Via di San Francesco Day 17: Assisi

Our accommodations in Assisi, once we managed to find them in the labyrinth of the old city, were basic but comfortable, at Ospitalità Citadella, a church-run institution which "aims to be a welcoming place, able to ignite flashes of inspiration in the landscapes of the soul." In our attic room it was hot enough to ignite more than flashes of inspiration, and the dinner menu was, let us say, appropriate for the advanced age of the average resident. But pilgrims do not criticise, and on the whole consider any place that provides sheets and towels quite luxurious! 

Having visited the Basilica of San Francesco and the Church of Santa Chiara the previous afternoon and picked up the Testimonium certifying our completion of the pilgrimage on foot, we spent the next morning on a mini-pilgrimage walk to some of the other Franciscan churches in Assisi. Awakened by the dawn chorus of birds, we rose at 5 a.m. and hiked up to the Eremo delle Carceri, a hermitage on the mountainside high above Assisi where Saint Francis used to retire in prayer. Walking uphill through the silent city streets, past the cathedral, the remains of the ancient Roman theatre and the castle, we left the town by the upper gate and took a trail through the woods, climbing from an altitude of 350 to 800 metres in only 3 km. The trail then levelled out and continued for another kilometre and a half around the flank of Monte Subasio to the Fosso delle Carceri, the gully in which the hermitage and former prison is built right into the rock. The oldest part of the complex is a chapel in what was originally the cave where the saint retired to pray. At 6:45 am there was no-one about but us, and the monks singing praises in the little church.

Assisi: the cathedral, San Rufino, in the light of dawn at 5:15 am

Eremo delle Carceri

Above the hermitage is a wood riddled with pathways and little corners in which to sit in meditation or even hold a religious service, in a landscape of rocks exactly like the ones in Giotto's frescoes in the Basilica below. I had always believed Giotto's cheese-like rocks to be stylised, but I now realise they are a realistic depiction of the rocks on the mountain above Assisi!    

After exploring the hermitage and its grounds we returned to Assisi by a different route, following the road and then a gravel pathway and enjoying fantastic views over the plain below. 

We returned to our accommodations just as breakfast service was starting, having already walked ten kilometres!

After breakfast we checked out, said goodbye to our friend and fellow pilgrim Franco, put our backpacks on and walked down the hill to San Damiano, the church Saint Francis rebuilt with his own hands upon command of the crucifix before which he prayed in the ruins of the church. Saint Francis interpreted the command he was given in his vision as an order to literally rebuild the walls of that specific church, a Romanesque rural chapel with adjacent pilgrim hostel which was already four or five centuries old in his time and falling apart; but he later came to realise that the his mission was to rebuild the church in general, meaning the community of believers, corrupt and torn by strife and heresy.     

In the year 1211 Francis assigned the church to Saint Clare and her community of nuns, who remained there until Clare's death in 1253. Francis returned to San Damiano to be tended by the nuns during the illness of his final years. It was at this time, in the winter of 1225, while living in an unheated and rat-infested hut, ill and practically blind from an eye disease at the age of only 42, that Francis wrote his most famous song of praise, the Cantico delle Creature, known in English as the Canticle of the Sun, one of the earliest poems to be written in the Italian language (rather than Latin). Taught to all Italian schoolchildren as one of the first examples of poetry in the vulgar tongue, the poem was originally set to music, which has been lost, and expresses all of the saint's love and thankfulness for the whole of God's creation, the natural universe, beginning with the heavens, then turning to the elements and all forms of life on earth. On his deathbed Francis and his companions added another verse expressing thanks for "Sister Death".

English Translation:

Most High, all powerful, good Lord,

Yours are the praises, the glory, the honour, and all blessing.

To You alone, Most High, do they belong,

and no man is worthy to mention Your name.

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 splendour!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,

in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,

and through the air, cloudy and serene,

and every kind of weather through which

You give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,

which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom you light the night and he is beautiful

and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,

who sustains us and governs us and who produces

varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord,

through those who give pardon for Your love,

and bear infirmity and tribulation.

Blessed are those who endure in peace

for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord,

through our Sister Bodily Death,

from whom no living man can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin.

Blessed are those who will

find Your most holy will,

for the second death shall do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord,

and give Him thanks

and serve Him with great humility

After this treasured visit to the monastery of San Damiano, we continued down to the valley floor and the town of Santa Maria degli Angeli, with wonderful views of Assisi above us.

Here we had an appointment for a ride-share to take Flavia to Florence, and the driver was kind enough to take me aboard as well and drop me off in Siena, where through a series of perfect coincidences I found a bus across town, lunch, an out-of-town bus to take me where I needed to go and even a ride up the hill from the bus stop to home!

In the end we managed to clock 17 more kilometres of walking today, just from chapel to chapel in Assisi! So now it's time to give these feet a break!