Murals in the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi in San Francisco, many by Luigi Brusatori

A detail from a painting by Giovanni Cimabue, in the lower level of the Basilica at Assisi.

The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi in San Francisco

Murals of the Life of
Saint Francis

The first two large panels on this page (The Death of St. Francis and St. Francis Preaching to the Birds) were painted by the Italian fin-de-siècle painter and illustrator Luigi Brusatori, whose life and art were recently commemorated by the Vatican Museums. The panels surrounding the altar of repose were painted by Brusatori’s students. All of this work was completed around 1920.
There are also two large panels (St. Francis and the Blessed Virgin and St. Francis with St. Louis the Landgrave of Thuringia and St. Elizabeth of Hungary) at the back of the church. We are still seeking historical information about these works.

The Death of Saint Francis

The death of Saint Francis.

Brother Elias of Cortona reports that at Francis’ death, “his appearance was one of great beauty gleaming with a dazzling whiteness and giving joy to all who looked upon him.”

The glory that enveloped Francis at his death is nothing less than the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to sanctify His followers and draw them into more perfect union with Himself. As he lay dying, Francis told his brothers, “I have done what was mine to do, may Christ now teach you what you are to do.”

Saint Francis Preaching to the Birds

Saint Francis preaching to the birds.

My little sisters, the birds, much indebted are you unto God, your creator, and always in every place you ought to praise him, that he has given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and has also given you double and triple raiment; moreover he preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are you beholden to him for the element of the air which he has appointed for you; beyond all this, you sow not, neither do you reap; and God feeds you, and gives you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because you know not how to spin or sow, God clothes you, you and your children; wherefore your creator loves you much, seeing that he has bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.
Saint Francis’ Sermon to the Birds

Reception of the Stigmata

Saint Francis receives the stigmata

During the Lent of 1224, Saint Francis’ mind and heart turned frequently to meditate upon the suffering of Christ and His obedience to the Father. Retreating with Friar Leo into the wilderness, Francis agonized over the great pain that Jesus experienced and thanked our Lord for the supreme sacrifice that He had endured. In the solitude of prayer on Mount Alverna, while praising God and pouring out his love for Him, Francis beheld the crucified Christ borne aloft by six wings. In this moment of seraphic ecstasy, he who had sought to imitate Christ in all things, received the marks of his Lord’s crucifixion on his body.

Saint Francis di Paola Crossing Lake Trasimeno

Saint Francis di Paola founded the Order of Minims. The name reflects their humility, for they view themselves as the least of all religious. Their first rule was based on that of St Francis of Assisi; a new rule introduced a fourth vow, demanding abstinence from meat and meat products.

The Minim way of life “intends to bear a special daily witness to Gospel penance by a Lenten life, that is, by total conversion to God, deep participation in the expiation of Christ and a call to the Gospel values of detachment from the world, the primacy of the spirit over matter and the urgent need for penance, which entails the practice of charity, love of prayer and physical ascesis [i.e., the journey of the soul to God—Shrine ed.]” (Constitutions, art. 3).

Saint Francis Sending the Friars out to Preach

In their General Chapters—their annual meetings—the friars organized many missionary expeditions over the years. These missions went to places such as Tunis, the Holy Land, Germany, France, Hungary, Spain, Morocco, and England.

Rumor has it that the friar in the foreground (with a mustache) is a self-portrait of the painter.

Saint Francis with Christ Crucified

This is a common artistic motif which places Saint Francis of Assisi at the scene of the crucifixion not literally, but metaphysically inasmuch as he, like Christ, was marked by the wounds of the passion.

There’s a prayer that the Franciscan friars say: “When the world was going cold, You renewed the marks of Your passion in the flesh of our Father Francis and so rekindled our love for You.”

This scene is not historical, but devotional.

Saint Francis Receives Saint Clare

Francis receives Clare

Several years after Pope Innocent approved the Franciscan rule, Clare, the daughter of a nobleman of Assisi and ten years younger than Francis, begged to join his Gospel life of poverty. So Francis received her with several other young women and placed them in a monastery where they developed a contemplative rule which expressed their commitment to peace, to prayer, and to solitude. By successfully integrating Franciscan spirituality with the monastic lifestyle, Clare of Assisi proved to be one of the great religious innovators of her age. To this day, the Poor Clares have retained their commitment to the contemplative life and continue as the cloistered branch of the Franciscan family.

Saint Francis with the Wolf at Gubbio

As Francis’ reputation for holiness and peace spread throughout his native Italy, people called upon him to resolve their disputes and to deliver them from danger and violence.

On one such occasion, the people of the small town of Gubbio alerted Francis to the presence of a ferocious wolf in their countryside. All efforts to trap the wolf or drive him away had failed, so they called upon the Saint to intervene. He went out with only the message of the Gospel: no weapon, no sanctions, no threatening bravado. Francis met the wolf and called him to repentance for the chaos and harm that he had caused. The wolf and the townspeople agreed to live in peace; the wolf would refrain from attacks and the townspeople would feed the wolf for the rest of his life.

Saint Francis at Fontecolumbo

Saint Francis at Fontecolumbo

Fontecolombo (the Spring of the Dove) is the location of a hermitage where Saint Francis, together with friar Leo and friar Bonizo from Bologna, an expert in canon and civil law, composed the Regula Bullata (the Approved Rule of Life) of 1223. On 29 November 1223 Pope Honorius III formally approved the Rule by the bull “Solet annuere.”

Saint Francis and the Blessed Virgin

Photograph by Paul Flores

Hail, O Lady, Holy Queen,
Mary, holy Mother of God:
you are the Virgin made Church
chosen by the most Holy Father in heaven
whom He consecrated with His most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
in whom there was and is all fullness of grace and every good.
Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Dwelling!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!
And hail all you holy virtues
Which are poured into the hearts of the faithful
through the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,
that from being unbelievers,
you may make them faithful to God.

St. Francis with St. Louis the Landgrave and St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Photograph by Paul flores

Saints Louis the Landgrave of Thuringia and Elizabeth (1207–1231), his wife, are the patrons of the Secular Franciscan Order. The setting is iconographic, not historical.
Elizabeth was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry.... She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor.... Her husband, of happy memory, gladly approved of these charitable works. Finally, when her husband died, she sought the highest perfection; filled with tears, she implored me to let her beg for alms from door to door.
On Good Friday of that year, when the altars had been stripped, she laid her hands on the altar in a chapel in her own town, where she had established the Friars Minor, and before witnesses she voluntarily renounced all worldly display and everything that our Savior in the gospel advises us to abandon. Even then she saw that she could still be distracted by the cares and worldly glory which had surrounded her while her husband was alive. Against my will she followed me to Marburg. Here in the town she built a hospice where she gathered together the weak and the feeble. There she attended the most wretched and contemptible at her own table.
Before her death I heard her confession. When I asked what should be done about her goods and possessions, she replied that anything which seemed to be hers belonged to the poor. She asked me to distribute everything except one worn-out dress in which she wished to be buried. When all this had been decided, she received the body of our Lord. Afterward, until vespers, she spoke often of the holiest things she had heard in sermons. Then, she devoutly commended to God all who were sitting near her, and as if falling into a gentle sleep, she died.
From a letter by Conrad of Marburg, spiritual director of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
(Office of Readings, November 17:
Elizabeth of Hungary)

Photographs of Saint Francis and the Blessed Virgin and St. Francis with St. Louis the Landgrave and St. Elizabeth of Hungary Copyright © 2002 by Paul Flores
Used with permission.

Museum quality prints are available from the photographer.

E-mail: paulflores@stjoephoto.com