The Romita de Cesi is a hermitage located on Mount Torre Maggiore near the Town of Cesi in Terni. Difficult to find, it offers a spiritual tranquillity reminiscent of the early Franciscans
Category: Medieval Saints
The Garden of St. Francis
St. Francis is known for his devotion to nature and generally recognised at the patron saint for the environment. But was he also a gardener?
What Did St Francis Mean by “Laudato Si’”? The Canticle of Creation and Pope Francis
The title of the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ is taken from the refrain of the Canticle of Creation by Francis of Assisi. But what did the saint really mean by using this phrase?
The Making of Assisi
'The making of Assisi' explores the history behind and meaning of the famous cycle of frescoes from the upper Church in the Basilica in Assisi
Very Early Life of St. Francis of Assisi Discovered
A very early long-lost biography of St. Francis of Assisi was recently discovered. The text may help to salvage the man from the myth created later in the 13th century
Angela of Foligno
Recently Pope Francis canonized Blessed Angela of Foligno, a Franciscan mystic from the 13th century – but why?...
Stigmatic Spirituality
NEW RESEARCH: The concept of stigmatization developed long before St. Francis in late Antiquity...
Francis of Assisi
BOOK REVIEW: The surviving evidence for the life of Francis is sifted using modern historical methods...
Poor and Perfect
NEW BOOK: The Poor and the Perfect tells the story of the rise of learning in the Franciscan Order, 1209–1310 ...
Francis in Assisi
This week Pope Francis visited the crypt in the Basilica in Assisi and prayed for less “wordliness”. But what were the life and times of his namesake, St. Francis. A series of recent biographies tries to tackle the conundrum once more…
Assisi in the autumn is a evocative place, suggestive of endless possibilities for more peaceful, simple lives filled with charity. This week the new Pope – who dared to name himself after the beloved man from Umbria – visited the city, prayed at the tomb of St. Francis and asked for less “worldliness”. The “World does not care if so many families have nothing to eat”, he said later at lunch at the caritas centre, where he listened to the stories of poor people suffering from hunger and promised to open up the many derelict and empty convents and monasteries for the homeless.
But who was St. Francis and what were his life and times like? This has of course been the subject of and endless stream of more or less novelistic and scholarly works, some of which have been recently published in new editions in order to cater for the “market”.
For anyone “new” to the phenomena – and who wants to get a better grasp of the facts – we bring a list of the more recent publications of scholarly interest written by medieval historians:
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Giotto in Assisi
Signature of Giotto believed to have been found in Assisi...
Rieti
This summer an exhibition in Rieti tells the story of St. francis of Assisi...