Few gestures could be considered more transgressors than to be stripped of clothing in public as a symbol of renouncing wealth. St. Francis of Assisi did it. For Francis there was no turning back. The young man had decided to abandon his careless existence to marry "Lady Poverty." Such act was made when his father and the judges and the Bishop of Assisi believed him to be little more than a lunatic and demanded that he return the money of the family which he had given to the poor. But what was the true meaning of his choice for poverty? What was the skill behind that spirit of poverty? The opposite of prosperity is poverty, and St. Francis was a prosperous young man who had met no poverty during his life. But what does poverty do that St. Francis
