Francis of Assisi takes his first followers to Rome and founds the Franciscans
A merchant's son who gave away his wealth builds an order around begging and preaching
Quick facts
- Location
- Assisi and Rome
- Founder
- Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226)
- Original followers
- 11
- Approved by
- Pope Innocent III
What happened
Francis, the son of a wealthy Assisi cloth merchant, abandoned his inheritance after a series of personal crises, including imprisonment following a battle against Perugia, and turned to a life of poverty and preaching. By 1209 he had gathered eleven followers who lived in a deserted leper colony near Assisi, practicing what he called the 'ordo fratrum minorum,' the order of lesser brothers. Francis then led his small band to Rome to seek Pope Innocent III's approval for a new religious order built around apostolic poverty, itinerant preaching, and begging rather than fixed monastic property. The pope's advisers considered the plan impractical, but Innocent, according to tradition swayed by a dream of Francis holding up the collapsing Lateran Basilica, approved it. The original 1209 rule has not survived; the definitive Rule of 1223, the third Francis wrote, is the version still followed today.
Why it matters
The Franciscans, alongside the Dominicans founded shortly after, created a new kind of religious order, the mendicants, who lived and preached among ordinary town-dwellers rather than withdrawing into rural monasteries, and their approval by the same pope who had just authorized war against the Cathars shows how the medieval church tried to channel popular religious fervor into sanctioned outlets rather than let it become heretical.
How we know
The Rule of the Franciscan Order survives in its 1223 form through medieval manuscript copies, and Francis's early companions, including Brother Leo, left first-hand written recollections of his life and teaching.
Sources
- Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook. The Rule of the Franciscan Order · Primary source (author-declared)sourcebooks.fordham.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. The Monastic Movement: Origins & Purposes · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineThe Middle Ages32 events · How Western Europe rebuilt itself after Rome, from Germanic kingdoms to the eve of the RenaissanceView all →