|Francis of Assisi Italy (1181 - 1226) Timeline Christian :
Catholic Poems by Francis of Assisi Books - Links St. Francis of
Assisi himself was a great lover of French Troubadour songs and
traditions. Though he lived and taught within the Catholic
Church, elements of Cathar and Troubadour spirituality can be
seen in his own radiant ministry: his love of nature
(particularly the sun and the moon), his vision of a divine
woman, and his relationship with St. Clare (which was very much
in the tradition of the chaste Lover-Beloved relationship
espoused by the Troubadour ideal of courtly love.) Francis was
born in 1181 or 1182 to a prosperous merchant family in Assisi,
Italy. His father, Pietro Bernadone, was on a business trip in
France when the child was born and he was upset on his return to
find out that the child was initially baptized with the name
Giovanni after the ascetic John the Baptist. Pietro Bernadone
wanted a worldly son, someone who would one day take over his
business of trading in fine cloths, so