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Writing his first Rule in 1209, 27-year-old Francis called on his followers to preach to and convert Muslims: "Let any brother who desires by divine inspiration to go among the Saracens and other nonbelievers, go with the permission of his minister and servant."

Francis, a radical who had renounced his father's wealth to embrace a lifestyle of poverty and relentless preaching, sent his first missionary to one of the crusader states in Syria in 1217. Two years later, he commissioned six more men to go to Morocco. News eventually filtered back that five of the friars reached Morocco and began preaching in the streets, but they were decapitated by angry Muslims.

As the father of a growing order, the Friars Minor, Francis debated whether he should visit the war zone himself. Eventually he responded to a call from Pope Honorius III, who sought preachers to invigorate the soldiers of the Fifth Crusade.

In 1219 Francis set sail for Damietta, Egypt, where crusaders were besieging a Muslim fortress. While the battle raged, Francis hatched a plan to cross over the lines to try to convert Saladin's nephew, Sultan Malik al-Kamil.

The sultan's sentinels, thinking Francis and his companion Illuminato came with a message from the crusaders, ushered them directly into al-Kamil's presence.

When the sultan questioned them about their business, Francis answered, "We are telling you in all truth that if you die in the law which you now profess, you will be lost and God will not possess your soul. It is for this reason we have come."

The sultan's counselors called for the friars' execution. They told al-Kamil, "Lord, you are the sword of the law: you have the duty to maintain and defend it. We command you, in the name of Allah and of Muhammad, who has given us the law, to cut off their heads here and now, for we do not want to listen to anything they have to say."

At this, the sultan refused to listen to Francis, but neither would he kill him. "I am going to act against the law," he said, "because I am never going to condemn you to death. For that would be an evil reward for me to bestow on you, who conscientiously risked death in order to save my soul for God."

The sultan then offered them gifts and land, but Francis refused, and the sultan escorted them safely back across Christian lines.

The friar didn't stay long in Egypt, and after visiting the crusader city of Acre, he sailed for Italy, never to return. But his followers and indeed the whole of medieval Christianity treasured this tale of courage. He inspired his order to send more missionaries.

Jacques de Vitry later wrote of the Franciscans, "Not only Christ's faithful but even the Saracens … admire their humility and virtue, and when the brothers fearlessly approach them to preach, they willingly receive them and, with a grateful spirit, provide them with what they need."

Ramon de Penyaforte was a well bred and well known teacher of canon law at the University of Bologna when the "kidnapper of souls," Dominic de Guzman, came to town with a call to poverty. Ramon shocked his students and colleagues by leaving his position to return to Barcelona and join the Dominican order.

Ramon's arrival in Barcelona came at a strategic time. Across Spain, as Christian rulers took the offensive against Muslim forces, Dominicans followed them to convert both apostate Christians and devout Muslims. Pope Gregory IX asked Ramon to travel the country preaching the crusade against the Moors. Ramon was so effective that the pope called him back to Rome to serve as his confessor and, later, as inquisitor of heretics.

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