Assisi

Walking to San Damiano Church

(2/24) Fr. Carolla (Our Chaplain) planned a weekend to take all the Seminarians from our group to Assisi.  Us women and and a few lay guys thought it would also be a good weekend to go.  We were going to try to stay out of their way, but aboard the 7:58am train, Fr. Carolla invited us to spend the morning with them.  When we got off the train we met up with them and walked over to the "Santa Maria Degli Angeli"--a basilica marking the spot where Francis lived, worked, and died.  The grandiose church is built around the original small chapel where he prayed, the hermitage where he worked, and houses the place where he died.  We caught a bus up to the top of the hill where the town of Assisi actually is, and walked down a long steep but scenic slope to the church of San Damiano--The church and convent where Francis received his vocational call and where St. Calre spent her days as mother and superior of the Poor Clares.  It is a peaceful place and we were fortunate to be able to celebrate Mass there, led by Fr. Carolla.  After mass we stopped right outside the chapel to the spot where St. Francis looked out at the landscape and wrote his famous message, "The Canticle of the Sun."  Even though it was lent, we found it very fitting to sing "All Creatures of our God and King" based off of the Canticle at that very spot.  It was raining and cold but we huddled under our umbrellas and sang with all the warmth we could muster.  Assisi is a place where it is very easy to picture living in during st. Francis's time...looking out at the same beautiful scenery, walking along the same steep slopes, and walking past the same old buildings.  it is definitely a place of serenity.  Unfortunately, the fog kept us from seeing very much of the landscape, but it was still beautiful and I'd love to come back when it is sunny.

Relics of S. Francis and Clare

   After mass, we hiked up the loooong steep hill (every street in this town you're either walking straight up or straight down) to a place for lunch.  I decided to order something other than pasta, and realized that was not a very good choice:  Cold/greasy omelet, shredded plain carrots, and cold fries did not really meet my expectations, but I was happy just to be someplace warm and out of the rain.  After lunch we stopped in the "Cathedral of San Rufino" where St. Francis and St. Clare were baptized.  The  cathedral is a 11th century Romaneque facade with a Neoclassical interior, and holds bits of the original medieval architecture in the floors.  Next, we trekked down to the "Basilica di Santa chiara", Basilica of St. Clare.  There is a chapel inside that houses the original Crucifix of San Damiano, where in 1206, a soul-searching Francis knelt before and asked for guidance.  The crucifix spoke: "Go and rebuild my Church, which you can see has fallen into ruin."  Francis therefore followed the call and physically rebuilt the church of San Damiano, later rebuilding the church as a whole and saving it altogether.  Held in the basement is the tomb of St. Clare.  Paintings on the walls depict spiritual lessons from Clare's life and death.  On the opposite wall lie important relics: The saint's robes, blonde hair in a silver box, and enormous handmade tunic, Francis' blood-stained stocking he wore after he received the stigmata, and more.  It was incredible to see each of these relics that were such a part of these saints simple life right in front of me!

(illegal) pic of Francis' Tomb

   After spending some time here we split up from the seminarians and went to one of the artistic and religious highlights of Europe: "The Basilica di San Francesco", The Basilica of St. Francis.  This Basilica is massive, holding both the tomb of St. Francis in the basement, a lower level basilica, and an upper level basilica.   It is frescoed from top to bottom with scenes by the leading artists of the day: Cimabue, Giotto, Lorenzetti and more.  In the tomb, the saint's remains are above the altar in a stone box with iron ties, surrounded by the tombs of Francis' four closest friends and followers.  My favorite part was picking up a candle, making a prayer intention, and placing it on the altar where it will be burned throughout the year at the intercession of St. Francis.  The lower basilica is frescoed with parallel scenes from the lives of Christ and Francis, connected by a ceiling of stars, and littered with side chapels.  The 3 scenes above the tomb of St. Francis represent the creed of the Franciscans: Obedience, Chastity and Poverty. The upper basilica (the first Gothic church in Italy, 1228) brought you into another massive room covered in Frescoes of St. Francis' life.  They are so large that you have to walk slowly along the perimeter in order to take it all in.  Even though the church is massive, the pulpit can be seen and heard from every spot in the church, following the spirit of the Franciscan order which was to preach.  I climbed up a few more stairs to see once more the Assisi landscape stretched before me as it became dark.

Basilica of St. Francis

   Our group split up as a few of us decided it was too cold and we were too wet to stay for dinner.  Instead we headed back to the bus which took us to the train and we basked in the stuffy but warm atmosphere of the train.  After experiencing the worst bathroom experience ever on the train, we heard "Rome Termini" over the intercom and prepared to get off.  Me and Katie followed the german teens we sat by off the train when it stopped, but the other girls remained on, hesitant because it didn't look like the right stop.  Knowing the trains usually only stop for a couple of minutes I stood on the platform and looked at the glowing "Rome Termini" sign in front of me.  The German guy overheard our confusion and immediately stomped is foot down in runners pose, waved his hand in the air and yelled in broken English, "NEXT STOP NEXT STOP!!"  As if in slow motion, the doors to the train shut and started moving forward.  I saw the next few hours of sitting alone in a train station at night having no idea where I was flash before me.  Suddenly I hear an obscenity being screamed, one of our group members force the train door open, and my legs numbly running next to the train and jumping into the doors (which now sounded an alarm since we clearly forced it open)!  Adrenaline and hysterical laughter from the Germans outside could barely get passed my frantically pumping heart and how close a call that was!  What an experience!  I've now had to chase after trains twice since I've been here.

Singing in the rain

   Arriving back, we finally had dinner at 10 pm and crashed into bed, happy to be warm and dry and not spending the night at the wrong stop at a train station.