Francis was born in Assisi, Italy in 1182. He grew up living a privileged life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant.

About the age of nineteen Francis dreamed of heroic action, like knights of old, and went to battle with the army from Assisi against the nearby town of Perugia. Following Assisi’s defeat, Francis was captured and taken prisoner. He was held in a dungeon for a year until his father paid a ransom.

Over the next few years Francis began to see visions from God that changed his life. The first vision was when he was sick with a high fever. His first reaction was that God had called him to fight in the Crusades. However, he had another vision that told him to help the sick. Finally, when praying in a church, Francis heard God tell him to “repair my church, which is falling in ruins.” 

After Francis began to live his life of poverty and to preach about the life of Jesus Christ, people began to follow him. By 1209, he had around 11 followers. He had one basic rule which was “To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.” 

Francis was a devoted follower of the Catholic Church. He and his followers traveled to Rome to get the approval of the Pope for their  Order and their rule of life. At first, the pope was reluctant since he saw in front of him men who were dirty and poor. However, eventually he understood their vow of poverty and blessed the Order. 

The Franciscan Order grew rapidly and many men joined the first followers and made vows of poverty. At a certain point, a young woman from Assisi, Clare Offreducci, chose to follow the model of life and make the same vows. Francis supported her and helped her start the Order of the Poor Ladies (Order of Saint Clare or Poor Clares).

He also started another order, the Brothers and Sisters of Penance (later called the Third Order of Saint Francis) that was for men and women who didn’t take vows or leave their jobs, but lived out the principals of the Franciscan Order in their daily lives. That lay Third Order is now known as the Secular Franciscan Order.

St. Francis Region is one of thirty regions of the Secular Franciscan Order, U.S.A.  It became a region in 1990.  Prior to that time, the Order in the U.S. was in provinces, like the friar provinces of the First Order.  Each fraternity was said to be bonded with whichever of the First Orders established the Secular Franciscan fraternity, and that fraternity belonged to a province of Secular Franciscans that was the same geographically as the province of that First Order.  The three First Orders are all represented in the coastal states, that is, the Order of Friars Minor (O.F.M.), the OFM Conventual, and the OFM Capuchin.  Each had established secular fraternities and each of those fraternities was in the province of that First Order.  The provinces were very large (9 states, for example), making it very hard for the Secular Franciscan fraternities to have much contact with one another.  When regionalization occurred, the regions were made much smaller, and all the secular fraternities - regardless of which Order they were bonded with, became part of the region they were in geographically.  St. Francis Region became the geographical area from Pismo Beach, east across the Tehachapis to the Arizona state line, and south to the Mexican border.  Though still a lot of miles from one end to the other, it is not unmanageable and fraternities are able to come together periodically.