This new story from the popular Vision Books series of saints lives for youth 9-15 years old is about the inspiring life of the great missionary to the Far East, St. Francis Xavier. After his wartorn boyhood in Navarre, Francis Xavier went to the University of Paris, determined to have a good time. He was interested in sports and became broadjumping champion of his college, and did not pay much attention to his studies. At first he scoffed at this fellow student, Ignatius Loyola, a former soldier who wanted to win the world for God. But Ignatius showed him that true champions are a far more heroic breed - those who risk their all to win the world for God. Francis joined Ignatius' followers, and became one of the first members of the Society of Jesus.Francis Xavier was selected by Ignatius to do missionary work in India. To all sixteenth-century travelers, a voyage from Portugal to India meant months of deadly peril from storms, pirates, and diseases. But to Father Francis Xavier, it also meant a chance to win the Orient for Jesus Christ. This great saint's eagerness to spread the Word of God involved him with the pearl divers of the Indian coast, the natives of Malaya and the Spice Islands, the cannibals of Morotni and the hostile feudal lords of ancient Japan. This book captures the true spirit of a daring man who braved the many dangers of India and Japan in amazing adventures of courage and faith.

A Vision Book about St. Francis and St. Clare, the two very popular saints of Assisi. Helen Homan has captured all the excitement and beauty of the lives of these saints from their childhood growing up together in Assisi to their profound conversion and lifelong influence�indeed centuries-long influence�on the whole world through their radical living of the Gospel and founding of two great religious orders, the Franciscans and the Poor Clares. Combining the stories of Francis and Clare in one volume makes for a book that will be of great interest to both boys and girls of a wide age span. Illustrated. Cover art by Chris Pelicano This book is now part of Renaissance Learning's Accelerated Reader program. Quizzes are currently available.

Francis of Assisi is pre-eminently the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing nothing to church or school he was truly theodidact, and if he perhaps did not perceive the revolutionary bearing of his preaching, he at least always refused to be ordained priest. He divined the superiority of the spiritual priesthood. Saint Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d'Assisi), born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco (1181/1182 - 3 October 1226), was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon and preacher. 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 history. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis on 16 July 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy. He later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment, and it became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October. He is often remembered as the patron saint of animals. In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades.[6] By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the Order. Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. Francis is also known for his love of the Eucharist.[7] In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas live nativity scene.[8][9][2] According to Christian tradition, in 1224 he received the stigmata during the apparition of Seraphic angels in a religious ecstasy [10] making him the first recorded person in Christian history to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion.[11] He died during the evening hours of 3 October 1226, while listening to a reading he had requested of Psalm 142.