Saint Francis of Assisi
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy. Giovanni's father, who had a deep infatuation with France renamed him Francesco, however today he is more widely known as St Francis of Assisi. Francis grew up with a very easy life, his family was wealthy, he was (probably) handsome and he was incredibly well-liked by everyone he met. He was happy, charming, and a born leader. Francis spent his youth partying away, however, he yearned for more than the life of wealth and ease that he had and sought to find nobility and honour.
The opportunity then arose for Francis to be a knight for the fourth crusade, so in pursuit of glory Francis joined, and his father invested a hefty sum into a mint piece of armour (we're talking gold trims and velvet cloaks). Francis, filled with pride, rode off on his high horse (literally, he was on a horse) boasting about how he would return a Prince. However, Francis did not make it further than a day's ride from Assisi, when he had a dream that God told him he'd gotten everything wrong and needed to return home. With this sudden stroke of obedience, Francis turned back without having even made it into battle and the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village, and berated by his father for the money wasted. After St Francis' conversion, he raced off to Egypt in the hopes of converting some Muslims and potentially becoming a martyr. Whilst in Eqypt St Francis challenged the Sultan to a test of faith by fire (he was literally like “Let's both walk into the fire and whoever survives has the true God”). The Sultan (mildly intimidated by his insanity) refused, however (very loosely) stated "I'd convert, but then we would both be killed, and that wouldn't be great for either of us". He then gave Francis permission to preach in his lands, which was pretty crazy considering the country was in the midst of fighting Crusaders. Francis devoted the remainder of his life to "rebuilding the Church" (capital ‘c’ not little ‘c’), living in poverty, and founding numerous religious orders.
Feast day: 4th of October
Patron Saint of: Animals, merchants and ecology