The Joyful Beggar

The Joyful Beggar is a novel about Saint Francis of Assisi. It tells the story of Francis, a soldier and merchant's son who becomes the most beloved saint in history. The novel switches between Francis's life in Assisi, Rome, and Sicily, and his life in Egypt.

In this magnificent and stirring novel, Louis de Wohl turns his famed narrative skill to the story of the soldier and merchant's son who might have been right-hand man to a king ... and who became instead the most beloved of all saints. Set against the tempestuous background of 13th Century Italy and Egypt, here is the magnificent and inspiring story of Francis Bernardone, the brash, pleasure-loving young officer who was to become immortalized as St. Francis of Assisi. The story teems with action, pageantry and intrigue with finely conceived characters -- the beautiful, saintly Clare, Frederick, the hawk-faced King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, the Sultan Al Kamil, Pope Innocent III ... The scene shifts from Assisi, Rome and Sicily to the deadly sands of Egypt.