious exercises. His enthusiasm became rapture. His visions were multiplied. The Saviour and the saints seemed to appear, and the legend tells of the stigmata, the print of nails in the hands and feet, and of a wound in the side, corresponding to similar marks on the person of the Saviour, which Francis brought away with him from one of these interviews. It was even affirmed that blood continued to flow from his wounds; and portions of this blood were long after. exhibited for the reverence of the faithful.

He was canonized July 16, 1228.-The literary remains of St. Francis are neither numerous nor especially remarkable. They consist of letters, monastic conferences, parables, and poems in the Italian tongue. The best edition is that of 1641 (folio, Paris). The life of the saint has been many times written by brethren of the various branches into which his order has been divided; by Thomas de Celano, his disciple; by St. Bo-naventura; by Helyot; by Chalippe (4to, 1728, and 2 vols. 12mo, 1736); by Chavin (8vo, Paris, 1841); by Bohringer; and by Frederic Morin (16mo, Paris, 1853).