Towards the end of 1206 St Francis publicly renounced his earthly father in the Piazza del Vescovato at Assisi, giving back the money and even the clothes he owed to him, and exclaiming: ‘From henceforth I wish to say “Our Father Which art in Heaven”, and not “my father Peter Bernardone”’. His dramatic action had not the immediate result of drawing others to conversion, but simply secured his own personal freedom to serve God. For a little over two years he lived as a solitary enthusiast, devoting his energies to the care of lepers, and to the rebuilding of neglected churches, in literal obedience to the words he heard at St Damian: ‘Go, and repair my house.’ Then, on 24 February 1209, the feast of St Matthias, the passage of the Gospel for the day suddenly revealed to him his true vocation, and he went out to preach.

Disciples now joined him quickly. Giles was received on 23 April, the feast of St George, and Bernard of Quintavalle and a certain brother Peter had come before him. Others soon followed their example, and since they, as well as their leader, preached to the people, their numbers increased more and more rapidly, a geometrical succeeding an arithmetical progression.

At first St Francis was their sole director. When he had eleven companions he wrote a Rule for them and for any future brethren, aided or influenced by no man, and taking as his pattern not earlier religious legislation but the Gospels themselves.