Name Francis

The name comes from the Old French word Franceis denotation - "noble, free, freeholder; Frenchman; Franc".

Saint Francis of Assisi 1181/1182 - October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the Franciscan Order, assisted in founding the woman’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was born on 17 December 1936 and was elected the pope of the Catholic Church on 13 March 2013. He is the 266th pope. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was ordained as a priest in 1969. In 1998 he became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001 a cardinal. Elected as pope in 2013 following his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, Bergoglio chose "Francis" as his name. This marked the first time in papal history that this name had been used, and along with Pope John Paul I is one of only two times since Pope Lando's brief 913 reign that a serving pope held a name unused by a predecessor. He is both the first Jesuit priest and the first native of the Americas to be elected Pope. The first non-European pope since the 8th century.