ORIGIN OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER
The Franciscan Order is a Mendicant religious Order of the 13th Century High Medieval Europe. It was founded by Francis of Assisi, and given Papal recognition in 1210. The Franciscans were more of an urban rather than rural religious Order. They lived lives that involved wandering, preaching, begging, poverty and they answered to the spiritual needs of townspeople.
Francis was born in 1181 in the home of a cloth merchant named Bernardino in the town of Assisi, in Northern Italy. Francis of Assisi was supposed to become a Merchant, and that was the dream of his Father. He became disaffected in his early 20s. He began to cast about for a different sort of religious life, one that would be more fulfilling. The desire of becoming a Knight started dying; at around 24 Francis heard the crucifix in the Church Speaking to him. The crucifix told him to rebuild the church which has crumbled. Francis took the Message seriously and began to beg for fund to rebuild the church in ruin, he wondered through the street of Assisi asking people for Money, and Stones with which he might repair this Church. Francis's father Bernardino was upset and embarrassed by his son’s behavior. Many people thought that Francis had lost his Mind. Bernardino was even more furious when he discovered that Francis had taken some of the family cloth, sold it, and was using the money to repair the Church and that he had done so without his father’s permission.
After the confrontation with his father in Assisi, Francis devoted himself to the repair of small Churches. In around 1208, when he was sitting in another church, and heard a priest read a gospel message, his life took a dramatic turn, He was a travelling preacher, rather than a repairer of churches
By 1209, Francis of Assisi had attracted a small band of Followers, about ten, whom he called "the little brothers". The Franciscans are sometimes called Friars. He led his followers in 1209, to Rome there, he obtained an audience with the Pope and he asked the Pope’s permission to found a new religious order and the Pope decided to approve Francis of Assisi request. So in 1210, the Franciscan order received official Papal recognition. However, as he grew older and sicker, he began to withdraw a bit from the active running of the Order which he had founded. He began to embark on some rather erratic adventures. He travelled to Egypt in 1219 and 1220 and tried to convert a local Muslim ruler. He had almost no prospect of success, but he wanted to embark on it. He received the stigmata; His health had never been good, and he finally died in 1226, even by medieval standards a relatively young man.