by Michelle Campbell Toohey (Author)

"The author brings to life four women who gave St. Francis strength and kept his memory alive. Her story is mesmerizing, her language beautifully crafted." - Judith Gallagher, author of Into the Rainbow.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI, the patron saint of Italy, the icon of peace, the lover of nature. These are charming accolades, but they tell little of the man living in the medieval world of plague, political corruption, and crusades. In this historical fiction, readers will discover that he did not survive this life alone.

• His mother PICA, a mystic and healer, who bears a son able to inherit her visions and love for the poor.
• THE LADY BEATRICE, a dishonored noble woman, who affords the young merchant the opportunity to revel in his dreams of glory. But such romantic fantasies are doomed to failure.
• GIACOMA DEI SETTISOLI, a young wife from one of the most powerful families in Rome, who rescues the now traumatized Francis from certain religious persecution. But before she can help him, she must learn to heal her own self-doubt.
• ST. CLARE, the crown marriage prize in Europe, who escapes her abusive uncles to follow the beggar Il Poverello and embody his ideal of Lady Poverty.

Their lives are intertwined with Francis through the narration of Tommaso da Celano, the official biographer of the Pope. Although he has written the sanitized version of a saint's life to attract pilgrims' purses, Tommaso is haunted by the voices of these women carefully left out of Francis's story. After all, he tells himself, Il Poverello had a horror of women. But did he?

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