Piazza del Vescovado and
Santa Maria Maggiore Church
The mystical illumination of San Damiano—seeing the reality of the world’s violence, one’s own complicity in it, the forgiveness of violence, and the call to mend this brokenness for one’s healing and the healing of the world—almost immediately gives way to a chain of events that will definitively set Francis barreling into a new life.
This unexpected renewal leads to a new sense of purpose and resolve, but it also leads to a clash with his father who despairs of the new life Francis is embracing before his very eyes, a life that not only is at odds with his dreams for his son’s upward mobility and for the stature of his family, but also for the ascendancy of the mercantile class and an emerging conception of the Commune and perhaps even the larger world.
When I take students to Assisi, I bring them to this spot. They have studied what happened here — Francis’ father drags his son before the bishop to get him to return his goods that Francis has sold to buy the materials to renovate San Damiano — and I ask them to role-play the scene, which is always done with exuberance tinged, sometimes, with a slight sense of pathos, for it is a dramatic, life-altering moment for all concerned. (If we look closely at Giotto’s fresco painted a century later, we see on the lower left-hand side, two little girls, who likely are meant to represent Clare and her sister, Catherine.)
No one is left unchanged, least of all, Francis. He has received his call and for years has been unknowingly in preparation for this unlikely pilgrimage. Now he is suddenly at the moment of departure. He has no plan. He is not only departing his immediate family’s support but his rights and responsibilities as a citizen of the Commune.
Suddenly, he is off.
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