Friar and first biographer of St. Francis, c. 1185–c. 1260
Thomas of Celano was a friar from the Abruzzi who joined Francis around 1215. At the request of Pope Gregory IX he wrote the first life of the saint, completed in 1229, soon after Francis was canonized.
He later wrote a second life and a treatise on Francis’s miracles, and the early Life of St. Clare is traditionally credited to him.