March 13: Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, Franciscan

Promoter of the Order of Friars Minor

Received personally in 1212 by Saint Francis of Assisi into the Order of Friars Minor, Francis directly entrusted him with the task of opening convents in Paris and in England. He is Blessed Agnellus, born in Pisa in 1194.

During the Chapter of Mats held in 1221 at Santa Maria degli Angeli, William the Englishman asked Saint Francis to send friars to England. Francis chose Agnellus – even though still a deacon - to found the English Province.

In 1223, an English priest, Richard Ingworth, met Agnellus and accompanied him on his journey to England, receiving the Franciscan habit. Upon arriving in England with eight companions, Agnellus founded several convents, including one at Oxford to facilitate studies for the order at the renowned university.

Having returned to Assisi in 1230 for the translation of Saint Francis’s body, he obtained from Pope Gregory IX the brief Nimis iniqua of August 21, 1231, which admonished the hostile attitude of the episcopate toward the Franciscans and released the order from their direct authority.

Returning to England, he served as an advisor to King Henry III and died on March 13, 1232. Devotion to him was authorized by Pope Leo XIII through an order dated August 30, 1892.