The Foundation of the Franciscans (1206-1223)

One cannot understand the Franciscan foundation if isolated from its time. The early 13th century is a moment of religious upheaval: a new, urban and mercantile society demands a form of holiness that the traditional monastic world no longer offers. Francis responds to this need—but remains within the Church, where others have fallen into heresy.

An urban and mercantile society in full mutation

The 12th century saw the rebirth of cities. In northern and central Italy, the communes—Assisi, Perugia, Florence, Siena—grow wealthy through commerce and craftsmanship. A new class appears: the merchants, of whom Francis’s father, Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous cloth merchant, is a perfect representative.^[7] This growth also produces anxieties: money, interest lending, usury, and accumulation clash with Christian conscience. Many feel the need for a life detached from possessions, closer to the poverty of Christ.

Benedictine and Cistercian monasticism, meanwhile, remains rooted in the countryside, on vast estates. It no longer speaks directly to this city-dweller, artisan or merchant, who seeks God amid the world. A spiritual space has opened, which Francis will occupy at the very heart of the cities.^[8]

The thirst for “apostolic life” (vita apostolica)

The great word of the time is vita apostolica: the desire to live like the apostles, poor, itinerant, preaching the Gospel from town to town. This aspiration is not unique to Francis; it stirs all Christendom. Everywhere, laypeople want to read the Gospel, preach it, live it without possessions.^[9][10]

The problem is that this thirst, left unregulated, easily turns into revolt against the wealthy clergy and contestation of the sacraments. The Church is thus faced with a challenge: to channel this evangelical impulse rather than condemn it outright.

Waldensians, Humiliates, and Cathars: the risk of heresy

Several movements had already attempted the adventure of evangelical poverty, with varying fates.

The Waldensians, or “Poor of Lyon”

Around 1173, a wealthy merchant of Lyon, Peter Waldo (Valdès), stripped himself of his goods to live poor and preach the Gospel in the vernacular. His intuition strikingly resembles that of Francis thirty-five years later. But the Waldensians, forbidden to preach and then persisting in preaching without mandate, were struck with anathema at the synod of Verona (1184), by the bull Ad abolendam of Pope Lucius III.^[11] Their example shows the danger: evangelical poverty that refuses obedience to the Church slips outside it.

The Humiliates and the Catholic Poor

Other movements of penitents and workers, like the Humiliates of Lombardy, sought instead to be recognized. Innocent III, rather than condemning all, approved some of them and even recovered repentant Waldensians under the name of Catholic Poor.^[12] This is already the strategy he would apply to Francis: integrate rather than exclude.

The Cathars and the heresy crisis

More serious still, the Cathar (or Albigensian) heresy undermined entire regions, from Languedoc to Lombardy, opposing the “carnal” Church with its ascetic “perfects.” Against them, official Cistercian preaching, rich and solemn, proved powerless.^[13] The lesson was clear: only an authentic poverty, lived in fidelity to Rome, could respond to the displayed poverty of the heretics. Francis and Dominic would each, in their own way, be that response.

The Turning Point of Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council

Pope Innocent III (1198–1216), one of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages, understood the stakes better than anyone. Rather than blindly suppressing every movement of poverty, he sought to discern and channel authentic impulses.^[14] It was in this spirit that he welcomed Francis around 1209–1210, and later Dominic.

His great legislative work, the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), marks this turning point: it condemns heresies but also mandates annual confession, preaching, and moral reform—a program precisely suited to be carried out by the emerging mendicant orders.^[15] The Franciscan foundation fits exactly within this Church renewal: a reform from below, led by voluntary poor finally recognized rather than rejected.

The foundation of the order is the culmination of a long and wrenching conversion. The detailed account belongs to the biography of Saint Francis; here we retain only the stages that lead to the fraternity.

The Young Man of Assisi

Francis was born in Assisi in 1181 or 1182, son of Pietro di Bernardone, a wealthy cloth merchant, and Lady Pica.^[16][17] Elegant, generous, and popular, he dreamed of knightly glory. In 1202, the war between Assisi and Perugia ended disastrously: Francis was taken prisoner and spent nearly a year in captivity. He returned ill, and then, in 1205, a new military expedition to Apulia failed: at Spoleto, a dream sent him back to Assisi. Something inside him broke: the dreams of glory lost their appeal.^[18][19]

The Encounter with the Leper

The decisive turning point, Francis himself recounts at the threshold of his Testament: the encounter with lepers, whom he had always fled with horror, and whom he now embraces.

