Meet the Saint, Assisi, Italy. The earliest known portrait of St. Francis, a fresco in the Basilica San Francesco by the artist Cimabue, reveals the kindness, gentleness, and piety for which he is renowned. Francis had given up wealth and social position to follow his heart, and taught a gospel of peace, tolerance, and non-materialism so revolutionary that it required a Papal decree to keep it from being labeled heretical.