On the basis of sources still not recognised as official and largely unknown to the wider public, Chiara Mercuri reconstructs the life and teachings of a different Francis. The new portrait that emerges is that of an assertive and passionate man, who knew how to be intransigent and was scared of solitude.

Paris, 1266. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, a General of the Franciscan Order, issues the order that all biographies of Saint Francis, who passed away forty years earlier, be destroyed. Old biographies are substituted with the new one, Life of St Francis of Assisi, edited by Bonaventure himself. From this moment on, Francis comes to be known forever as an ingenuous, uneducated friar, a gentle mystic, a visionary obeying the divine will and lacking in initiative, a man who preferred to speak with animals rather than with his own peers. Only several centuries later, in 1880, did a protestant pastor begin a search for new documents and find some unknown texts written by Francis’ companions.  

Now, on the basis of those sources – still not recognised as official and largely unknown to the wider public – Chiara Mercuri reconstructs the life and teachings of a different Francis. The new portrait that emerges is that of an assertive and passionate man, who knew how to be intransigent and was scared of solitude. This was a man for whom the experience of poverty and the desire to completely renounce private property and material goods was a life mission. But above all, these pages tell a plural story of friendships, life in the community, life companions. Leo, Clare, and the others that followed him are the co-protagonists of an extraordinary journey of spiritual renewal. This is a passionate book that does justice to an extraordinary man.