Il Poverello - the little poor one - was the name given to Francis of Assisi, who had such influence in his lifetime that he was canonized only two years after his death in 1228. He didn’t start out poor, his father was a wealthy merchant and as a young man, Francis led a worldly carefree life, was not always a good boy. He is the patron saint of animals and in 1980 Pope John Paul II made him saint of ecologists, his statue is in many gardens today.
In the Mode: June 2, 2013
