An Interesting Life: some musings on my pilgrimage to assisi

What makes life interesting? Is it friends? Is it family? A life without worries? Challenges? Is it your work? Your accomplishments? The affirmations and awards that you receive after a job well done? Is it service? Adventure? A life full of fun?

Three Saturdays ago I went to a place made famous by a man who lived such an interesting life. I thought I knew him fully well because I have read about his life since I was about 8 years old, but then when I visited his hometown I felt that I was just getting acquainted with the man. I did not only go to the place where he was born and where grew up to be an interesting man, I also went to the very spot where he spoke his last words. The man’s name is Francesco Bernardone, better known the world over as St. Francis.

Every inch of Assisi speaks of St. Francis. The shops, the restaurants, the houses, the roads, the pathways, the parks, of course the convents and the churches, and the people seem to vibrate still with the sound of his voice. This ancient town is also called the City of Peace. And once you get there you won’t wonder why it is called such. It is so lovely, so tranquil, that Pope John XXIII himself said when he visited Assisi: “…Here, with St. Francis, here we are at the gates of Heaven.

If Assisi is indeed Heaven’s entryway then I think I know now how beautiful heaven is. I was able to do pilgrimage in Assisi because it was part of the extracurricular activity of our Italian class. There were around fifty of us students who joined the pilgrimage. The bus ride from Rome to Assisi took us about 2 hours and twenty minutes.

SANTA MARIA DEGLI ANGELI
Our fist stop was the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of the Angels). We celebrated the Holy Eucharist there, in one of its side chapels. What makes the Basilica unique among the other churches I have visited here in Italy is that at its very center stands a chapel, called the Porziuncola. In fact, when the Basilica was erected in 1569 its main purpose was to preserve this small, rustic chapel.

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“…Here, with St. Francis,
here we are at the gates of Heaven.”
_______________

It is said that the Porziuncola was one of the spots St. Francis loved most. For a long time it was abandoned and it was St. Francis himself who restored it. It was in that chapel that St. Francis founded the Order of Friars Minor in 1209. It was also in that same chapel where he welcomed St. Clare on the night of March 19th 1212, after she had cut off her hair and fled from her father’s rich household to begin her life of sacrifice and poverty.

When I went inside the Porziuncola I saw many people there praying in silence. It had frescoes all over it, a small altar, and some kneelers. Much of the original interior remains unchanged up to this day. The walls still have the rough-hewn stones that were put in place there by St. Francis himself. The word Porziuncola means “a small portion of something.” St. Bonaventure wrote that St. Francis made the chapel of the Porziuncola “his home”. It made sense to me that the man who considered himself little would make a porziuncola his home. As I prayed inside “his home” it seemed that the stonewalls still echoed the prayers that, hundreds of years ago, St. Francis lifted up to God.

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When St. Francis felt that he was dying
he insisted on lying on the earth
rather than on a bed.
_________

THE TRANSITO AND THE ROSE GARDEN
Beside the Porziuncola is the Cappella del Transito. This chapel was erected on the very spot where St. Francis died on October 3rd 1226. It used to be a humble hut used by the friars as an infirmary. You should know this important piece of information: when St. Francis felt that he was dying he insisted on lying on the earth rather than on a bed. He wanted to demonstrate that he had remained faithful to his vow of poverty up to his last breath.

Another spot in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli that is worth mentioning is the Rose Garden. Tradition has it that one wintry night St. Francis was praying in his cell when he was visited by a strong temptation to abandon the life of penance and prayer. To vanquish the diabolical suggestion, he stripped off his clothes and threw himself into a clump of thorny briars. The thorns, in coming into contact with his body disappeared, and a garden of roses in flower took the place of the thicket of briars. I saw the roses myself. Through that window to my left one can see the Rose Garden. Our guide told us that the roses without thorns were still growing there.

BASILICA DI SAN FRANCESCO
From the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli we proceeded to the town proper of Assisi. It was such a lovely town, so picturesquely built on the terraced hills of Mt. Subasio. It was so easy to fall in love with the place. The architecture of the whole town was very medieval, very much like what we see in movies about medieval life. I traversed through its narrow winding lanes, climbed its charming flights of stone steps, and entered its famous buildings. Of course the first place we went to was the Basilica di San Francesco (Basilica of St. Francis).

The Basilica di San Francesco houses the paintings of Giotto and Ciambue, created in memory of the life and work of Saint Francis. But more important than the artworks, the basilica houses the remains of St. Francis himself. I learned that the Basilica was built on a hill traditionally called the Colle dell’Inferno (Hill of Hell), and after the remains of St. Francis were transferred there it was changed to Paradise Hill. The Basilica comprises two superimposed churches – the Lower Church and the Upper Church. The remains of St. Francis are placed in a small crypt in the Lower Church. It had dim lighting and pilgrims were obliged to keep silent and not to take any pictures inside. The tomb of St. Francis is protected with a sturdy iron cage, which makes it impossible for people to touch it. I lingered for a while in the Basilica to pray and to look at the artworks. The walls of the Basilica contain scenes from the life of St. Francis. One could spend hours staring at the ones that survive. For me the warmth, simplicity and beauty of the Basilica captures and conveys the spirit of its patron saint.

THE COBBLED STREETS OF ASSISI
From the Basilica I wandered through the cobbled streets of Assisi. The town is still pretty much the same now as when St. Francis was still alive. It is protected by massive city walls and about 6,000 residents now call it home. With each step I made I imagined St. Francis walking there as a young man. St. Francis was born in 1182. He must have had his good times in those streets.

