Commentary
One of the most remarkable saints of any period of Christian history was Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, born in 1181. He was nicknamed Francesco (“Frenchy”) by his Francophile father, a prosperous merchant of Assisi in Italy.
Fresco of a nativity scene by Austrian painter Josef Kastner the older. Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock
Gerry Bowler
Author
Gerry Bowler is a Canadian historian and a senior fellow of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
