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There you have it, a "facial" shot of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. You have to walk through the entire medieval town to get to the Basilica and then, when you do, you realize it is down in a little valley. The Church was begun almost immediately after Francis' death in 1226. It is hard to believe sometimes that the buildings we saw are so ancient.

When we got to the front entrance of the Church, I decided to turn around and take a picture of the front lawn. Here is what I saw:

We are looking back up the hill from the main entrance of the Church. The word "PAX" (peace) is spelled out by the hedge. I saw that Francis' name in our day has a plastic appeal--that is, it can be associated with any liberal movement that seeks to rid the world of bad things. What I mean is that there was a piazza below the church, which was filled with artistic representations of evils

from our day that St. Francis would, at least in the mind of the artist, no doubt have opposed: nuclear proliferation, child sex abuse, depression, abuse of the enviornment etc. The list is endless when you have a malleable Saint.

Back to Giotto

Let's begin our treatment of some of the 28 Frescoes by Giotto with the most famous of them: St. Francis preaching to the birds:

It is worth it to take up so much space with this scene (#15). St. Francis, the haloed man, is extending his left hand in a sort of greeting to the birds, while his right hand extends the three fingers, a sign of blessing. He is unshod, while his companion has shoes. In addition, his companion's right hand (which you can't really see here) is held up in a sort of "Stop" motion. Perhaps Giotto is try trying to depict the contrast between the two. Bonaventure's Legenda has Francis say: "My brothers, praise God that He created you and dresssed you in feathers to fly and conceded the purity of the air and given you reason to live."

This is the most famous of the images for our day because it shows us Francis "the environmentalist" and the lover of all creation. Actually, the latter is not a bad theme for our day, as there is more than a little truth to the observation that a person's love may be measured not simply by how s/he seems to treat his/her fellow humans but also all creatures in the world.

St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata

It was St. Paul who wrote, in his Epistle to the Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20). This image of someone actually receiving the wounds of Christ entered deeply into the Christian consciousness and became the longing of all those who would be, also in Pauline language, "conformed to the image of Christ." To be like Christ, then, meant to suffer with him, in order to be glorified with him. One's closeness to divinity was therefore measured through one's willingness to receive the wounds of Christ. Giotto depicted the event narrated by Bonaventure:

This is quite a fresco. It is # 19 in the scenes of St. Francis' life. We see St. Francis in a situation that reminds us of the Transfiguration of Christ in the Gospels. Francis is joined by one of his companions who may have fallen asleep while he goes on to have the full spiritual experience on the hill. In contrast to the vision of the crucifix in the Church of St. Damian (#4), here he sees the risen Christ descending from heaven, who meets Francis halfway to heaven with the marks of the wounds--which can be barely seen as they exit from the feet of Christ. This is Francis' becoming like Christ.

Conclusion

Mountains are often the places to depict the meeting place between the divine and the human. At their intersection, in this fresco, are the painful marks of divine love.

These two most famous depictions capture major themes of St. Francis' life for us in the 21st century. We could imagine, too, that an illiterate worshipper of the 14th or 15th century would likewise have been overwhelmed by the sanctity and spiritual vision of such a man.

Let's move to a few of the lesser-well-known frescoes by Giotto, before finishing my Italian trip.

1966