Photos: Where San Francisco slept on a stone, the pilgrims still find

Everyone knows the basilica of San Francisco de Asís, a place of burial of the founder of the Franciscan Order, as well as the basilica that houses the Porciúncula. But few know the Hermitage of prisonsa hermitage hidden in the mountains, surrounded by trees, a place of silence where the very Poor He retired to pray.

In each station, an incessant crowd crowds the majestic entries of the upper and lower basilicas of Assisi, in the Umbría region, Italy. Thousands of tourists travel the cobblestones of the medieval city with their pale stone facades. Meanwhile, just five kilometers from the center, at the top of the city, the atmosphere is completely different: here the silence and loneliness reign. This is what Francisco and his companions were looking for at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

At the end of a winding climb, on the slopes of Mount Ageas, about 800 meters of altitude, the first Franciscan friar erected a small hermitage nestled in the vegetation. In this sacred place, there are still no speakers, nor sellers of memories, nor restaurants; Only the song of the birds welcomes the souls that come to pray.

In the fifteenth century, San Bernardino de Siena built a convent in what had been Francisco’s refuge to escape the bustle of the world. Thus, the original refuge created by the Holy of Assisi was growing room after a room, until it became a several level monastery, still marked by rusticity and austerity.

In the input cloister, pilgrims can see the “well of Francisco”, which marks the place where it is said that water sprouted after a miracle of Francisco. Next, they can access a small room that served as a refectory to the monks, with its simple long table and wooden banks without ornaments. Following the way, visitors find the same simplicity in the small choir, where ten people barely fit in the narrow wooden masonry.

A bed of stones

In this hermitage, whose windows open to the forest, everything points to humility. The doors and openings are so narrow that you have to bow to enter, to get small. The path continues along narrow stairs excavated in the rock, forming a labyrinth splashed from Claraboyas, increasingly descending to the mountain until reaching the cave of San Francisco, the heart of the convent.

Here, the founder of the Franciscans retired, spending the nights alone in meditation with God. After a wooden railing, one can appear and see his peculiar “bed”: without sheets, without frame, not even mattress. He Poor From Assisi he lay on the hard gray stone, another sign of the resignation and mortification that he embraced.

Next to the Cueva del Santo is a small oratory where the friars of the first community prayed. Francisco was not the only one who was looking for a life of sacrifice. On the convent, in the forest, you can still find the caves of other brothers, such as Rufino and León.

The oak that listened to Francisco

Although nature has changed in the last 800 years and countless stations have passed, in the shadow of the convent on the slope of the mountain a tree of the time of San Francisco is preserved.

This oak, authenticated as medieval, now looks like a trunk twisted for centuries, but its cortex still silently attests to the preaching of the patron saint of Italy to the birds, according to the legend.

Near this centenary tree, three statues commemorate San Francisco’s special love for nature. A sample to the saint lying on his back, with his hands under his head, contemplating the stars, an attitude that reflects his famous “song of the creatures”, in which Francisco sang: “Praise you, my lord, for our sister the moon and the stars! In the skies you formed, bright, beautiful and beautiful.”

A few steps, two of the first Franciscan, León and Junípero friars are represented. León, the elder, draws the main bear and the minor bear on the ground, measuring its distance between the thumb and the index to calculate the position of the polar star. The young Junípero points to the same star in amazement.

The duo symbolizes the harmony between faith and reason, and the polar star – “a safe guide to find the right direction” – symbolizes the Gospel, “which infallibly guides those who follow it,” explains a poster in the monastery.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA