Founding of the Franciscan Order

The event

Francis of Assisi, a wealthy merchant's son who had renounced his inheritance around 1206 following a series of religious experiences, gathered a small band of followers committed to a life of radical poverty, manual labor, and itinerant preaching centered on literal imitation of the life of Christ and the apostles.

In 1209, Francis traveled to Rome with a simple, brief rule of life for his growing group of followers and secured verbal approval from Pope Innocent III — a decision later tradition frames as involving some initial papal hesitation, softened by a reported dream in which Innocent saw Francis holding up the collapsing Lateran basilica, symbolizing the movement's role in renewing the church.

The resulting Order of Friars Minor ("lesser brothers"), commonly known as Franciscans, represented a significant departure from earlier monastic models: rather than withdrawing into fixed, self-sufficient monastic communities, Franciscan friars were mendicants, owning no property individually or communally and depending on begging, living and preaching directly among the urban and rural poor across medieval Europe.

The order grew with extraordinary speed during Francis's own lifetime and after his death in 1226, eventually splitting into different branches over disputes about how strictly to interpret Francis's original ideal of poverty, but its core emphasis on active engagement with ordinary people, care for the poor, and (in Francis's own writing, particularly the Canticle of the Sun) a distinctive spirituality of creation left a lasting mark on medieval and later Catholic spirituality, education, and missionary activity.

Other witnesses

• Francis of Assisi, Rule of 1223 (Regula Bullata, the later approved rule)
• Thomas of Celano, First Life of St. Francis

Further reading

• Christian History Magazine 42: Francis of Assisi — free full issue
• Catholic Encyclopedia (1913): The Franciscan Order