12 Things You May Not Know About St. Francis of Assisi but Should

On October 4th, 2026 it is the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, who is regarded as one of the greatest saints in Catholic Church history. Here are 12 things you may not know about this amazing man, who many say is the saint most like Christ.

1. In 1202, 21-year-old Francis decides to fight for his beloved Assisi against Perugia in the Battle of Collestrada. Assisi lost the battle and Francis is captured. He spends a year in prison until he is ransomed by his father. While in prison he contracts malaria, and even after a year of recuperation still never completely recovers.

2. While recuperating from malaria, Francis had a powerful dream in which he heard a voice tell him to “Follow the Master, not the man.” One day, he was led by the Spirit to pray in the tiny church of San Damiano in Assisi, almost in ruins and abandoned by everyone. He prostrates himself, supplicating and devout before an icon of Christ crucified and, touched in an extraordinary way by divine grace, finds himself totally changed. While he is so deeply moved, suddenly the image of Christ speaks to him, moving his lips. “Francis”, He says to him, “go, repair my house, which, as you see, is all in ruins.” His life is changed, he starts to repair churches, and then help the poor and sick, and others abandoned their lives to join him.

3. Francis cared for lepers. At first repulsed by these outcasts, he and his early followers lived in Rivotorto, tending to these desperately sick people as if they were Christ, saying, “When I left them, what seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body.”

4. In 1217, Francis and his companions made the difficult journey for three to six months to the Holy Land and Egypt. Once there the Order of Friars Minor set up the Province of the Holy Land. The Franciscans have been the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church since 1342.

5. While in the Holy Land, Francis hoped to convert the Sultan of Egypt even in the face of martyrdom. He and his companions snuck into Muslim territory, and were brought

before the Sultan and preached to him. We don’t know what happened, but after a few days they were released unharmed. Francis often brought about open dialogue among leaders. This attributed to his nickname of being the “saint of peace.” This led to the town of Assisi being named the “città della pace”, the “City of Peace.” Assisi often hosted inter-faith gatherings promoting reconciliation and brotherhood.

6. Francis not only loved animals but really did preach to the birds, in the town of Bevagna, Italy in 1221. He stopped when he saw a huge flock of birds and decided to preach to them, reminding them to always sing the praises of God, and according to several sources, they seemed to listen to him, spreading their wings, and bending their heads reverently toward the earth.

7. He saved a town from a vicious wolf. In 1220, the town of Gubbio was terrorized by a huge wolf. Francis spoke to the wolf and made the sign of the cross over him. The wolf became peaceful and laid at his feet. Francis urged the wolf that, if he stopped harming the people, they would feed and care for him. The townspeople did care for him, and when the wolf died, they built St. Francis of the Peace church, and laid the wolf’s remains in the church.

8. In 1223, Francis created the first Nativity Scene in the world, in the northern Lazio town of Greccio. Inspired by his visit to the Holy Land, he was moved to help Christians understand the Incarnation more deeply, so he decided to involve the locals in a reenactment of the birth of Christ.

9. St. Francis was given the Stigmata, or wounds of Christ, in 1224, in the Sanctuary of La Verna, two years before he died. He concealed the wounds, but when one of his companions noticed and asked him about it, he replied, “Mind your own business.” Once he died and his followers saw his body with the Stigmata, Brother Thomas said their “grief was converted into singing and weeping into jubilation…for never had they heard or read in Scriptures of a thing which was now displayed before their eyes.”

10. There are only two handwritten letters of St. Francis that still exist. They were letters of encouragement and blessing to one of his followers, Brother Leo. One letter resides in

the Chapel of the Relics in Spoleto’s Cathedral, and the other in the Cathedral of St. Francis in Assisi.

11. Francis died in 1226. His body was buried in Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, but the tomb was hidden for six hundred years, possibly to protect it from Saracen invaders. It wasn’t found until the early 1800’s!

12. In early 2026, almost 400,000 people traveled to the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi for public veneration of his relics. This was the first time in history that Francis’ bones were laid out and visible on display in a plexiglass box as such.

St. Francis of Assisi, PRAY FOR US! NOTE: Portions of this article are excerpts taken from Teresa Tomeo’s Italy’s Shrines and Wonders: Discovering Sacred Spaces and Fascinating Places in the Life of St. Francis of Assisi published by EWTN Publishing.