Agnellus of Pisa
Friar Minor
Feast: 13 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Agnellus, of the noble Agnelli family, was born at Pisa about 1195 and received into the Friars Minor by St Francis himself. Sent to Paris, he built a friary there; then, from the Chapter of Mats, Francis sent him to found the order in England.
Landing at Dover with nine friars on 12 September 1224, he founded the English Franciscan Province at Oxford, a model for the whole order, and though not learned himself established a school for the friars there. He died at Oxford on 7 May 1236.
The miracles
He is honoured as Blessed by long-standing veneration confirmed by the Church; the Catholic Encyclopedia does not describe a formal cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A disciple of St Francis who brought the Franciscans to England.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Blessed Agnellus of Pisa
- Wikidata Q394406 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Agnellus of Pisa (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.