Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone; Italian Francesco d'Assisi; Latin Franciscus Assisiensis; 1181 or 1182 - 3 October 1226), venerated as Saint Francis of Assisi, also known in his ministry as Francesco, was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon, philosopher, mystic, and preacher.^[3] He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women's Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in Christianity.

Noted Franciscan scholars Regis J. Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, and William Short spearheaded a collabrative effort of translators, scholars and technicians to publish this series. Many of these texts had been published in critical, scholarly European editions, but were not available in English. In some instances these texts are available in English for the first time; in all instances, they have been annotated in light of recent scholarship.
This first volume, The Saint, contains the following works:
The Writings of Francis of Assisi (1205/06-1226)
The Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano (1228-1229)
The Liturgical Texts (1230-1234)
The Life of Saint Francis by Julian of Speyer
The Versified Life of Saint Francis by Henri d'Avranches (1232-1235)
The Sacred Exchange between Saint Francis and Lady Poverty (1237-1239)
Related Documents (1215-1237