Founder of Franciscan Order of men and women committed to a life of poverty, chastity and humility, in service of the poor, the sick, and outsiders in prison or of a different faith, such as Islam. Stories of his affection for animals and his Canticle of the Sun are often cited as examples of Christian friendliness towards the environment. He was designated patron saint of Ecology in 1980.

• http://www.ofm.org/

• http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/258.html
• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm
• http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/who_was.asp
• http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Francis_Assisi.htm
• http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/FRANCIS.htm

...Includes Francis’s ‘Canticle of the Sun’, a prayer of thanks and praise composed following a time of deep personal depression, and his ‘Will’, "...a final, firm defense of all he had been and done."

• http://www.franciscan-archive.org/

• http://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/thesaurus/Sancti/SFranciscusAssisiensis/PrayerofSF.html