“This is how the Lord gave me, Brother Francis, the grace to begin to do penance. When I was still in sin, the sight of lepers was unbearable to me. And the Lord Himself led me among them, and I showed them mercy.”
— Saint Francis of Assisi, Testament (1226)^[20]

This gesture—dismounting from his horse to embrace a leper and give alms—is presented by Francis as the beginning of everything. What had been “bitter” to him turned into “sweetness.” The logic of the Franciscan foundation is already present: to join the least, the minores, and find Christ there.^[21][22]

“Go, Repair My House”: The San Damiano Crucifix (1205)

In the autumn of 1205, praying in the small dilapidated church of San Damiano, outside the walls of Assisi, Francis heard the Romanesque crucifix speak to him.

“Francis, do you not see that my house is falling into ruin? Go, then, and repair it for me.”
— Words of the San Damiano crucifix, according to Franciscan tradition^[23]

Francis first understood the command materially: he sold his father’s cloth to restore San Damiano, then other ruined chapels, including the Portiuncula. Only later did he grasp the spiritual meaning of the words: the “house” to be repaired is the entire Church.^[24][25] This fruitful misunderstanding lies at the heart of the Franciscan vocation: to begin with stones, and end with souls.

The Renunciation before the Bishop (1206)

The sale of the cloth enraged Pietro di Bernardone, who dragged his son before the Bishop of Assisi, Guido I, to reclaim his money. The scene, in early 1206, is one of the founding gestures of Franciscan history: in the public square, Francis returned to his father not only the money but even his clothes, standing naked before all.

“Until now, I called Pietro di Bernardone my father; henceforth I can say freely: Our Father who art in heaven.”
— Words attributed to Saint Francis at his renunciation in 1206^[26]

The bishop immediately covered him with his own cloak: a highly symbolic gesture by which Francis, breaking with his father’s mercantile world, placed himself under the protection of the Church.^[27][28] This ecclesiastical submission, present from the beginning, explains why Francis, unlike the Waldensians, always remained in Catholic communion.

For two years, Francis lived as a hermit-penitent, repairing churches and serving lepers, without a fixed plan. The true birth certificate of the fraternity took place at the Portiuncula on a morning in February 1208.

“This is what I want”

Franciscan tradition places the event on February 24, 1208, the feast of Saint Matthias — traditional date: Thomas of Celano, who recounts the scene in detail, does not date it.^[29][30] Attending Mass in the Portiuncula chapel, Francis heard the Gospel of the sending of the apostles on mission (Mt 10:7-10): Christ commands the Twelve to go forth without gold or silver, without a bag, without two tunics, without sandals or staff, announcing the Kingdom freely.

Moved, Francis asked the priest to explain the passage again, then exclaimed:

“This is what I want, this is what I seek, this is what I desire to do with all the marrow of my heart!” — Saint Francis, according to Thomas of Celano, Vita prima, IX, 22^[31]

Immediately, he threw away his shoes, his staff, his leather belt, and girded himself with a rope. The Franciscan way of life was born: not a learned rule, but the Gospel itself, taken literally and lived out.^[32][33] Some historians date the episode to 1209 rather than 1208, but the significance remains the same: from that day forward, Francis no longer merely repaired walls, he preached penance.

The Portiuncula, cradle of the fraternity

The chapel where it all happened — Santa Maria degli Angeli, called the Portiuncula (“the little portion”) — belonged to the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who eventually ceded it to Francis. It became the heart of the order: the site of the first chapters, the clothing of Saint Clare, and Francis’s death in 1226.^[34][35] Francis valued it so highly that he urged the brothers never to abandon it: it was, he said, the sanctuary where the Virgin most favored the birth of the order.

Francis had been preaching alone for several months when men began to want to share his life. The fraternity — the word Francis would always prefer to “order” — took shape in the spring of 1208.

Bernard of Quintavalle and Peter Cattani (April 1208)

The first to join him was Bernard of Quintavalle, a wealthy notable of Assisi, who hosted Francis to observe him and, convinced, decided to give everything to the poor. On the same day, in April 1208, a canon, Peter Cattani, joined them.^[36][37]

To discern God’s will for this new life, the three men went to the church of San Nicolò in Assisi’s main square and opened the Gospel book three times at random. Each time, they found words calling for radical renunciation: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor”; “Take nothing for the journey”; “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself.”^[38]

“Brother, here is our life and our rule, and that of all who wish to join our company. Go, then, and do what you have heard.” — Words attributed to Saint Francis at San Nicolò, according to Franciscan tradition^[39]

This triple opening of the Gospel was decisive: it sealed the idea that the brothers’ rule would be, first and foremost, the Gospel itself. Bernard of Quintavalle is venerated as the first son of Francis.

