Growth of the Observant family

An anonymous biographer of Bernardine presented him as the providential instrument for the renewal of the order, which was perceived as having lapsed from the pristine fervour of St Francis. New signs for optimism lay in the approximately twenty-five friaries in the Observant reform at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This figure was augmented greatly through the influence of Bernardine, whose preaching brought many to religious life. Julian of Siena testified that more than a hundred of his fellow citizens had taken the habit. One estimate was that Bernardine's preaching had led more than twenty thousand to the religious life. The witnesses supply no information about women converted to the numerous communities of Poor Clares in Tuscany and Umbria.

Mark di Leonard of Bologna saw many impressive men seeking admission to the order. The names of several recruits to the order were supplied by the witnesses to the cause of canonisation. Many usurers were converted and made fitting restitution; a number became Observants and some of them were named. Recruits included many who had been regarded as vain laymen before taking the habit and living laudably as friars. Vocations included men who became the best preachers, such as Silvester de Radiconduli, Louis di Pietro Lantani and numerous others.