Franciscansfounded by Giovanni di Bernadone (1181-1226) (“Francesco”—St. Francis), son of wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, ItalyPracticed poverty, worked among the poor (not cloistered in monastery like Benedictines); revered all of nature. See Canticle of Brother Sun (reading 10.6 [335])In 1215, Pope Innocent III endorsed the order—although at first the Church felt threatened by the Franciscans’ radical challenge to the status quo