Brother Giles and the first twelve

Shortly after, a peasant from the surrounding area, Giles (Egidio) of Assisi, later a famous mystic, became the third companion.^[40][41] Others quickly followed: Sabbatino, Morico, John of the Chapel, Philip the Tall, Bernard of Vigilante, John of Saint-Constance, Barbaro, Angelo Tancredi... Within a few months, there were twelve, an apostolic number whose symbolism was not lost on anyone.^[42][43] The fraternity was no longer the dream of a lone man: it was an evangelical community taking shape.

Rivotorto: life of the first fraternity

The first brothers settled in an abandoned hut at Rivotorto (“the winding stream”), below Assisi, then around the Portiuncula.^[44][45] Their life consisted of manual labor, service to lepers, prayer, and itinerant preaching two by two. They owned nothing, begged for their bread, and greeted people with “The Lord give you peace.” This existence — without a convent, without property, without monastic stability — was a radical novelty in Christian Western Europe: it inaugurated the mendicant life.^[46][47]

A fraternity of laypeople preaching penance risked being suspected of heresy, like the Waldensians. Francis made the decision that would change everything: to seek the pope’s approval.

The Penitents’ Journey to Rome

Around 1209 (some sources say 1210), Francis wrote a brief form of life (propositum vitae)—essentially a few verses from the Gospel with short prescriptions—and set out for Rome with his eleven companions.^[48][49] Twelve poor men in rags requesting an audience with the most powerful pope in Christendom: the scene was striking. But Francis knew that without Rome’s seal, his movement would be condemned.

Cardinal John of Saint Paul

In Rome, the brothers found decisive support in Cardinal John of Saint Paul (Giovanni di San Paolo), bishop of Sabina and close advisor to the pope, who recommended them to Innocent III.^[50] The cardinal argued that to refuse a life founded on the Gospel itself would be to declare the Gospel impracticable—an irrefutable argument. He thus became the fraternity’s first protector, foreshadowing the role of “cardinal protector” that would always link the order to the Holy See.

The Dream of the Lateran and Innocent III’s Oral Approval

Innocent III hesitated: such absolute poverty seemed beyond human strength. Then, according to the tradition established above all by Bonaventure, he had a dream: he saw the basilica of the Lateran—the pope’s cathedral, “mother of all churches”—leaning and threatening to collapse, when a little poor man supported it on his shoulder and prevented it from falling. The pope recognized in Francis this savior.^[51][52]

He then orally approved the form of life and authorized the brothers to preach penance. This approval, around 1209-1210, was not yet a solemn confirmation by papal bull, but it brought the order into existence within the Church: the Friars Minor were now recognized.^[53][54] Francis also received, for himself and his brothers, a small clerical tonsure, marking their attachment to the Church.

“Friars Minor”: The Meaning of a Name

It was at this time that the order’s name was fixed. Rejecting any title of grandeur, Francis wanted his brothers to be the least of all, the minores—in contrast to the majores, the powerful of the communes. The first rule states: “Let all be called Friars Minor.”^[55][56]

“And let them be minor, and subject to all who are in the same house.”
— Regula non bullata (1221), ch. 7^[57]

The name is not decorative: it is a spiritual program. The minoritas—to make oneself small, last, servant—is, along with poverty, the heart of Franciscan identity. The development of this notion belongs to the article on the order.

The approval of 1209 created the order but did not organize it. For fifteen years, the fraternity would have to give itself structures without betraying the evangelical spirit of its beginnings—a tension that would run through its entire history.

The Propositum Vitae and the First Form of Life

The first “rule” of 1209 was tiny: a handful of Gospel verses and a few precepts of communal life, now lost in its exact form.^[58] It expressed the essence of Francis’s Testament: no one had shown him what to do; it was God who had inspired him.

“And after the Lord gave me brothers, no one showed me what I should do, but the Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the form of the holy Gospel.”
— Saint Francis, Testament (1226)^[59]

Growth and Chapters

The order grew at an astonishing speed. From twelve brothers in 1209, it rose to thousands within a decade. To maintain unity, Francis gathered a general chapter each year at the Portiuncula, where all the brothers met. The most famous were the “Chapters of the Mats” (c. 1217-1221), so named because the brothers, too numerous for any building, camped under huts made of branches and rush mats.^[60] These assemblies divided the brothers into provinces and launched the first missions outside Italy—France, Spain, Germany, and even into Muslim lands, where Francis himself met Sultan al-Kamil in Egypt in 1219.

This growth made a written and stable rule indispensable. Francis, a man of the Gospel more than of law, increasingly entrusted governance to brothers like Peter of Cattani and then Brother Elias, while the pressing question arose: how to codify evangelical freedom without stifling it?

