Brother Sun.....

Day 11 and 12 Assisi

 Be praised, my Lord, through all Your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and You give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful

-St Francis of Assisi

Well, like I have said, we are not Catholic, and we are not especially religious.  But when in Assisi, it is pretty hard not to be both.

There is the old town up on the hill, that has retained its character, and the newer town in the valley.  The town is further off the beaten path, so it was less crowded than Tuscany.  There were more religiously dressed folks, nuns and monks mostly, running around.  The gift items were more religious based.

The town is surrounded by Olive groves.  We heard a lot of bird song everywhere.

 

 

You’ve already heard about the quite active lizard population…..

 

A little about St Francis.  He was born in 1181 into a rich family and died in 1226.  He was revered in his own time, so a lot is known about him.  He went to war, was captured and returned home a victim of TSD (not to be confused with an STD!) and gave up all his luxuries to live a simple life.  So he was pretty much the first hippy.  Franco Zefferelli’s movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon proves this.

St Francis' Parents

 

St Clare of Assisi was his side kick and founded her own order, the Poor Clare’s.  Amongst her artifacts were the shirt she made for St Francis, the stockings she made for St Francis, the medicine she made for St Francis….we came to the conclusion, she was basically a nag!

Rick Steves has a walking tour of Assisi, so we decided to follow that, just out of order.  According to my FitBit, we climbed the equivalent of 86 flights of stairs that day.  Everything in Assisi is uphill…both ways!

 

And Rick Steves also PROMISED us that Assisi is full of St Francis Bobbleheads!  Oooooh! I want one!  It would go great in my rather eclectic Nativity Set.  Come on, Baby Jesus wants a Bobblehead!

 

Nope, not a one was spotted, and I looked hard!

Side note, I did look on Google when we got back and can find a ton of POPE Francis bobbleheads, but not a single SAINT Francis on!  I believe I need to send a scathing letter to Rick Steves for getting my hopes up!

We started at St Clare’s Cathedral. 

 

 

It is a beautiful church, full of scurrying nuns going about their business.  They did pause to give you a smile, if you smiled at them.  Out front there was a woman dressed up like an angel, writing messages on little pieces of paper that she was giving to people (for a price, I presume.) 

 

 

See her on the bottom right?

 

While not paying attention, a little, old beggar woman slipped a piece of paper into my hand.  It was like a book mark, with the Virgin Mary on it.  Of course, she then wanted a tip.  She told us in Italian that she was from somewhere else.  We gave her some coins (what we had) and she kept asking for more, until we went into the church.

 

Note to self, keep your hands in your pocket, unless you want to acquire a whole lot of stuff…paper, roses, notes written by angels….

The inside of the church was very peaceful. 

There was a Carrousel in the piazza in front of the church, and the views of the valley were amazing.

 

 

 

We then started wandering to our next destinations, and did some window shopping.  We did go into a wonderful Olive Wood shop.  They had a lot of really beautiful products and we bought some kitchen utensils.

We wandered past the Church of Santo Stefano, which was built in the 12^th century without an architect…we thought it best not to linger.

 

This is from a hospice built to house pilgrims.  The remaining Frescos are of Jesus, St Francis and St Clare.

 

 St Clare, looking grumpy.

Jesus and St Francis

 

Eventually we found ourselves in front of San Francisco Basilica.  It is enormous! 

 

 

In front there is a large green lawn with a statue of a weary soldier returning from the Crusades and some hedges with St Francis’ symbols

 

 

The building actually holds 2 Basilica’s.  While they were built within a short time of each other, they are in very different styles.  We went into the lower Basilica first.  It was relatively low ceilinged (for a Basilica) and dim inside.  We sat on a pew for a few minutes to let our eyes adjust and absorb the beauty. (no photos allowed inside)

 

We then went and viewed the crypt of St Francis and his buddies. 

 

We climbed the stairs in the back of the lower basilica to a courtyard, with a gift shop.  I proceeded to buy VERY LARGE St Francis and St Clare medals…much larger than the puny St Ant’ny one I had bought in Padua!  No sense taking any chances with the Lizard Patrol!

We then went into the Upper Basilica, which was open and airy.  There were frescos by Giotto, who we met in Padua of St Francis’ life.

 

It did strike us as a little ironic that a man who lived so simply would have such a massive series of churches built in his honor!

Stay tuned for more of Assisi, same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!