Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone on 26 September 1181 in Assisi, Italy. He was the son of the Italian merchant Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi and Pica Bourlemont, and had French origins. The family was part of the wealthy bourgeoisie of Assisi and enjoyed prestige because of its name and financial holdings.

In Assisi, the boy was known as François, or ‘the little Frenchman’. As a young man, he took part in the activities common to men of his age. In 1202, he enlisted as a soldier in the Assisi war against Peruggia. He was captured and spent about a year in prison, awaiting ransom.

The story goes that as a young man, entering a dilapidated Catholic church, he had a vision of Jesus, who said to him: Francis, restore my ruined house’. Taking the words at face value, he set about renovating the little church, but then failed to grasp Christ's momentous message about the sorry state of Christianity («my house»).

He experienced a sudden conversion in his youth from being a worldly young man to a religious life of complete poverty. He renounced the privileges afforded by his family situation to live in huts. His vivacity attracted other followers and later gave rise to the Order of Friars Minor, known today as the Franciscans.

Francis, known as «Il Poverello» (The Poor Man), is biographed as a simple and humble man who looked to Christ as a model. He exemplified Christian principles throughout his life: he cared for his neighbour and turned away from vanity and pride. He rejected possessions, which justifies his renunciation of ecclesiastical orders and sacred promotions, without ever becoming a priest.

Together with his «sons», Francis renewed the way Catholicism was lived at the time, maintaining the custom of walking through the villages, preaching and living entirely on the donations they received. For Francis, the Gospel had to be followed to the letter, with the utmost rigour, imitating the life of Jesus. He praised the gift of charity, preaching love for God's creation, for nature, for animals and, above all, for human beings, especially the poorest. He called all creatures «brothers» and considered himself the least of them.

Some mediumistic sources mention that the apostle John the Evangelist was Francis in a previous reincarnation. The evangelist was present at all the important events connected with the Master, including the crucial moment of His crucifixion. The biblical account tells us that, at the Last Supper, he was seated next to Christ, in a privileged position (in his last moments in the flesh, Francis asked to have the gospel texts of the Last Supper read to him).

It was John who remained at Mary's side after the death of Jesus, which would explain Francis of Assisi's adoration of the Master's mother. The evangelist also took an active part in the apostolic college, being the last to die. He wrote five of the books of the New Testament: the Fourth Gospel, three epistles and the Apocalypse.

Francis of Assisi, having been John the Evangelist, was one of the most outstanding spiritual benefactors of the Codification systematised by Allan Kardec, and he left us some very profound messages, such as the one published in the Spiritist Magazine of December 1864 (Commemorative Session at the Paris Society):

«Love is the law of the Spiritism; it enlarges the heart and makes one actively love those who disappear in the vague gloom of the grave. Spiritism is not a vain sound which falls from mortal lips and which a breath carries away; it is the strong and stern law which Moses proclaimed on Mount Sinai, the law which the martyrs, drunk with hope, affirmed, the law which the restless philosophers discussed and which, at last, the Spirits have come to proclaim. Spiritists! The great name of Jesus must float like a banner over your teachings. Before you, the Saviour bore in His bosom revelation, and His word, prudently measured, indicated each of the stages through which you will pass today. Mysteries have crumbled before the prophetic breath which shakes your intelligences, as once did the walls of Jericho».

In the Spiritist Review of 1863, Apostle John emphasised that ‘the time has come when Spiritism must rejuvenate and vivify the very essence of Christianity’. He did so when he experienced the firm and resolute personality of Francis of Assisi.

Francis of Assisi, through the mediumship of Chico Xavier, left the following message on 17 August 1951, in Pedro Leopoldo (MG):

Francis of Assisi died on 3 October 1226. In 1979, Pope John Paul II proclaimed him Patron Saint of Ecologists.