{"id":2203,"date":"2019-03-20T19:33:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.exploring-umbria.com\/?page_id=2203"},"modified":"2019-03-20T19:33:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T18:33:16","slug":"sanctuary-of-san-damiano","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.exploring-umbria.com\/en\/assisi\/what-to-see-in-assisi\/sanctuary-of-san-damiano\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctuary of San Damiano"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting among the terraced olive groves just below the town center, the Sanctuary of San Damiano <\/strong>is probably the place of all the holy places in Assisi that best represents the virtues and values that St Francis left as a legacy to the world. St Damiano sanctuary conserves the spirituality of an entire city because it was, beyond legend, the most important place in the lives of the two most famous saints of Assisi. Here one day Francis, still an upper class ambitious youth, after wandering around the countryside found himself with confused ideas and a strange feeling of inner emptiness. He was rich, strong and launched on a military career, but he felt that this was not enough. He entered the small church, empty and in ruins; the warm cozy atmosphere immediately gave him a little peace. He sat down on one of the pews in front of the altar and saw above it a crucifix. A shaped wooden board, masterfully painted but flat. At the head there was only a semi-circle of wood that protruded from the surface giving a sense of three-dimensions to the face of Jesus. Francis, looking up, observed that the face seemed to lean down towards him when suddenly Christ\u2019s eyes seemed to look at him and his mouth opened: “Vade Francisce, repara domum meam<\/em>!” (Go, Francis, repair my house). The crucifix, painted in the twelfth century by an unknown artist, is still there where Francis saw it, although it is a copy. The original was taken away by the Clarisse nuns when they moved from the convent of St. Damiano to that of the Basilica of St. Chiara<\/strong> in 1257, where the crucifix can still be seen today.<\/p>\n

Jesus had told Francis to go and repair His house. He was given an important mission and his heart was light. At first, Francis wasn\u2019t aware of the significance, and as legend has it, he went to work repairing the St Damiano church, thinking that it was the one Christ was referring to. Sometime later, the boy from Assisi realized that the \u2018house\u2019 in question was that of all souls \u2013 the Church as an institution, which at that time was going through a serious crisis. With this in mind, he rushed to Foligno, sold his horse and some fabric he had taken from his father\u2019s shop and took the earnings to the priest of San Damiano. The money was refused but Francis was not discouraged. He firmly decided to carry out his mission, and when no one was looking, he threw the money in through a window. You can still see the window inside the church on the right-hand wall, recognizable by the 14th century frescos that frame it in pictures reminiscent of the incident.<\/p>\n

St Clare<\/em> (Santa Chiara) lived in San Damiano for 41 years until her death. Here, thanks to her efforts and to those of her mentor Francis, the nuns order of the Clarisses or the Franciscan Clarist Order was founded. From the aisle you can climb a staircase to the upper floor where you can visit the oratory and the dormitory where the saint drew her last breath.<\/p>\n

Like all Franciscan sanctuaries, the external parts are simple and austere. There is a portico on the lower part of the fa\u00e7ade composed of three round arches on brick pillars surmounted by a circular rose window. You will realize how very old this structure is as soon as you enter, when you see that the modest aisle is not as wide as the fa\u00e7ade. In fact, the front of the church encompasses other buildings and spaces adjacent to the church, a result of continuous modifications, restructuring and modern remodeling that went on over centuries from its beginning in the 8th<\/sup>-9th<\/sup> century, the time it was built.\u00a0 The interior of the church is not much different from the time when St Francis and St Clare<\/strong> prayed there, especially the apse or oldest part, with a lower vaulted ceiling than over the pews, and containing 16th<\/sup> century wooden choir stalls. Behind it is a small barred window from which St Clare and her sister nuns could hear Mass, hidden from public view since they were cloister nuns. Francis\u2019 body was laid before this alter for a final farewell.\u00a0 Halfway along the right-hand wall is a rectangular chapel with an invaluable wooden crucifix carved by Innocenza da Petralia<\/em> in 1637.<\/p>\n

Here in San Damiano, the almost blind Francis towards the end of his life wrote the Cantico delle Creature, <\/strong>his first collection of poems in vernacular \u2013 that is, in Italian- ever known. Inside the sanctuary there is a small display dedicated to this fact called Galleria del Cantico<\/em>. Most of the collection is made up of a series of engravings inspired by the Cantico <\/em>etched by a group of Umbrian master craftsmen, disciples of Father Diego Donati<\/em>, one of the best lithographers of the 1900s. There is a room dedicated to Diego Donati<\/em> in the Monteripido Convent <\/strong>in Perugia, where there are over 200 graphic works of the Franciscan master.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting among the terraced olive groves just below the town center, the Sanctuary of San Damiano is probably the place of all the holy places in Assisi that best represents the virtues and values that St Francis left as a legacy to the world. St Damiano sanctuary conserves the spirituality of an entire city because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31300,"parent":2181,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSanctuary of San Damiano - Exploring Umbria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sitting among the terraced olive groves just below the town center, the Sanctuary of San Damiano is probably the place of all the holy places in Assisi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.exploring-umbria.com\/en\/assisi\/what-to-see-in-assisi\/sanctuary-of-san-damiano\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sanctuary of San Damiano - 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