October 23, 2008

Fr. David, Br. Daniel, Solomon Zettler (S.M.K.S. 2008) and I left the convent early in the morning to get out of Rome before the daily chaos of traffic started. Heading northward on the highway we passed bland suburban apartment buildings and began to see the freshly cultivated fields, hillside pastoral scenes, and fortified hilltop cities like Foligno and Spello.

We arrived at Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of the Angels), the newer city at the base of Assisi and checked into the Domus Pacis, a hotel run by the OFM friars. The accommodations were excellent and they charged only 40 euro per person per night, including breakfast. It was also right next to the seventeenth century basilica after which the city is named. The basilica was built on the exact spot that St. Francis died and houses the Portiuncula, a small church that St. Francis rebuilt. It was the place that “... he commanded his brothers to venerate with a special reverence; this place he willed to be preserved as a model of humility and highest poverty for their order... The happy father used to say that it had been revealed to him by God that the Blessed Mother loved this church, among all the other churches built in her honor throughout the world, with a special love; for this reason the holy man loved it above all others.” We were able to spend time there in prayer and contemplation.

The incorrupt body of St. Claire.

A typical street in Assisi.

Assisi is the most famous hilltop city in Umbria because unlike most, it has been frozen in time. The hill is surrounded by farmland that ascends sharply into olive trees and other greenery upon which the stone city sits. The entrances of the city are marked by a short wall and a series of gates with massive, worn wooden doors. The stone-paved streets slope either steeply upwards or downwards with an occasional leveling-off at the various piazzas (squares). They are not wide and sometimes a car will give a pedestrian no more than two feet of space to walk. Houses are built of tan and white stones and are typically right next to each other without a yard to separate them with some having a walled-in courtyard or backyard. Br. Daniel was particularly fascinated by by the fact that the houses had either tiny or overly-large wood doors for an entrance. Although the houses and other buildings are close together and the streets narrow, the city is exceptionally clean and well ordered. Also evident were the arches in the walls that had been a door to a house that had been there few hundred years ago from which the present structure had been reworked. The scent of history hangs heavily in the air of Assisi.

We started out in the lower part of the city, prowling the gift shops and making our way to the Basilica of St. Claire. Built in 1257 using pink and white stones, the basilica has the incorrupt body of St. Claire, habits and other clothing worn by St. Francis and St. Claire, St. Francis' breviary, a glass box containing locks of St. Claire's long blond hair cut by St. Francis and the actual San Damiano crucifix through which Our Lord spoke to St. Francis, telling him "Rebuild My Church". We prayed for some time to St. Claire asking for her intercession for ourselves and for you.

We continued up towards Rocca Maggiore, the eleventh century fortress that dominates the city. Stopping for a rest and some pizza in the middle of the city at Piazza del Comune we were enveloped in the man-made canyon of stone buildings. We sat for a few moments listening to the trickle of the stone fountain, the people talking and laughing outside the cafes and the struggle of the small-engined vehicles climbing up through the streets. We were treading along the borders of history.

We proceeded upwards towards the Cathedral of San Rufino. It had been there since before the times of St. Francis and is only now changed by the access to excavations beneath the cathedral of an even older church. People are still being baptized in the same baptistry that St. Francis and St. Claire were baptized in.

The Cathedral of San Rufino.

Rocca Maggiore - the fortress atop Assisi.

After a long climb on stone stairs we made it to the "Rocca". Without even going up into the fortress the view was already fantastic. Mount Subasio loomed even higher over the top of Assisi with the Franciscan hermitage visible through the trees about half-way up. The fortress looks formidable with its thick stone walls with small lookouts for soldiers to shoot from. Small, tightly-winding staircases enable people to reach the upper levels and the top of the two towers. The view from the top of the fortress commands the entire area which would have made an approaching army visible for miles in any direction. It is possible that St. Francis would have learned his masonry skills here as a young soldier, using them later on to rebuild San Damiano and the Portiuncula.

We walked down to Piazza del Comune and stopped at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva - a church that started out as a temple to the Roman goddess Minerva and became a church, then a government building, a jail and then again a church. The original facade is still preserved with the much-worn Greek columns and uneven steps.

