For eight hundred years, St. Francis of Assisi has stood out among all saints for radical, complete, and total embrace of a life of poverty in the service of Christ. From a youth of dissipation, Francis found Jesus Christ and never once looked back. Abandoning everything by Christ Himself, he walked in the footsteps of his Savior, giving all his soul to Christ and all his goods to his fellow men.

Even in his lifetime, men saw him and wondered; even in a society in which Christ was the center and summit of life, Francis stood apart. Men watched and marvelled; men followed him as the surest way to get to Christ, whom he followed. Corruption gave way to devotion; lukewarmness gave way to passion; no one who looked on the life of Francis could ever go on unchanged.

In our world, in which Christ is ignored and Francis himself so often fundamentally misunderstood, we all can take a lesson from his complete and utter abandonment to Jesus Christ, our God, our King, and most deeply our Brother. This biography, written by one of his brethren, who knew him, is an accurate and sure introduction to this great and powerful saint.

This translation, from A. G. Ferrers Howell, is often stilted to the point of being archaic; we have modernized it somewhat in style, spelling, and punctuation, but it still decidedly carries the feel of the original.

Praise be to Christ the King!

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