Assisi Basilica and the Tomb, Life and Biography of Saint Francis of Assisi, Italy

The great complexity of the Assisi Basilica of Francis in Italy and the Sacred Convent

Located in the west of the hill on which stands the town of Assisi, it has gradually structured in the XIII-XV. Presents the visitor who comes from the plain with its architecture both simple and majestic.

The history and the structure of the Sacred Convent, a place of life of the Franciscan friars and the residence of the popes. Others are dedicated to the Basilica of Francis in Assisi with three overlapping halls of the crypt with the tomb of St. Francis, the lower church and the Upper Church.

Some areas of the large property at the service of important works, such as the rich Treasure Museum which occupies part of the original papal palace. The Library and Documentation Centre Franciscan ‘s Theological Institute of Assisi Italy, which hosts academic activity and theological research, which is accessed from the cloister of Sixtus IV.

Groups may make reservations to celebrate in the Tomb/Crypt Church at 8.00 AM and 9.00 AM or at in St. Catherine’s Chapel at 12.00 Noon and 4.00 PM.

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The shop of religious articles and souvenirs of Assisi Italy, run by brothers, with a large section dedicated to herbalism, is another of the environments that are accessed directly from the terrace top of the Cloister.

The Portiuncula

The church dedicated to Santa Maria Degli Angeli, built probably in the fourth century and later passed into the ownership of the Benedictine monks, named after the area called ” Portiuncula “, which literally means the small portion of land on which it stood.

Remained for a long time in a state of neglect, was the third church to be restored directly to St. Francis after the “mandate” received from the crucifix of San Damiano.

Life and biography of Saint Francis of Assisi 

• Basilica of Francis in Assisi Italy – Lower and Upper Church1181-82: Francis was born in Assisi to Pietro di Bernardone and his wife Lady“Pica”, in his father’s absence. He was christened Giovanni (John), but when his father came back from his business trip he named him Francis.
• 1202: There was an open skirmish between Perugia and Assisi. The opposing armies clashed at Collestrada and Perugia won. Francis was one of the Assisi soldiers taken a prisoner, and he was held captive in Perugia for about a year.
• 1204: Francis went through a long illness. Towards the end of the year he decided to go to Apulia to fight under Gualtiero di Brienne, but when he reached Spoleto he had a mysterious vision which made him change his plans and go back to Assisi.
• 1205: Francis’ twenty-fourth year marked the beginning of his conversion: he renounced his friends and his happy-go-lucky lifestyle; he engaged in a life of intensive prayer; he met and kissed the leper; he saw the Crucifix of San Damiano and heard its voice; he made a pilgrimage to Rome and had his first experience of poverty.
• 1206: Francis renounced his father’s wealth. He rebuilt the three small churches of San Damiano, San Pietro Della Spina, and the Porziuncola.
• 1208: In spring he listened to the Gospel of the votive mass of the Apostles at the Porziuncola, which brought to light his evangelical and apostolic vocation. That same year, the first companions joined him, thus constituting the embryonic core of the first Franciscan Order.
• 1209: Composes a first short rule and with his companions goes to Rome to have the approval of the Pope, which was granted “orally”. It begins with the words: “This is the rule and life of the lesser brothers to live the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ in poverty, chastity, and obedience.”
  1210: Forced to leave the stall at Rivotorto, the growing fraternity moves to the Porziuncola through the kindness of the Benedictines.
• 1212: Chiara, eighteen years old, flees to the Porziuncola, where Francis consecrates her to God by cutting her hair and vesting her in the garb of a consecrated virgin living within a Benedictine Monastery of Nuns, and after a short time her sister Agnes joins her and thus begins Second Franciscan Order, the Poor Clares. Their first monastery is at the Church of San Damiano. At the end of this year, Francis attempts a missionary journey to Syria but the winds bring him back to Dalmatia and Ancona.
• 1217: At Pentecost during the first general chapter at the Portiuncula are created 12 Franciscan provinces or districts.
• 1219: At Pentecost chapter at the Portiuncula, it was decided to send the Franciscans in Germany, France, Hungary, Spain, and Morocco. The five that reach Morocco are martyred. Francis himself embarks for Ancona and reaches the Crusaders’ camp at Damietta.
• 1221: Francesco scribe la Regola detta ‘non bollata’, che viene presentata nel Capitolo di Pentecoste.
• 1223: Francis, at Fontecolombo draws up the final rule, “regula bullata” which Pope Honorius III approves on November 29 with the Bull, “Solet annuere”. The original rule is kept at the Basilica of St. Francis. At Christmas, with the consent of the Pope, Francis celebrates the Nativity Scene at Greccio.
• 1224: On September 17, at La Verna, Francis receives the impression of the stigmata.
• 1225: At San Damiano, Francis composes the Canticle of Brother Sun, also known as Canticle of the Creatures.
• 1226: On the evening of October 3 at 44, Francis of Assisi dies at the Porziuncola. The next day is brought to Assisi and placed temporarily in San Giorgio, his parish church.
• 1228: Card. Ugolino, now Pope Gregory IX, on July 16 in Assisi canonizes Francis and the following day, July 17 lays the first stone of the new Basilica in his honor.
• 1230: May 25: Solemn procession transferring of the body of St. Francis from his parish church of San Giorgio to the new basilica, which Gregory IX, with the Bull “Is qui ecclesiam suam”, had the previous April 22 declared directly under the Roman Pontiff, and “Caput et Mater” (“Head and Mother”) Church of the Order of the Friars Minor.

The first impression that strikes us in the light entering the square, and especially before you visited the Upper Church, is that of a darkness in which it is difficult to orientate.

The Lower Church presents itself as a serious, powerful, dark building arches crushed and sometimes prone in stark contrast to the Upper Church sleek, spacious, airy, bright. The Lower Church par kneeling to pray at the tomb of the saint, the Superior par songs that soaring skyward. The first invites to meditation, penance, and silence, the second expansion and joy.

The two buildings above seems to allude to the double story of human life: first during earthly and painful, then the heavenly and joyful. The union of the two buildings also expresses the concept that the typical Franciscan Perfect joy (Upper Church) can be born only on the sacrifice freely accepted (Lower Church).

The nave of the Lower Church looks like a dark tunnel formed by the mighty ribs of the arches set at eye level. The eye is drawn to the calm brightness of the main altar and the sails of the cruise above it.

The allegorical paintings, recorded in the four triangles of the time, are not mere decoration or ornament pleasant but are things of the Franciscan: are the allegorical figures of holiness to which Francis came in observance of Obedience, Chastity and Poverty.

The subtle systematic treatment and painting reveal that the work was performed under the strict and constant supervision of a Franciscan theologian to whom the painter had to obey.

Sails are one of the most luminous of the collaboration between the creator of the religious “subject” and the performer secular work of art, according to the customs and traditions of the Middle Ages.