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Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, more commonly known as St. Francis of Assisi, was born in 1182. Even though his father was a wealthy merchant he seems to have had little formal education. In his youth he enjoyed a life of pleasure and frivolity until he was captured in a battle between Perugia and Assisi in 1201. The imprisonment lasted a year in which time he fell ill with a dangerous fever. During this sickness Francis resolved to alter his way of living. When he returned to Assisi in 1202, Francis undertook works of charity among the lepers and worked diligently for the restoration of dilapidated churches. These pious undertakings did not please his father and as a result he legally disinherited him. Francis did not revert to his former habits but discarded his rich garments and went to the bishop who gave him a cloak. Upon receiving the garment, Francis went to the wooded Mount Subasio where he spent three years caring for outcasts and lepers. To provide for their spiritual needs he restored the chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
 
During Mass one day he heard a call telling him to go out into the world and possess nothing but do good everywhere. Answering this call, Francis returned to Assisi where he began preaching to the people. While preaching the word of God he gathered a group of 12 men who, in 1209, became the original brothers in his order of friars and they elected him as their superior.
 
Three years later he invested St. Clare ( Scott #169-70 ), and through her founded the second order of Franciscans that was to be known as the Poor Clares. 
Many difficulties prevented him from accomplishing much missionary work during the next seven years. While in Egypt, in 1219, he was taken prisoner at Damietta. When he was brought before the Sultan he told him of God. So moving were his sermons that he was returned to the Christian lines. Francis then journeyed to the Holy Land where he stayed for about a year. 
In 1220 he returned home and spent the next few years organizing the third order of Franciscans that were to be known as the Tertiaries. While praying, Francis was often favored with visions of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. The most remarkable of these occurred in September 1224. After fasting for forty days, he was praying on Mount Alverno when he suddenly felt pain mingled with joy; Christ has impressed the marks of His Crucifixion on his body. So severe was the accompanying pain that Francis had to be carried back to Assisi. His hard work and privations so ruined his health that he suffered severe pain and almost total blindness for the remainder of his life. On October 3, 1226, as Francis was preparing to join His Maker, he requested that he be buried on the 'Hill of Hell', the most despised place in Assisi that served as an execution and burial ground for condemned criminals. 
 
Shortly after his death, the Vicar of the Order of Friars Minor, Brother Elias, deemed it a fitting tribute to erect a church over his grave. On July 17, 1228, the day after St. Francis was canonized, Pope Gregory IX laid the corner stone of the church and ordered that in the future the site be known as, " The Hill of Paradise ". The people were so moved by St. Francis' devotion to God that they freely donated their money and time thereby completing the lower church in the short space of twenty-two months. 
The design of the lower church was entrusted to Jacopo Tedesco who was succeeded by Filippo da Campello in 1232 as the architect in charge. Originally the church consisted of a nave and four bays with groined vaulted walls supported by wide circular arches: a transept on the west; and a semi-circular apse. About the year 1300, the eastern transept was added as well as the Gothic chapels. During the fifteenth century a vestibule was added and the church was richly decorated by men of great renown in the history of art, including Giotto, Giottene, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti.
 
The upper church was begun about ten years after the completion of the lower church. The church, in the shape of a Latin cross, was the work of non-Italian architects at a time when its Gothic style was foreign to Italy. Among its many frescos are twenty-eight scenes from the life of St. Francis attributed to Giotto and his contemporaries. The upper church was completed in 1253 and on June 11th of the same year it was solemnly consecrated by Pope Innocent IV.
 
Upon the death of St. Francis, Brother Elias, fearing that the body would be stolen, hid the tomb of the saint in the lower church. The exact location of the tomb remained unknown until an intense search lead to its discovery in 1818. The remains of St. Francis were exhumed and placed in the crypt, a relatively small area, with two altars back to back, one higher than the other, so that both were over the tomb.
 
On March 23, 1764, Pope Benedict XIV issued the Papal Bull, ' Fidelis Dominus ', thereby elevating the church to the rank and honor of " Basilica Patriarchalis et Capella Papalis ". By attaining the rank of Patriarchal Basilica, The altar facing the papal throne became a papal altar; that is, an altar at which no one but the pope, or one delegated by the pope, may celebrate Mass.
 
To commemorate the second centenary of the elevation of the Basilica of St. Francis to the rank of Patriarchal Basilica the Vatican Postal Administration released a set of two commemoratives on Oct. 1, 1954. The stamps were the work of P. G. Lerario, of the Order of Friars Minor. They were released in post Office sheets of 40 stamps and were printed at the State Printing Office, Rome, by the photogravure method.
 
The design depicts a view of the Basilica of St. Francis. To the right of the church is a symbol of Basilican dignity, a bi-colored semi-opened umbrella. This was originally the emblem of the Imperial rank of Constantinople. It was adopted by the Church and today is restricted to Patriarchal Basilicas. In processions it is carried in front of the Canons of that particular Basilica.

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