Hinting at a widespread failure to grasp who St Francis was, Pope Benedict on Thursday noted that the nature-loving mystic spent his early life being a "playboy".
The German pontiff, who is currently at his Castel Gandolfo residence outside Rome, said during a conversation with local priests that St Francis's name was sometimes "exploited" by being associated with political currents.
Benedict was apparently referring to a tendency by environmentalists and pacifists to evoke the medieval saint, who founded the Franciscan order of friars, as a champion of their causes.
"He was above all a convert," the pope said, stressing that this was his real significance for the Catholic Church and the idea that ought to be transmitted to the youth of today.
"First he was sort of playboy but then he felt that this was no longer sufficient," Benedict continued. Francis (1181-1226) was the son of a well-to-do merchant in the town of Assisi. Historians say that as a young man he lived a carefree and irresponsible life focused on pursuing an ideal of chivalry and courtly love.
But a year as a prisoner of war in Perugia and the terrible conditions in which beggars and lepers in his own city lived led him to reconsider his own existence. He left home to live as a hermit and devoted himself to looking after the sick and rebuilding old churches around Assisi. In 1209 he decided to live in total poverty and to spend his time preaching.
Pope Benedict said the story was one which could "animate the young" and inspire them embrace the Church.
In this vein he recalled that the bishop of Assisi was planning to launch an information campaign aimed at explaining St Francis's life to young people.
