Outside of Assisi: Hermitage of LaVerna in Tuscany • Valley of the Rieti: Hermitages of Fontecolumbo and Greccio in Umbria •
The Nativity by Giotto in Assisi
Sites we will visit:
In and Around Assisi: Basilica of St. Francis • On Mount Subasio: The Carceri • San Damiano • Rivo Torto • La Rocca • Portiuncola (Santa Maria degli Angeli) • And many of the other churches and streets and piazzas and museums connected with Francis & Clare.
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Word sketch and early painting of Francesco, Son of Pietro Bernadone
When you step down into the display room of the Bernadone studios in Assisi, you remember that Francis was like the young Italian men who stroll through the city today: fashionable, proud, dramatic.
It wasn't as if his father was simply a cloth merchant. There were many of those. Rather, he was an importer of quality cloth. Francis would have already learned how to color the cloth with expensive dyes. He had previously learned to develop a sharp eye for quality, on his trips to the international cloth fairs in France.
But now he was running the shop, and making sales to the nobility and merchants -- who had gold to trade for the best cloth available. And, of course, Francis was dressed better than anyone in the whole city!
What better way to advertize the quality of the Bernadone studios than to stroll the streets, and supervise the family store, dressed in the best that money could buy?
Now walk a few blocks to the Bishop's palace. Imagine, here Francis stripped himself naked, and returned all his clothing to his father. The stunned silence of the crowd. The disbelief of his father!
Finally, make visit to the Basilica. Here, in the museum, is Francis' coarse wool habit. Grey patches of the cheapest local cloth stitched together.
Now, sit at a table in the piazza. Sip coffee, and watch the fine young men parade by like peacocks. Are you thinking what I am? What courage must have been in the heart of Francis to strip his body -- and reveal his soul.
Francis is everywhere in Assisi. He clothes the city in his Beauty.
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Word sketch and early painting of
Chiara, Daughter of Ortolana
When you stand in front of her palace on the Piazza San Ruffino, you realize how powerful her family was. Her father had died the year before, but her uncles, especially Monaldo, wielded great power in the city.
Inside the palace, it was her mother, Ortolana, who ruled. Ortolana was the keeper of the fire (that burned day and night in the hearth), even if her servants did all the cooking. And the woman who ruled the hearth (who kept the Flame) was unchallenged mistress of the household.
And therein was the dilemma that Clare faced. For she was destined to inherit the Hearth and all the wealth and security that went with it. Francis' dramatic renunciation of his father's cloth was child's play compared to Clare's renunciation of her mother's hearth.
Clare was not a feminist. It was not possible in those times. And her actions bewilder us. Could she not claim poverty like the man, Francis? Take to the road and beg? Why not? Unfair! we say.
Instead she did the inexplicable. And this is her greatness.
Walk out of Assisi, down the dusty road to San Damiano. Step into the cloister that was Clare's whole word. Walk up the stairs to the large empty dormitory. She slept here on straw mats for the 28 years of her illness, rarely leaving the room.
There is no fire, no warmth from a hearth.
No furniture. Nothing except a single bouquet of fresh flowers left every day. By the friars who have been the guardians of San Damiano since her death.
And the small bouquet fills the huge empty room. Not with scent nor color. But with warmth and radiance.
It is still Clare's Hearth.
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Word sketch of La Verna: The Easter of St. Francis
Francis loved to climb mountains. Not so much to be at the top, but to find a cave or a crevice in those heights and therein to dwell. He bridged the Heights and Depths in a single gesture. Especially at La Verna.
Here Francis began his great ascent on a hot August day in 1224. Just below the summit, Francis found a deep chasm. (Even today, one can climb down into the chasm and find it cool and damp on a hot dry day)
Only three companions stayed with him for that 40 day-and-night vigil: a Falcon, a Lamb and a Seraph. A fierce Falcon nested above him during the long nights. A gentle Lamb -- "Brother Leo, the little Lamb of God" as Francis called his dearly beloved friar -- joined Francis in prayer at dawn & dusk.
And the majestic Seraph? It visited Francis only once. The Seraph seared him with the Five wounds of Christ · Francis had been pierced by night and inflamed by light. Only then did Francis descend from the Depths that are found only on the Heights.
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Francis' Blessing for Brother Leo:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May He show his face to you and be merciful to you.
May He turn his countenance to you and give you peace.
May the Lord bless you, Brother Leo.
Roman Temple Minerva in Assisi
Costs: All storytellings, seminar sessions, tours, walks, and lodgings at St. Anthony's Guesthouse, which includes a shared rooms (some singles available at surcharge) with daily breakfast and one main meal every day at mid-day. Also includes all local transportation by chartered bus or taxi. Does not include travel to and from Assisi before or after the pilgrimage. Costs: $2247. Deposit of $300 holds a place for you.
The Pimsleur method of learning a language is without books or texts. All learning is aural-oral and a delight to use. It is not the scholar's way, but the storyteller's way. The audiotapes (or CDs) can be ordered directly at
When you stand in front of her palace on the Piazza San Ruffino, you realize how powerful her family was. Her father had died the year before, but her uncles, especially Monaldo, wielded great power in the city.
