He is portrayed in military terms, referred to as "God's athlete- (Canto XII, line 56). There is an emphasis or importance placed on their complementary nature, and of the qualities that each represents. This is coupled with the fact that both men worked for the dissemination and practice of the faith, makes praise of one man a praise of both as "both their labors served a single end- (Canto XI, line 42).
St. Thomas tells of St. Francis, further evidence of the intertwining of these orders since St. Thomas was actually of the Dominican order. St. Francis was historically the son of a wool merchant, who as a youth pursued a life of pleasure. He resolved to renounce the worldly life and devote himself to poverty. Dante describes Poverty as "Bereft of her first spouse, despised, ignored,/ she waited eleven hundred years and more,/ living without a lover till he came,"" (Canto XI, lines 64-66). She had climbed the cross to be with Christ, as the poem tells, remaining loyal to him even to his death. St. Francis "while still a youth he braved his father's wrath,"" in love with Poverty, whom most men fear as much as they do death itself, he gave up his rightful inheritance to embrace her. .
St. Bonaventure relates the tale of St. Dominic, though he is of the Franciscan order. He is described as the "staunch lover- (Canto XII, line 55) and "God's holy athlete- (line 56), references to his intense studies of theology and defense of the faith. Dante writes that "he was wed to Christian Faith- (line 61), the same faith which freed him from Original Sin and he, in turn, defended from heresy. He sought "the eternal bread- (line 84), which refers to true knowledge or "the bread of angels,"" as opposed to learning for material gain. Dominic requested "just the right to fight- (line 94) against the sinful world for the sake of the faith.
Their tales of the founders of the two orders end with each reflecting on the faults of their order.