There is perhaps no single theme which embodies – at least in one word – the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  But Francis was not born to a simple way of life, rather he was born into a world emerging from the feudal period of European history in a time when the merchant class was rising in power in the new era of trade and the novel notion of money.

What was it that made Giovanni Bernardone, son of wealthy cloth merchant Pietro, eventually become the one known to history as Francis of Assisi? It is a story of a movement from the trends and standards of the society around him to one in which he began to refound his life upon the Gospel – to take the values of the Word of God as the guide to life – his entire life and then be converted. Continue reading →