Winding through the streets we approached the Basilica of St. Francis as the sun set over the horizon. We only had half-an-hour to see the ornately decorated “lower basilica” and the crypt where St. Francis' mortal remains rest. The time passed quickly as we prayed to the Seraphic Father because before long we were ushered out of the basilica with the few other visitors who were left.

October 24, 2008

Following Mass and breakfast we went to the small town of Rivotorto about two miles from Santa Maria degli Angeli to visit the church of Santa Maria di Rivotorto which was built on the spot where St. Francis and his first followers lived for the first three years of the order. Over the main entrance of the sanctuary is inscribed “Hic Primordia Fratum Minorum” (here the beginning of the Friars Minor). The inside of the church was rebuilt in 1845 in a simple Gothic style with a reconstruction of the “Sacred Hut” in the nave. The small “u” shaped building had two rooms separated by an open area partially covered with a roof. It was very edifying to us to see that the humble man of Assisi and his brethren did not start out in the fine basilica that we had seen the night before but in a hut fit for animals.

We returned to Assisi and dropped Fr. David off to pray at the tomb of St. Francis while Br. Daniel, Solomon and I went to San Damiano, another place dear to the heart of St. Francis' children. It was in this place that St. Francis stopped to pray at the dilapidated church of St. Damien when Our Lord spoke to him saying “Rebuild My Church”. St. Francis rebuilt the church stone-by-stone (and later realized that Our Lord meant the Catholic Church) and stayed there later on with his brothers; eventually St. Francis gave the place to St. Claire and her followers. It is still an active friary with only certain parts open to the public. Visible are some of the chapels that are interspersed throughout the building, the choir where St. Claire and her sisters chanted the liturgy of the hours, the refectory where they ate and the room where the sisters slept on the floor with straw mats. A light shining in the corner of the room designates the exact spot where St. Claire passed from this life to heavenly bliss. The courtyard of the friary is simply decorated with grass and flowers surrounding a well. It was in this courtyard that St. Francis composed his famous prayer “Canticle of the Creatures”.

Part of the hut where St. Francis and his first companions lived.

The Sanctuary of La Verna.

The friars make their daily devotion to the stigmata of St. Francis.

After picking up Fr. David we departed for Chiusi della Verna, about an hour-and-a-half drive north from Assisi. As we drove, the moderately-hilled farming landscape of Perugia with its citied hilltops gave way to the fall-colored forests of Arezzo covering the growing heights of the Apennine Mountains. Following signs for the Santuario, we drove up the small, winding roads (“goat trails” as Br. Daniel called them) making our way further up the mountains and into the Casentinesi Forest National Park. We followed the signs directing us to the top of the mountain and began to see stone buildings in the forest.

We crept along nervously as the road dwindled to just barely the width of the car and then we spotted cars parked beneath the trees ahead. At once there was a feeling of solemnity to the area. The buildings were made of dark gray stone and faded peacefully into the rocky edges of the ground. The Franciscans built there, it seems, with the intentions of peacefully coexisting with the landscape, not conquering it. It was obvious that they get relatively few tourists because there were no multi-language plaques denoting the importance of the various areas, there were no guides nor were there any of the twenty or so friars who could speak English but none of it was necessary because the place spoke for itself. The stone courtyard of the little basilica (built from 1348-1459) overlooks the whole countryside, with the friary and other little buildings adjoining. On the other side of the basilica lies a hallway lined with frescoes depicting St. Francis' experiences at La Verna. The hallway leads to a series of small chapels that used to be cells, one of which was used by St. Bonaventure when he was there. The last room is the Chapel of the Stigmata with a terracotta crucifixion scene above the altar and a stone in the middle of the floor marking the exact spot where St. Francis received the stigmata. Every day at three o-clock the friars convene at the basilica, chant the divine office and have a solemn procession in which they chant and go to the Chapel of the Stigmata and then chant the litany of Saints going back to the basilica through the stone corridors that have been there for thousands of years. Visitors are allowed to partake in the prayers and, for me, it ended up being one of the most moving experiences of the pilgrimage.

Solomon and I explored the many little tangential paths which led to small caves and niches in which St. Francis and other friars throughout history had spent time in closeness to God. One in particular was in the face of a cliff. Named “the precipice” it is a little niche in the rock where St. Francis stayed for prayer and contemplation. We were truly blessed to have had the opportunity to go to La Verna, a place where Franciscans have gone for prayer and solitude for nearly eight hundred years.