Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi, was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianity. It was Francis who arranged for the first Christmas live nativity scene in 1223.

Saint Francis of Assisi is widely revered as the 'Second Christ' by Christians since he followed on the footsteps of the saviour, living a life exactly to His liking.

Francis was born in late 1181 to an Italian father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a prosperous silk merchant, and a French mother, Pica de Bourlemont. Pietro was in France when Francis was born in Assisi and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni. Upon his return to Assisi, Pietro took to calling his son Francesco, meaning "Free man" or "Frenchman".

Indulged by his parents, Francis lived a life typical of a wealthy young man. He was handsome, witty, gallant, and delighted in fine clothes.

In 1202, he joined a military expedition against Perugia and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, spending a year as a captive. An illness caused him to return to Assisi in 1203 and Francis continued his carefree life. In 1205, he left for Apulia to enlist in the army of Walter III, Count of Brienne. However, a strange vision made him return to Assisi. To everyone’s surprise, Francis lost interest in the worldly life and thereafter he began to avoid the sports and feasts of his former companions.

One day while riding through the countryside, Francis came face to face with a leper. Repelled by the appearance and the smell of the leper, Francis nevertheless jumped down from his horse and kissed the hand of the leper. As he rode off, he turned around for a last wave, and saw that the leper had disappeared. He always looked upon it as a test from God that he had passed.

Francis had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the forsaken country chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified said to him, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." He took this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so he sold some cloth from his father's store to assist the priest there. When the priest refused to accept the ill-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the floor.

When he returned to his hometown, hungry and dirty, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a small storeroom. One day, during Bernardone's absence, his mother freed him, and Francis returned to San Damiano. But he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter sought to force his son to forego his inheritance by way of restitution. In the midst of legal proceedings before the Bishop of Assisi, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony. He stripped himself naked in token of this renunciation, and the bishop covered him with his own cloak.

For the next couple of months, Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi. Then he went to Gubbio, where a friend gave him, as alms, the cloak, girdle, and staff of a pilgrim. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city begging stones for the restoration of St. Damiano's. Over the course of two years, he embraced the life of a penitent, during which he restored several ruined chapels in the countryside around Assisi, among them were San Pietro in Spina, the Porziuncola and the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels.

Francis was devoted to a life of poverty, and he went about exhorting the people of the countryside to penance, brotherly love, and peace. His example attracted others and within a year Francis had eleven followers. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi.

In 1209 he composed a simple rule for his followers, the "Primitive Rule", which came from verses in the Bible. The rule was "to follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps." He then led eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. Following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica, the Pope decided to endorse Francis's order. Francis was later ordained a deacon, but not a priest.

Francis had established the Order of Poor Clares for women in 1212.

For those who could not leave their homes, Francis formed the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance, a fraternity composed of either laity or clergy whose members neither withdrew from the world nor took religious vows.

In 1219, Francis went to Egypt during the Fifth Crusade where a Crusader army had been encamped for over a year besieging the walled city of Damietta. The Sultan received Francis graciously. He preached to the Muslims and returned unharmed. Drawing on a 1267 sermon by Bonaventure, it is reported that the Sultan secretly converted or accepted a death-bed baptism as a result of meeting Francis.

Francis loved the nature and believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his "brothers" and "sisters", and even preached to the birds and supposedly persuaded a wolf in Gubbio to stop attacking some locals if they agreed to feed it. In the “Canticle of the Sun” he gives thanks to God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, all of which he sees as rendering praise to God.

While he was praying on the mountain of Verna, during a forty-day fast in preparation for Michaelmas, Francis is said to have had a vision of a Seraphic Angel on 13 September 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. He was then brought back to a hut next to the Porziuncola. Here he spent his last days dictating his spiritual testament.

Francis died on the evening of Saturday, 3 October 1226, singing Psalm 141, "Voce mea ad Dominum". He was declared a saint by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228.

On 13 March 2013, upon his election as Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Francis of Assisi, becoming Pope Francis.

Outside of Christianity, other individuals and movements are influenced by the example and teachings of Francis. These include the popular philosopher Eckhart Tolle, who has made videos on the spirituality of Francis. Several Protestant groups have emerged since the 19th century that strive to adhere to the teachings of St. Francis.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Ammon
2. Saint Aurea
3. Saint Domnina
4. Saint Mark
5. Saint Peter of Damascus