In this novel, translated into English as Saint Francis, Kazantzakis has written an adoration of Francis of Assisi as one who strove with all his might to transform human imperfection into spirit under the inspiration of God. Kazantzakis omits certain traditional stories about Francis, and gives him for companion and biographer a new character, the itinerate God-seeking monk Brother Leo, timid, tempted, continually falling, but faithfully following the barefoot Francis, himself terrified, fallible but unflinching on his road to God, self-despising but hymning the beauties of Creation.