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Some writers describe him as worldly,
proud and vain, though kind and affable.
_________

The son of a wealthy merchant, Francis lived the typical life of spoiled merchant child giving into all kinds of temptations. Some writers describe him as worldly, proud and vain, though kind and affable. He dreamed of becoming a knight. He even went to war. I imagined him as wearing those metallic thingies a knight would wear on horseback. But it seemed that St. Francis was not good in the art of war because he was captured and remained in prison for several months. After his release from prison he joined another military expedition. Wa jud siya motagam. But something happened. God spoke to him in a dream and asked him who could do more, the servant or the master. It suddenly dawned on him what he really needed to do with his life. He abandoned his dream of knighthood and returned to his birthplace where he began to care for the sick.

PIAZZA DEL COMUME
I was still imagining the life of St. Francis when I reached the Piazza del Commune. It was a very small square, almost only a half of Piazza Navona. The fountain in the picture is the only one in the piazza. Piazza del Commune is the very center of Assisi. All the streets of Assisi lead to it. The most imposing structure in the piazza is the Tempio di Minerva (Temple of Minerva). It is said that this temple was built in the 1st century before Christ. Today a row of six Corinthian columns at its façade can still be seen standing. The temple was transformed into a Catholic church in 1539, making it the Christian Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. An important episode of St. Francis’ life took place in Piazza del Commune. It was there where the Saint stripped himself of his clothing and gave it back to his father at the same time renouncing his father so as to belong only to God.

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The voice called him to repair the Church
which was falling into ruin.
Francis interpreted this as a command
to repair the physical church.
_________

BASILICA DI SANTA CHIARA
From Piazza del Commune I went to the Basilica di Santa Chiara (Basilica of St. Clare). It was built in 1257, two years after the canonization of St. Clare. Since it is called a Basilica I was expecting that it would be a big church, but when I went inside I found out that it is only about twice as big as the chapel of the Carmelite Monastery in Mabolo.

Like the Basilica di San Francesco the Basilica di Santa Chiara also had a lower chapel where the remains of St. Clare are kept. One has to go down a small flight of steps to view the crypt of St. Clare. The body of the saint could be seen through a double grating but could not be touched.

When I went up back to the main church I went straight to the Chapel of the Crucifix. Inside this chapel was the crucifix that spoke to St. Francis. History tells us that in 1206, while while praying alone in a dilapidated chapel dedicated to San Damiano, Francis heard the cross speaking to him. The voice called him to repair the Church which was falling into ruin. Francis interpreted this as a command to repair the physical church. He took some of his father’s cloth and sold it, giving the money to the priest at San Damiano, although the priest did not receive it. When his father heard of this he got very angry because he felt embarrassed by what St. Francis did. He wanted his son to be "normal" and take up the family’s business but St. Francis refused. So he imprisoned his son in a cellar and later on brought him to the bishop. And the response of St. Francis was to strip himself of his clothes and gave it back to his father right in front of a crowd in Piazza del Commune. Well, you know the rest of the story.

If I were to tell you all the details of my daylong pilgrimage to the beloved city of St. Francis I think I will bore you to death. That is, if you are not yet bored already. Let me just mention to you in one paragraph all the other significant places I visited. From the Basilica di Santa Chiara I walked to Duomo di San Rufino (Cathedral of St. Rufino) then to the Rocca Maggiore (Great Fort) passing by the Churches of San Paolo, San Stefano and San Giacomo, then I went back to the Basilica di San Francesco where I would meet my classmates for our trip home.

HOW TO LIVE AN INTERESTING LIFE
On our trip home I could not help but to keep on looking back at the town of Assisi until the distance made it impossible for me to do so. Assisi – its people, its edifices, its history, and its favorite son – interested me and impressed me immensely. But of course the true beauty of the Assisi goes beyond the purely visible. The town had its own character, vibrancy, spirituality and loveliness that can captivate even an unbeliever’s heart. I was glad I was able to do a pilgrimage there. I was glad I was able to visit St. Francis at his grave. I was glad I was able to make a spiritual meeting with him.

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One goes more quickly to heaven
from a hut than from a palace.
_________

St. Francis is quoted to have said these words, “One goes more quickly to heaven from a hut than from a palace.” I found this line very consistent with the convictions of the saint. He chose to make a “porziuncola” his home and opted to die on the very humble ground he walked on. We all admire him for his simplicity and for having such a straight-forward way of thinking. When he heard the cross at San Damiano asking him to repair the church, he did not waste precious time in looking for resources to rebuild it. Although afterwards he realized that the call was wider: it was not simply to repair the churches but to call for the renewal of the faithful.

I think what made his life so interesting is that St. Francis was so interested in helping other people, in caring for them, in loving God through them. In fact, one of his first actions after his conversion was to care for the sick. Needless to say, we have so much to learn from St. Francis about how to make our own life interesting.

In his youth St. Francis tried to make his life interesting through careless fun and worldly ambitions. After all to be a knight is to be popular. But later he realized that worldly pleasures do not make an interesting life. Then a life-turning event happened to him while praying at the San Damiano church. I think it was there where he realized that life can only be interesting when lived for God and for God alone. He must have felt so happy with this realization that he preached about it until he breathed his last. In all his words, both written and oral, he called for simplicity of life, poverty, and humility before God – the very things that make one’s life really interesting.