Editing Francis of Assisi (section)

===Early life===
Francis of Assisi was born {{Circa|1181}},<ref>{{Cite web |title=St. Francis of Assisi |url=https://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=4829 |access-date=22 Sep 2023 |website=Catholic Online}}</ref><ref name="dukemag2">{{Cite journal |last=Dagger |first=Jacob |date=November–December 2006 |title=Blessing All Creatures, Great and Small |url=https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/blessing-all-creatures-great-and-small |journal=Duke Magazine |access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref> one of the children of an [[Italians|Italian]] father, Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a prosperous silk merchant, and a French mother, Pica di Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was a noblewoman originally from [[Provence]].<ref name="Lives">{{Cite book |last=Englebert |first=Omer |url=https://archive.org/details/livesofsaintshis00omer/page/529 |title=The Lives of the Saints |date=1951 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn=978-1-56619-516-4 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/livesofsaintshis00omer/page/529 529] |orig-date=1951}}</ref>

Indulged by his parents, Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man.<ref name="ODCC Francis">{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0199566712 |editor-last=Cross |editor-first=F. L. |location=New York |chapter=Francis of Assisi}}</ref> As a youth, Francis became a devotee of [[troubadours]] and was fascinated with all things [[Transalpine]].<ref name="Chesterton" /> He was handsome, witty, gallant and delighted in fine clothes.<ref name="cefa" /> He spent money lavishly.<ref name="cefa" /> Although many [[Hagiography|hagiographers]] remark about his bright clothing, rich friends and love of pleasures,<ref name="Lives" /> his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar". In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for [[alms]]. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his purse. His friends mocked him for his charity; his father scolded him in rage.<ref name="chest41">Chesterton (1924), pp.&nbsp;40–41</ref>

Around 1202, he joined a military expedition against [[Perugia]] and was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada. He spent a year as a captive,<ref name="Bonaventure">{{Cite book |last1=St. Bonaventure |author-link1=Bonaventure |title=The Life of St. Francis of Assisi (from the Legenda Sancti Francisci) |last2=Cardinal Manning |date=1988 |author-link2=Henry Edward Manning |publisher=TAN Books & Publishers |isbn=978-0-89555-343-0 |edition=1988 |location=[[Rockford, Illinois]] |page=190 |orig-date=1867}}</ref> during which an illness caused him to re-evaluate his life. However, upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life. In 1205, Francis left for [[Apulia]] to enlist in the army of [[Walter III, Count of Brienne]]. A strange vision made him return to Assisi and lose interest in worldly life.<ref name="ODCC Francis" /> According to [[Hagiography|hagiographic]] accounts, thereafter he began to avoid the sports and feasts of his former companions. A friend asked him whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered: "Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen", meaning his "Lady Poverty".<ref name="cefa" />

On a [[pilgrimage]] to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's Basilica]].<ref name="ODCC Francis" /> He spent some time in lonely places, asking God for [[divine illumination]]. He said he had a mystical [[visions of Jesus and Mary|vision of Jesus Christ]] in the forsaken country chapel of [[San Damiano, Assisi|San Damiano]], just outside Assisi, in which the [[San Damiano cross|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, so he sold some cloth taken from his father's store to assist the priest there.<ref name="chest54">Chesterton (1924), pp.&nbsp;54–56</ref><ref>According to the Franciscan Order, Francis of Assisi personally experienced the [[Itala Mela#The Trinitarian indwelling|Trinitarian indwelling]] for more times during his earthly life. See {{Cite book |last=Fr. Guglielmo Spirito, OFM Conv |title=Terra che diventa cielo - L'inabitazione trinitaria in san Francesco |year=2009 |isbn=978-8870947397 |editor-last=Edizioni Studio Domenicano |series=Le frecce |pages=312 |language=it,es |oclc=799697579 |issue=17}} (EAN 9788870947397). Also available in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]: A. Spirito (franciscano conventual), Guglielmo (1 de enero de 1994). ''El cielo en la tierra. La inhabitación trinitaria en s. Francisco a la luz de su tiempo y de sus escritos.'' Varia (2). Miscellanea Francescana. p. 312.</ref> When the priest refused to accept the ill-gotten gains, an indignant Francis threw the coins on the floor.<ref name="cefa" />

In order to avoid his father's wrath, Francis hid in a cave near San Damiano for about a month. When he returned to town, hungry and dirty, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound and locked in a small storeroom. Freed by his mother during Bernardone's absence, Francis returned at once to San Damiano, where he found shelter with the officiating priest, but he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from San Damiano, sought also 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 [[Property|patrimony]].<ref name="cefa" /> Some accounts report that he stripped himself naked in token of this renunciation and the bishop covered him with his own cloak.<ref>{{Cite web |last=de la Riva |first=Fr. John |date=2011 |title=Life of St. Francis |url=http://www.shrinesf.org/life-of-st-francis.html |access-date=11 June 2019 |website=St. Francis of Assisi National Shrine}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kiefer |first=James E. |date=1999 |title=Francis of Assisi, Friar |url=http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/258.html |access-date=11 June 2019 |website=Biographical sketches of memorable Christians of the past}}</ref>

For the next couple of months, Francis wandered as a beggar in the hills behind Assisi. He spent some time at a neighbouring monastery working as a [[wiktionary:scullion|scullion]]. He then went to [[Gubbio]], where a friend gave him, as an alms, the cloak, girdle and [[pilgrim's staff|staff of a pilgrim]]. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city, begging stones for the restoration of St. Damiano. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and rebuilt it over time. 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 San Pietro in [[Spina]] (in the area of San Petrignano in the valley about a kilometre from modern [[Rivotorto]], on private property and once again in ruin); and the [[Porziuncola]], the little chapel of [[Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli|St. Mary of the Angels]] in the plain just below the town.<ref name="cefa" /> This later became his favorite [[Dwelling|abode]].<ref name="chest54" /> By degrees he took to nursing [[leper]]s, in the [[leper colony|leper colonies]] near Assisi.

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Casa-de-sao-francisco.jpg|[[The Piccolino Chapel]], Francis’ legendary birthplace 
File:Sassetta 001.jpg|''Saint Francis renounces his earthly father''.
</gallery>