The Regula non bullata (1221)

A first major rule was drafted and adopted at the chapter of May 30, 1221: the Regula non bullata (“rule not sealed”), so called because it never received a papal bull. Long, passionate, woven with Gospel citations and spiritual exhortations, it still directly reflected Francis’s voice.^[61][62] But it was judged too little juridical for an order that had become immense: too much fervor, not enough clear rules.

The Regula bullata and Solet annuere (November 29, 1223)

Francis then revised his text at the hermitage of Fonte Colombo, near Rieti, with the help of Brother Leo and under the direction of Cardinal Hugolin (future Pope Gregory IX). He produced a shorter and more juridical version, in twelve chapters: the Regula bullata. It was solemnly confirmed by Pope Honorius III on November 29, 1223, by the bull Solet annuere.^[63][64]

The following table summarizes what distinguishes the two rules, without opposing them in substance—they carry the same ideal but in two registers:

Francis’s foundation did not give rise to just one order, but to three: a complete spiritual family, for men devoted to itinerancy, for women devoted to enclosure, and for laypeople remaining in the world. This “three orders” structure is unique to Franciscan genius.

Clare of Assisi and the Poor Ladies (1211-1212)

On the night of Palm Sunday 1211 or 1212, a young noblewoman of Assisi, Clare Offreduccio, fled her paternal home to join Francis at the Portiuncula. He cut her hair and clothed her in the habit of penance: this was the birth of the second order, that of the Poor Ladies, future Poor Clares.^[65][66] Established at San Damiano — the church Francis had restored — they lived the same radical poverty, but in enclosure and contemplation. Clare’s own story and her “privilege of poverty” are treated in her dedicated dossier.

The Third Order, or Order of Penance

A multitude of laypeople — married, artisans, merchants — wished to share the Franciscan ideal without leaving their state. Francis gave them a form of life adapted to this: the Third Order (or Order of Penance), which allows living the evangelical spirit in the midst of the world, in work, family, and charity.^[67][68] This third order would enjoy immense success and provide the Church with many lay saints. Its institutional description is covered in the article on the order.

The significance of the event from 1208-1223 goes far beyond the birth of an order. Francis invented a new way of being religious, which would mark the entire late Middle Ages.

A Mendicant Order at the Heart of Cities

Before Francis, religious life was monastic: stable, rural, land-owning. With the Friars Minor — and almost simultaneously, the Dominicans of Saint Dominic — the mendicant order appeared: itinerant, urban, living on alms, preaching in the squares.^[69][70] This model responded exactly to the merchant society described above. In one generation, Franciscan and Dominican convents covered Europe and became the driving force of preaching, confession, and soon university teaching.

Minority and Poverty as a Program

The heart of the foundation is not an organization, but a spirituality: to follow the poor and humble Christ, to make oneself minor, to refuse all possession. This radical choice, the source of Franciscan beauty, would also be the source of its crises: from Francis’s death onward, the question of how far to push poverty would tear the order apart. But this tension is already a sign of the strength of the original intuition. The development of the controversy belongs to the article on the order.

A Living Legacy

From the small fraternity of the Portiuncula emerged one of the greatest spiritual families in history: hundreds of thousands of religious, Doctors of the Church, missionaries, countless saints — and a pope, Francis, who chose the name of the poverello. Eight centuries after the cry of 1208, the Gospel taken literally continues to bear fruit.

“Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord our God, for until now we have hardly advanced.” — Words attributed to Saint Francis on his deathbed, according to Thomas of Celano^[71]

• Primary sources: the Writings of Saint Francis — especially his Testament (1226) and the Regula bullata (1223) — edited and translated in Francis of Assisi, Writings, Sources Chrétiennes no. 285 (Éd. du Cerf); the medieval biographies: Thomas of Celano, Vita prima (1228) and Vita secunda (1247); Saint Bonaventure, Legenda maior (1263). The whole collection is gathered and translated in the Fonti Francescane and, in French, in the Sources franciscaines (Franciscan Editions / Cerf).
• Reference studies: André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: Between History and Memory (Fayard, 2009), a major historical synthesis; Jacques Le Goff, Saint Francis of Assisi (Gallimard); Chiara Frugoni, Life of Saint Francis of Assisi.
• Entries: Catholic Encyclopedia, articles “Order of Friars Minor” and “St. Francis of Assisi” (New Advent); Franciscan chronology by the Cappuccini Marche.
• Related articles on Ignispedia: the full biography of Saint Francis of Assisi; the Franciscan order (the Rule, the three orders, the doctors, the poverty controversy, the divisions, and eight centuries of history); Saint Clare of Assisi and the Poor Clares; the Assisi sanctuary; Pope Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council; the Dominicans and the foundation of the Dominicans, the other great mendicant order born at the same time; the history of religious orders; and, for comparison with a very different monastic model from the previous century, the foundation of the Carthusians.