The Basilica of St Francis

Saint Francis of Assisi

«Rose a sun upon the world» These words by Dante should be sufficient to understand the disruptive echo left by of the life of the Poverello of Assisi. For Christians, the sun that triumphs over the darkness is the symbol par excellence of Christ: to grant the same title to Saint Francis was a way to underline that his contemporaries considered him to be in effect an alter Christus, a man who, maybe like no other, had epitomized the figure of the Saviour on earth.
In particular, in the age that saw the dawning of the first capitalist society, with the ascent of bankers and merchants, the total love of Saint Francis for God and for mankind expresses itself in his supreme love for Poverty; a love so great that it can only be compared to that of Christ: «She [poverty], reft of her first husband/ One thousand and one hundred years and more, had stood without wooing till he came».
 The great appeal of his choice, that brought an immense joy in life, greater than that conferred by any richness, secured him an exceptional group of followers: «But that too darkly I may not proceed, / Francis and Poverty for these two lovers / Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse. / Their concord and their joyous semblances, / The love, the wonder, and the sweet regard, / They made to be the cause of holy thoughts; / So much so that the venerable Bernard / First bared his feet, and after so great peace / Ran, and, in running, thought himself too slow./ O wealth unknown! O veritable good!/ Giles bares his feet, and bares his feet Sylvester / Behind the bridegroom, so doth please the bride! / Then goes his way that father and that master, / He and his Lady and that family /Which now was girding on the humble cord».
Francis also differed from the many pauperism movements that troubled the Church and which often became heretical groups. Before long he asked for Pope Innocent III approval: «But regally his hard determination / To Innocent he opened, and from him / Received the primal seal upon his Order.»
Another unique feature of the Saint from Assisi was the exceptional gift he received - the first in the history of Christianity - on Mt. La Verna: the stigmata. These were the marks that imitated the crucifixion wounds of Christ: «On the rude rock 'twixt Tiber and the Arno / From Christ did he receive the final seal, / Which during two whole years his members bore.». 
The extraordinary greatness of the Saint was directly proportional to the difficulties which had developed immediately among his followers, whose number had grown to the point that organisation had become complicated How could such a wide array of people, from so many different social backgrounds and from all over Europe, conform to such an elevated ideal model? The disagreements that emerge made Francis suffer terribly and were mirrored by the difficulties encountered when establishing the Rule of the Order.