February 13 Blessed Angelo Tancredi from Rieti

Blessed Angelo Tancredi da Rieti was one of the first disciples of Saint Francis, that is, one of the first minor friars. Angelo Tancredi was a noble knight, he was the first knight to join Francesco. In 1223 he worked in Rome, serving the cardinal of "Santa Croce in Gerusalemme" Leone Brancaleone. And in those years Angelo Tancredi met Francesco d'Assisi. He spent the last two years of his life with the seraphic friar. Angelo together with his companions Leone and Rufino comforted Francesco, while he was dying, singing to him the Canticle of the Creatures. With Leone and Rufino he wrote the famous "Legend of the three companions" and, in 1246, a letter from Greccio to the general minister Crescenzo di Iesi. Tancredi da Rieti is buried near the tomb of Francesco in the crypt of the basilica of Assisi. And Saint Francis himself, wanting to delineate the identikit of the authentic friar minor, wrote as follows: «It would be a good friar minor who had the courtesy of Angelo, who was the first knight to enter the Order and was adorned with all kindness and goodness". (Avvenire)