Key Dates
- 1182 Francis born.
- 1209 Pope authorizes Francis’s religious community.
- 1221 Franciscan Rules sanctioned by Pope.
- 1226 Francis dies.
- 1228 St Francis canonized.
- c.1296–1304 Giotto frescoes the Basilica.
- 1997 Assisi earthquake.
Further Reading
- Dorling Kindersley, Giotto
- Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists
- O. Englebert, St Francis of Assisi
- Raphael Brown, Little Flowers of St Francis
Overview
The small Umbrian hill town of Assisi is important for two reasons. Most famously, it was the birthplace and headquarters of St Francis, whose simple, approachable brand of Christian faith revolutionised the Catholic Church in the early 13th century. With St Catherine of Siena, Francis is the principal patron saint of Italy. Secondly, Assisi is home to some of Italy’s most famous and beautiful early artworks: the early 14th-century frescoes by Giotto and other artists in the Basilica of St Francis.
St Francis
Francis was born in Assisi in 1182. Until he was about twenty, he was a leader among Assisi’s fashionable young men. Captured in the town’s war against Perugia, he spent a year in prison, during which he began having visions urging him to live a different kind of life.
Francis gave all his possessions to the poor and determined to live as Christ had: preaching and helping the poor in an accessible, popular way. He soon amassed a band of twelve brethren. In 1209 the Pope officially authorized this lay religious community. The Franciscan brotherhood expanded quickly across Italy and beyond. Francis also travelled to Egypt with the Crusaders, where he impressed the Sultan with his gentle, inclusive views. In 1221 the Franciscan Friars’ guidelines for life were sanctioned by the Pope. Soon after, Francis received the stigmata and was canonized in 1228.
Giotto’s Frescoes
Giotto, the late 13th- and early 14th-century Florentine artist, helped set in motion the revolutionary artistic changes that culminated in the Renaissance. His Assisi fresco cycle, depicting the Life of St Francis (damaged in the 1997 earthquake; see Science), is one of the cornerstone works in the development of Western art.
History
St Francis
Francis was born into a wealthy merchant family. His father Pietro di Bernardone was a prosperous cloth merchant, and his mother Pica was probably from southern France. Francis spent his youth enjoying the company of other affluent young men, singing troubadour songs, and dressing fashionably.
Captured during a battle between Assisi and Perugia, Francis spent a year in prison. He planned to resume his soldiering career, but visions soon redirected his life and called him back to Assisi to become a different kind of “knight.”
Francis the Friar
Back in Assisi, Francis devoted himself to solitude and prayer. At the ruined chapel of San Damiano, he heard the crucifix say, “Go, Francis, and repair my house which, as you see, is nearly in ruins.” Taking this literally, he sold his father’s cloth to give the proceeds to the priest there. In a dramatic break with his family, Francis stripped off his rich clothing and renounced worldly possessions, declaring his true Father to be “the one in heaven.”
He adopted a life of radical simplicity, preaching universal brotherhood and singing in everyday Italian rather than Latin. His message resonated with ordinary people and helped revive a Church that had grown distant from its flock.
The Franciscan Brotherhood Becomes Official
Francis restored the tiny chapel of the Porziuncola outside Assisi (now enclosed within the vast Santa Maria degli Angeli). There he lived with his first followers. In 1209 they travelled to Rome, where the Pope approved their religious community. In 1212 Francis helped establish a women’s order, later known as the Poor Clares, after St Clare. He also founded a lay fraternity for those who wished to carry out Franciscan work without taking vows.
The Order expanded rapidly, preaching throughout Italy and beyond. Francis himself travelled extensively, even entering the Sultan’s camp in Egypt to advocate peacefully for conversion. The Order had grown to around 5,000 by the time the Franciscan Rule — Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience — was sanctioned in 1221.
Francis Receives the Stigmata
In 1224 Francis retreated to a mountain near Assisi. While praying, he saw a glowing seraph on a cross. As the vision faded, it left him with stigmata — marks resembling Christ’s crucifixion wounds. He hid these wounds during his life; they were revealed only after his death.
Francis’s Death
Francis died in 1226, ill and blind, in the Porziuncola. He asked to be buried among common criminals on the “Infernal Hill” outside the city walls. After his canonization in 1228, the hill was renamed the Hill of Paradise, and construction began on the great two-storey Basilica of St Francis.
Art
The Basilica of St Francis houses masterpieces of early Italian art by Cimabue, Simone Martini, and Giotto. Despite severe damage from the 1997 earthquake, enough survives to show why these artists were so groundbreaking.
Cimabue (1240–1302) was a pioneering precursor to realism, though his figures still retain elements of Byzantine rigidity. Some of the frescoes traditionally attributed to him — especially those painted a secco — suffered badly in the quake.
Giotto (c.1267–1337), likely Cimabue’s student, became one of the great innovators of Western art. His Assisi fresco cycle in the Upper Basilica uses true fresco (buon fresco) and showcases emotional depth, perspective, narrative clarity, and an emerging realism that set the stage for the Renaissance. He was celebrated even in his lifetime by Dante and later praised by Vasari as the founder of the “modern manner.”
The Little Flowers
These miracle stories, from Francis’s Little Flowers, illustrate his gentle, inclusive love for all creatures.
Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio: Francis tamed a wolf that had been terrorizing Gubbio, negotiating a pact: the wolf would cease its attacks in exchange for regular meals. A tomb in Gubbio’s cathedral is traditionally said to contain the wolf’s bones.
Francis and the Birds: Francis preached to a flock of birds, who responded by flying into the air in the shape of a cross.
Francis and the Christmas Crib: Francis created the first live Nativity scene at Greccio, using a real ox and ass, to make the story of Jesus accessible to ordinary people.
Science
This section explains damage caused by the 1997 earthquake and the restoration efforts made to save the frescoes.
Fresco Techniques
Fresco involves applying pigment to plaster. Cimabue used fresco secco (dry fresco), where paint sits on dry plaster and can flake. Giotto used buon fresco (true fresco), painting into wet plaster so that pigment bonds with the wall as it dries.
The buon fresco process required a rough underlayer, a sinopia drawing, then a smooth plaster layer (intonaco) applied in sections small enough to finish in one day (“giornata”).
The Earthquake
On 26 September 1997, a 12-second earthquake struck Assisi. Two tons of fresco, brick, and plaster fell from the Upper Basilica’s vaulting, killing four people and shattering around 2,300 square feet of artwork. The Lower Basilica was less affected.
Restoration
Thanks to extensive pre-quake photography, restorers were able to sort thousands of fragments and reconstruct damaged scenes. Fragments were matched to life-size photographs, reattached to the walls, and missing areas filled discreetly. Fragile surfaces were stabilized with acrylic resin applied beneath protective rice paper.
The basilica has since been reinforced with steel collars around the columns and a large external steel belt to improve earthquake resistance.