Pilgrimage to Assisi

We took some time to visit the St. Anthony Guest House of the Sisters of the Atonement, a place where simple Christian hospitality is provided for pilgrims. This is an exquisite place at the very top of the hill, with gardens and quiet places to contemplate what you have seen. They have two wonderful statues of Francis, and they welcome pilgrims of all denominations (we are members of the United Church of Christ). When I return, we will stay here.

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This guest house is run by nuns, but don't let that put you off. We're not Catholic and they welcomed us. They are trying to provide hospitality to pilgrims, so the place is quiet, and they do require that you stay at least 2 nights.

They have a chapel and a lovely quiet garden, where you can sit, contemplate one of two extraordinary statues of St. Francis (the dancing Francis in the entryway is the nicest), play a quiet game, or read a book. You can look out on the Umbrian countryside (they are at the top of the hill, looking down at the Santa Chiara church) or wander their gardens, which do provide food for the guests and the sisters.

As they are American and Canadian sisters, they do speak English. Rooms are simple but comfortable. This is a lovely place to stay.

The website is at www.graymoor.org/sisters/retreathouses.html

Beds are comfortable doubles, and there was a TV and safe in the rooms.

There is a bar and restaurant in the hotel, but you can eat better in Assisi, so I cannot recommend the restaurant. Breakfast is good but a little quirky. It consisted of cappuccino (we were given a pitcher of strong coffee and a pitcher of warm milk with foam), juice (blood orange or grapefruit), rolls, sliced meat (ham and salami), cheese, something akin to melba toast, and something akin to a tasty cake. I think the tasty cake thing was the thing that made me feel it was quirky.

It is just steps from the basilica and right next to a post office, with some nice gift shops right next door.

The best thing about this and the thing that makes me want to go back was the incredible view from the balcony in the room. Look at the picture. We spent time out there everyday.

The food was quite wonderful throughout, although the mixed fried seafood, which was very light for being deep-fried, did include some unusual kinds of seafood. Eating off the menu, instead of from a pre-set meal, would resolve this issue nicely.

The restaurant is located right on the sea, with fantastic views, and overlooks a lovely beach.

Upon arriving, you are grouped into tours. The church is a working church, and Mass occurs frequently. Therefore, you are required to wear a special headset on a tour, which allows your guide to just whisper quietly and allow you to hear clearly. These headphones work very well, though they can become uncomfortable.

Our group was greeted by a monk, Brother John, from Zambia. Before we entered, we were given an introduction about the construction of the basilica. Work was started on it only a few years after Francis' death. He was canonized almost immediately, and work began on the church since it was important to prepare a place to protect the relics, the bones of St. Francis. There was much concern that they might be stolen if not protected, and indeed they were ultimately cased in concrete and remain at the basilica in that state.

There are two churches, the lower one in Romanesque style and the upper in Gothic style. Both are covered with frescos and both are immense. When we entered the lower church, there was a Mass in progress, as I mentioned.

A Cinambue fresco, all that is left from the original decoration of the lower and earlier church, presents a portrait of Francis that is believed to be very much like what he looked like since Cimabue knew Francis during his life. Most of the rest of the frescos in the lower church are by Giotto, which replaced earlier Cimabue frescos. These compare events from the life of Francis to events from the life of Christ, including legends that they were both born in a stable, etc.

After we visited the lower church, we saw a room of relics. There were not many of course, but there was an over and undergarment, the original Franciscan Rule, and a chalice and paten.

Then we came out into a beautiful courtyard, looking out over the Umbrian landscape. It is a place the popes would come for summer retreats and also where they hid when the antipopes were searching for them. Off this courtyard is the gift shop, which we did not visit. We then toured the upper church. This church has a lot of scenes from the life of Francis, plus it has, above them, scenes from the life of Jesus and above those scenes from the Old Testament, drawing all three sources together into one. They were preparing for a musical concert in that church. Evidently it is not much used for Mass, as most of the Masses occur in the lower church, but it is used for events, since they do not have a theatre. We could see the considerable damage to the frescos that resulted from the earthquake in 1997.

Inside the church is relatively plain, compared to many of the churches that we visited in Italy (or elaborately decorated, compared to American churches I am familiar with--context is everything). One very notable feature is a smaller church built inside the main church, which was a church where the first Franciscans used to gather.

This church also has some important pilgrimage sites. There is a rose bush that Francis reputedly threw himself on which retracted its thorns (some of our party thought it might actually be a Camellia, but who knows), and probably most important, the small, rude cell in which Francis spent the last days of his life. That is pretty neat, and it is very, very basic.

Associated with the church is a major bookstore dedicated to St. Francis. This store has a significant selection in English, not just of tourist books, but of all kinds of learned books and even children's books. We spent a lot of time browsing in the store.

If you are highly interested in St. Francis, this church is a must-see. If you have little or no interest in Francis (but how could you if you are visiting Assisi?), you might want to skip it.

We heard two (and a half) different stories about how Mary's house got to Italy. One, told by our guide, was that angels had brought the house to Loreto. Then he allowed that there was a family named Angeli, prominent in Loreto, that shipped the house there, and the thing about angels was actually a pun. The second explanation, which was told to us by an American friar, was that the crusaders had brought back the bricks after the crusades.

When you pass through the holy house, there may be (as there was for us) a Mass going on. If so, there is a route around the edge designed to not interrupt Mass. The exterior of the house is beautiful carved marble which is, by itself, worth a good look.

We met a lovely monk (as I said above) in the church who spoke to us briefly. He was from New York, and he had spent many years in Japan and was now there to say Japanese confessions. After speaking to him for a few minutes, we headed back out. I should point out several important things about Loreto. We parked in the bus parking below and climbed a staircase to where the road led into the town, through a big town gate, then into a large beautiful square where the church was. We saw some lovely sidewalk art in the square.

As Masses were being said (it was Sunday morning), I did not linger longer. On a future visit to Assisi, I will.