Spanish or Novo-Hispanic school; late 17th century and later

Spanish or Novo-Hispanic school; late 17th century and later.
"Saint Francis of Paula".
Carved wood with polychrome.
It presents faults on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 47 x 19 x 17 cm.
Saint Francis of Paola (Calabria, Italy, 1416-Tours, France, 1507). This saint was a hermit and founder of the Order of Minims and a saint of the Catholic Church in the Italian region of Calabria. Legend has it that St. Francis became seriously ill with an eye disease and his parents prayed to St. Francis, who cured their son's eyes. To thank him for the miracle, at the age of fourteen he went on a pilgrimage to Assisi, thus becoming a hermit. For five years he withdrew to the mountain, feeding only on water and wild herbs, sleeping on the hard ground, with a stone as his pillow. He was canonised in 1519, only twelve years after his death, during the pontificate of Pope Leo X. In the early years of the 16th century, the Order of the Minims entered Spain, acquiring great diffusion due to the values of Franciscan preaching that they spread, which, linked to the recent canonisation of the saint and his way of life and poverty, had a very strong influence on the Spanish Christian population.