We arrived at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, just outside of Assisi. We are about 4km from Assisi.
Before Italy was unified, it was a land of city states that were in constant aggression with neighbors. Every hill has a fortified city at its peak. Perugia and Assisi were such and it was Perugia that Francis, in his time as a soldier,
set about attacking. He was captured and spent a year or so in prison.
It was safe in the fortified city. It was not safe on the valley floor. It was on the valley floor that Francis lived.
This is the cradle of the Franciscan life. Here is where Francis lived and died. The little church that Francis restored, the Portiuncula, is fully enclosed by the Basilica. Portiuncula means “the little portion.” I now understand the naming of John Michael Talbot’s Franciscan community in Arkansas. The Poriuncula is about the size of a typical master bedroom and richly decorated on its exterior. The interior is more austere and simple. It is amazing to know that some of these stones were put in place by St. Francis himself.
May 15
Another rainy day as we were deposited at the base of a rather steep hill. Fortunately, the escalators were working. They carried us to Assisi and the Basilica of St. Chiarra (St. Clare) that was built at the end of the 13th Century.
The Basilica houses the crucifix from the Church of San Damiano, the crucifix that spoke to St. Francis when he was a young playboy living a lavish lifestyle in Assisi. As the story goes, Francis became depressed and started spending time in introspective prayer. He enjoyed visiting the deserted, decrepit chapel of San Damiano. The icon is almost life size with the face of the crucified Lord closed in death. With Francis in prayer, the eyes of the icon opened and the head nodded forward toward Francis and it spoke "Francis, don't you see that my house is being destroyed? Go, then, and rebuild it for me."
Francis, thinking he meant the chapel, did so; later it became clear that God meant the universal Church. Francis started taking goods from his father’s warehouse and selling them to raise funds for the repair. This lead to the confrontation in town square of Assisi that resulted in Francis stripping himself naked, returning all of his worldly possessions to his father and becoming a beggar --- radical behavior then, radical behavior now.The Franciscans were the first mendicant order where the brothers beg for their food and for money to give to the poor.
We celebrated Liturgy in the main altar at the Basilica of St. Clare. St. Clare’s body is not incorrupt, but her body is displayed as though she were. Her face is a mask of some sort. She was from a noble Assisi family. She and her sister, Agnes, fled their home to live in a monastic life style. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies and wrote the first monastic rule for women.
Following her death, the order was renamed the Order of Saint Clare, the Poor Clares. They lived at San Damiano, which St. Francis helped expand to accommodate the community. They were known for a radically austere cloistered lifestyle. I did not know that St. Clare is the patron saint of television --- she was reportedly able to see and hear Mass on the wall of her cell when she was too ill to attend in person. Oddly enough, Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN is a Poor Clare.
We walked to Hell’s Hill, the location outside of the walls of the town for public executions. St. Francis is buried on Hell’s Hill in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. It is composed of 3 spaces, the upper church, the lower church and crypt. St. Francis was buried in the lower church in 1230. The location of the burial site was concealed for fear that the remains may be stolen. Apparently, no one recorded the location and the location was forgotten.
St. Francis was rediscovered some 600 years later. The crypt was built then to expose the coffin for public veneration. The coffin is suspended in a rock column above an altar. Around the column is a marble step used for prayer. The marble step has two groves worn into it from pilgrims on their knees processing around the burial site. Surrounding St. Francis’ coffin are the burial sites of brothers Ruffino, Angelo, Masseo and Leone.
The tomb of St. Francis 2010
Hell’s Hill is the name of the place where Francis is buried. It was where the city executed criminals. Francis was the face of God with stigmata to the world 1000 years after Christ; St. Padre Pio was the same, 1000 years later.
Hell's Hill is the haven
where birds and pilgrimages flock
to see where good intention
encased a radical in rock
Hungry for a message
our experience has erased
"Give it all up"
are not the words
one wants put in their cup
Heart in stone showing
hearts of stone the way home
May the face of Christ in Turin,
Assisi, Rotundo and in Rome
be hammers and chisels
sharp enough to quarry stone
We saw a lot of relics from St. Clare and St. Francis. The one that impressed me was the habit that St. Francis wore. It was very roughly made with several large holes that had been patched, ostensibly with fabric that was cut from a cloak belonging to St. Clare.
I had a strange encounter. Leaving the toilet facility outside of St. Francis basilica, for which I had paid half a Euro for the privilege, I literally ran into a man wearing a gray habit who was wearing no shoes. It was cold and rainy. My first reaction was “what kind of nut is this!!” and get away from him. My second reaction was this is exactly how people must have reacted to Francis. Much to my embarrassment, I later found out that this man was most likely a “grey friar”, follower of St. Francis.
I only was familiar with “brown friars.” I need to curb my middle class prejudice.
This is an aside: The day after I returned to Illinois, I attended an EPIC seminar on Church history. We consumed about 300 years per hour. It is important to remember the significant contribution of the various religious orders --- Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines. Benedictines are monks; they devote themselves to prayer and work.
Franciscans and Dominicans are mendicant friars which means they are supposed to wander around among people, preach and live on the benevolence of strangers. Capitalism was invented by religious orders and 25+% of economic output in medieval times came out of monasteries. They controlled the money supply and became the banks of Europe.
