Pope Pius XI stated in one of his encyclicals that “there has never been anyone in whom the image of Jesus Christ and the evangelical manner of His life shone forth more life-like and strikingly than in St. Francis.”
He was born in Assisi towards the end of the 12th century, the son of a rich cloth merchant, and he enjoyed a carefree adolescence and youth, particularly with troubadours. He went to war at age 20 and was taken prisoner for almost a year. After his release, he became seriously ill which led him to abandon his worldliness and respond to the call of Jesus “to help rebuild my Church.”
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