St. Francis of Assisi was the patron saint of animals and ecology. He was born in Italy around 1181-1182, and after a wild youth and a brief career as a soldier, Francis had a conversion experience that inspired him to renounce his family’s wealth and devote his life to God. His dedication to poverty, humility, obedience, patience and compassion soon attracted followers and, in 1209, he received permission from Pope Innocent III to form a new religious order known as the Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans). Francis' deep love of God overflowed into love for all God's creatures—expressed not only in his tender care of lepers and his (unsuccessful) attempt to negotiate peace between Muslims and Christians during the fifth Crusade, but also in his prayers of thanksgiving for creation, his sermons preached to animals and his insistence that all creatures are brothers and sisters under God. He died on 4 October 1226 in the town of Assisi.