Pietro di bernardone biography graphic organizer

ABOUT SAINT FRANCIS

Given the seemingly impossible task of condensing more than eight hundred years of Franciscan history and the impact of Saint Francis of Assisi’s life on our world into several paragraphs for this website, suffice it to say that to this day Saint Francis remains one of the world’s best-loved saints and most-venerated religious figures in Christianity.

As his birth name denotes, Francis was born circa 1181/2 in the mountain town of Assisi, Italy.

The son of an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, and a French mother, Pica de Bourlemont, the child was christened Giovanni (John) di Pietro di Bernardone by his mother, but quickly renamed Francesco (Francis) by his father.

A dreamer, fun-loving, but also religious boy, Francis was raised in an aristocratic home of wealth and luxury. Following several illnesses, Francis received several visions from God at about the age of nineteen, resulting in a dramatic, life-changing encounter wit