The Church of San Damiano is an important place of pilgrimage for Franciscans. Here in 1205, Jesus spoke to Francis from the cross telling him to rebuild His church. Although the church building pilgrims see today is not the San Damiano of Francis' day, the work Francis and his brothers did still reverberates through the walls.
A fifteen minute walkfrom Assisi' s Porta Nuova, down the gently but persistently sloping mountainside, the trail to the Church of San Damiano passes through picturesque olive orchards and offers an excellent view of the Apennines.
The Church of San Damiano
Courtyard of the Church of San Damiano
Francis of Assisi was just at the beginning of his conversion experience in 1205 when Jesus asked him to rebuild His church. A year later, he and a group of likeminded followers, descended upon the church and did as the Lord had instructed Francis to do. The stones used in the rebuilding, Francis had procured by begging.
The Apennines
Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon -
rebuilding of the church of San Damiano
Francis' association with the Church of San Damiano did not end after he and his followers had finished rebuilding it. When Clare retreated from her privileged life as an aristocrat and started her Franciscan existence, Francis brought her to the Church of San Damiano; which she and her sisters turned into their monastery. Today the Poor Clare sisters still take care of the San Damiano Cross (the one from which Jesus spoke to Francis). The cross hangs in a side chapel inside the Basilica of St. Clare (Assisi).
The San Damiano Cross in the Basilica of St. Clare (Assisi)
Two years before he died (in 1224), Francis came back to San Damiano one more time and for a longer visit. He was ill and in great discomfort. From his solitary cell, however, he was able to compose the Canticle of the Creatures, a work still deeply revered in Italy and around the world; a work that reminds all of us how intertwined we are with the natural world.
