Let’s face it: St. Francis is the Holiest Saint there is.

If someone says, “Name a saint,” you say, “St. Francis!” He immediately comes to mind. It feels as though we know him.

The enchantment Francis still holds over people, 800 years after his death — even people who are indifferent to religion — is unparalleled. He is one of the few saints admired by believers of other faiths, and even by atheists. That’s no small thing, eh?

And I want to tell you something else that will astonish you, something you won’t believe: He existed!

He wasn’t a fictional character, the hero of a fairy tale or a legend … no! He was a young man, a real person, alive and flesh and blood, just like all of us! And he had something so extraordinarily beautiful inside him that it is impossible to comprehend — a kind of truth that won everyone over.

It was impossible not to be fascinated by this extraordinary man as he traveled around preaching with his friars — Frati, as he called them for the first time, because they were brothers to all creatures. It’s a word he invented, “friars”; it didn’t exist before. They were called monks.

Today, you see a friar and say, “There’s a friar.”

Well, that’s a word St. Francis invented! A word now spoken in every corner of the world, in every language.

The same goes for Suore, nuns — a nun, a sister. Francis invented that word, too. He was the first to use it.

And the story of that word, “nun,” begins on a memorable day: a day that changed Francis’ life and the lives of countless people around the world, right down to the present.

It all happened after Francis obtained permission from Pope Innocent III to preach — a momentous encounter between Francis and the Pope! — and returned from Rome to Assisi. Everyone wanted to hear him, so much so that he had to speak in the cathedral because the other churches were too small.

Among the crowd that day was a young woman from Assisi, from a prominent family. She was rich, noble and very beautiful. Her name was Clare.

Francis’ life and words moved her so deeply that she wanted to meet him and speak with him. And in the spring of 1212, at just 18, Clare secretly left her father’s house in the middle of the night, dressed in her finest, most luxurious clothes and jewelry.

You can’t imagine it: She had dressed like a princess about to be crowned.

She went to the church of the Porziuncola, where Francis and the friars welcomed her by torchlight. There, Clare cast aside all her jewelry, was welcomed into the community and became Sister Clare, forever.

She renounced her wealth, her nobility and her dowry. Seven knights were part of her dowry. Lands, houses, palaces! And as for suitors, Clare had no shortage of those …

They all wanted to marry her!

Her family was doing the math: “Give her to the richest one, give her to the most powerful one, give her to the man who owns 20 estates …”

But Clare gave it all up so she could stay with Francis in complete poverty. So, she could share with him the privilege of the highest form of poverty.

Clare was the first woman to join Francis’ group. The first!

And you won’t believe this: after Clare, her sisters and mother joined her, too. The men in the family went crazy. They couldn’t believe it! Her uncle, her cousins, everyone tried every possible way to take them back, even using violence. But nothing worked.

On the contrary: more and more women joined them.

And so a community of sisters was born — the nuns. They lived alongside the friars, in separate cells, but together. A commune, a real commune!

But the Church did not approve of this arrangement and imposed enclosure on women. It was a great sorrow for Francis and for the community.

The story of Francis and Clare is extraordinary. Because Francis not only welcomed her but allowed Clare to have a voice in the Order and to preach — something that, as you know, women are not even allowed to do today.

He made sure that the esteem people had for him was extended equally to Clare.

Whenever Francis hesitated about which path to follow, he turned to Clare.

She was Sister Clare to him in every sense of the word, because of the light she cast on Francis’ soul.

A deep and feminine light.