| St. Francis of Assisi is my favorite saint of all time. | | | | At one point, Saint Francis stretched out his arms and |
| Born the son of a wealthy merchant, he wanted for | | | | announced to his Dominicans that their religious habit, or |
| nothing during his misspent youth. St. Francis knew sin, | | | | tunic, was in itself the Tau cross, and represented their |
| and enjoyed drinking and parties. An extremely likeable | | | | lifelong devotion to God. In his mission of administering |
| young man, he caroused nightly with a large group of | | | | the gospel to the lepers, the least of society, the Tau |
| friends who indulged in vice and debauchery. | | | | Cross became known for its protection against the |
| However, St. Francis' life was destined to belong to | | | | plague and other diseases. A great believer in the |
| God, and several events in his life, including a serious | | | | compassion of Christ, and known for his rapport with |
| illness, greatly changed him. He renounced sin, and | | | | animals, St. Francis adopted the Tau Cross - which |
| began to live in abject poverty, putting no store in | | | | looks like a Greek "T" - as his crest, representing his |
| material things. He founded the order of the Dominican | | | | pledge to serve God and man. |
| Friars, and his symbol was the Tau Cross. | | | | |