Charles Paul Marie Sabatier (3 or 9 August 1858 – 5 March 1928),[n 1] was a French clergyman and historian who produced the first modern biography of St. Francis of Assisi.

[5] Sabatier was born at Saint-Michel-de-Chabrillanoux in Ardèche,[6] and was educated at the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Paris.

[4] In 1885 he became vicar of St Nicolas, Strasbourg, but in 1889, declining an offer of preferment which was conditional on his becoming a German subject, he was expelled.

[6] He had already produced an edition of the Didache, and in November 1893 published his important Life of Francis of Assisi.

[4] This book gave a great stimulus to the study of medieval literary and religious documents, especially of such as are connected with the history of the Franciscan Order.