What are francis?

Famous quotes containing the word francis:

    Then came the Lord Chamberlain with his white staff,
    And all the people began to laugh;
    And then the Queen began to speak,
    ‘You’re welcome home, Sir Francis Drake.’
    —Unknown. Upon Sir Francis Drake’s Return from His Voyage about the World, and the Queen’s Meeting Him (l. 5–8)

    Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging.
    —St. Francis Of Assisi (c. 1182–1226)