Francis of Assisi's life was highly eventful, and there's no shortage of stories about the things he said and did, including his confrontation with the Pope, his mission of peace in the Holy Land, and his work as a preacher. Many of the stories about St Francis are a mixture of fact and legend.

His relationship with animals is legendary. One account tells of how, early in his career, Francis and his followers passed a grove of trees where many thousands of birds were nesting. Francis sent his companions on ahead and preached to the birds, telling that they should praise God for all that he had given them.

According to the story, as he spoke, the birds came down to the ground around Francis and bowed down reverently. Francis closed by making the sign of the cross, and telling the birds that they could go, at which they flew away, singing beautifully as they went.

On another occasion, Francis heard of a savage wolf which terrorised the citizens of the city of Gubbio. Francis found the wolf and commanded it not to do any more harm. The beast, tamed, listened to Francis preach to it, and allowed him to lead it back to the city, where it lived out the rest of its life as a beloved pet of the people of Gubbio.

Francis and his friends embraced poverty. Inspired by the suffering of Christ on the cross, they often went through extreme hardships cheerfully and willingly. There's a story about how Francis was travelling one day with a friar called Leo. On the way, Leo asked Francis what he considered perfect joy to be. Francis put to Leo a worst-case scenario for their journey: what if they were caught in the rain, ice cold, caked in mud, and found themselves faced at their destination by a gatekeeper who not only failed to recognise them, but beat them off with a big stick?

"If we bear all these things patiently and with cheerfulness," Francis said, "thinking on the sufferings of Christ the blessed, which we ought to bear patiently for his love, Friar Leo, write that here and in this is perfect joy."

Francis himself bore a great deal. Later in his life, it is said that he bore the "stigmata", wounds which appeared without any explanation on his hands and head, echoing the wounds of Jesus on the cross. Some of his friars, including a brother called Elias, whom Francis counted among his best friends, couldn't cope with the hardships Francis' way of life demanded, and left the order.

But Francis never gave in. Even as he lay dying, he gave a brother friar his shirt, wanting to have no possessions at the end of his life. The friar gave Francis back the shirt on loan, knowing that Francis would take no gift.

Francis' life and death have inspired generations of people, many of whom took on Francis' vows and chose to follow Jesus in the pure, simple way that Francis did.

Click here to read about the present-day followers of St Francis.