This week Pope Francis visited the crypt in the Basilica in Assisi and prayed for less “wordliness”. But what were the life and times of his namesake, St. Francis. A series of recent biographies tries to tackle the conundrum once more…

Assisi in the autumn is a evocative place, suggestive of endless possibilities for more peaceful, simple lives filled with charity. This week the new Pope – who dared to name himself after the beloved man from Umbria – visited the city, prayed at the tomb of St. Francis and asked for less “worldliness”. The “World does not care if so many families have nothing to eat”, he said later at lunch at the caritas centre, where he listened to the stories of poor people suffering from hunger and promised to open up the many derelict and empty convents and monasteries for the homeless.

But who was St. Francis and what were his life and times like? This has of course been the subject of and endless stream of more or less novelistic and scholarly works, some of which have been recently published in new editions in order to cater for the “market”.

For anyone “new” to the phenomena – and who wants to get a better grasp of the facts – we bring a list of the more recent publications of scholarly interest written by medieval historians:

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