Pilgrimage series: Church of San Damiano

Editor's note: Ninth in a series on the sacred places and tombs of saints included in The Compass pilgrimage to Rome and Paris that retired Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks will lead May 3-13. (More information on pilgrimage)

By Tony Staley

	San Damiano Church What: Church Francis rebuilt after hearing Christ speak to him and site of the first Poor Clare monastery When: Unclear when it was built, but it was run-down when Francis first went there in 1205 Where: Assisi, Italy

The second day of touring in Italy, the pilgrims will go to Assisi, where they will visit four important sites. This week we focus on the Church of San Damiano.

It's probably not accurate to say that any one spot served for St. Francis of Assisi as his "Road to Damascus," because his conversion, unlike St. Paul's, was gradual, not immediate.

Still, the small Church of San Damiano was an important place in Francis' conversion process. It was here that he had a vision of a crucifix - the San Damiano Cross - speaking to him.

San Damiano Church also was the home of the first Poor Clare monastery. As such, it was the only place Clare lived from 1212, when Francis established the community in a simple house by the church, until her death in 1253.

Francis, the son of a wealthy textile merchant, was born in 1182 at Assisi. He led a pampered life, received a good education and liked to party with his friends. One night, while he was out with his friends, a beggar asked them for money. Everyone ignored the man, except Francis, who gave him all the money he had.

In 1202, Francis was captured in a battle against a neighboring town. Two years later, he set out to join the fourth crusade, but quickly changed his mind and returned to his former life in Assisi, which began leaving him feeling unsatisfied.

From the end of 1204 into early 1206, Francis gradually underwent his spiritual conversion as he wandered about the countryside.

Near the end of 1205 he was in the old, dilapidated semi-abandoned San Damiano Church just below Assisi. The church was cared for by a poor priest who couldn't afford to buy oil to light the lamp by a Byzantine icon of the crucified Christ (now in the Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi).

As Francis gazed on the crucifix, he heard Christ tell him three times, "Francis, Francis, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins."

Francis went to his father's shop, grabbed some material and rode to another town where he sold both the horse and the material to fix the church. Francis' actions worsened the already strained relationship between him and his father.

Plus, the priest refused the money, though he did let Francis live at San Damiano. In 1206, Francis began begging for food and stones to fix the church, singing loudly while he made the repairs. Francis then fixed two other churches, including the Porziuncola, where he eventually lived and died.

In 1225, at the beginning of his final illness Francis was taken back to the San Damiano Church where, under the watchful care of Clare, he wrote the first part of his Canticle of Creatures.

Twice during the Poor Clares' years at San Damiano Church, Clare saved the church and Assisi from raiding Saracen mercenaries. The first time, the soldiers fled when she held up the Blessed Sacrament as they started to scale the wall. The second time, she and her nuns knelt in prayer as an even larger group of soldiers approached. When a major storm suddenly developed, the men fled.

The Poor Clares remained at San Damiano until 1260 when they moved to the new Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi.

(Staley is a retired editor of The Compass.)

Next: St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome