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Reminiscing St. Francis' Canticle of Creatures at San Damiano

On 20th of January, I made a visit to Assis for my personal retreat. The guardian of La Verna took me to San Damiano as he was also going to attend the Central Italy Guardians meet in Portiuncula. On the way, the guardian was sharing his best experiences of his Franciscan journey and the spiritual experiences in Assis too. One of the points I remember, the cloister of San Damiano also stands as a starting point to every one of us brothers to reenergise and to revive our spirits to search for the inner calling of God. The friars find to see the joy of being Franciscans. It was nice experience for me personally. 

Indeed, this year being the 800th jubilee year of the Canticle of Creatures, it is also an opportunity to spend some time in San Damiano. Of course, during the cold winters, it was a wonderful journey coming down from mount La Verna to Assisi to spend some time personally with the brothers of the province of Umbria. Because La Verna has its own unique way embracing winter with severe cold, thick fog, heavy winds happen often on this mountain. I found this is the right time to come down for retreat and breath the air of Assisi. 

As the legend says: in the year 1224, after receiving Stigmata on mount LaVerna on the feast day of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, father Francis descending the mountain towards Assis to witness and to become a testimony of Christs love for his children and the entire creation. As the legend also says, father Francis came to San Damiano and lived more than fifty days in the cloister because the pain as well as the joy that he experienced in the form of the Holy Wounds of Christ were imprinted on his body so clearly. While he was San Damiano, he composed the beautiful song of the Canticle of brother Sun in 1225. It felt like it came out of his heart and mind that there is no other poem on earth can describe his joy with the Crucified Lord, creation and mankind. The canticle also stands as one of the best literary pieces in Italian language until this day. The beauty of our friars in Italy, friaries and sanctuaries are well maintained with utmost care and protection. Of course, the other churches and religious convents too. Being the jubilee year of the church 2025, many pilgrims who come to Rome wish to see Assisi and make a spiritual journey to deepen their faith through the help of saints particularly seraphic father Francis in Assisi.

I remember, it was on the second day I just walked into the garden of the Canticle where father Francis used to sit in pain and agony and look at the beautiful valleys of Assisi reaching till the valley of Spoleto and other regions around. The pain becomes a happy moment for him when he calls the things in nature as brothers and sisters and makes communion with them. being there for first time, I too felt that the garden is so graceful and beautiful that anyone who visits falls in love looking at the places down the mountain. The entire creation assisted him in his days of agony and blindness he suffered towards the end of his days. No doubt, it serves as a garden full of life till this day. As you see in photos, the garden of the canticle is just attached to the cloister where pilgrims also can see but not to be entered. What a spiritual communion and tender experience being in this sacred place and looking at the beauty of creation which our father Francis teaches us in our journey as franciscans one with nature and mankind.

In San Damiano, we also can see the Church which was built during eighteenth-nineteenth century on the ruins of an ancient edifice, which was in the state of abandoned where Francis heard the voice from the Crucifix ‘Go, Francis rebuild my house which you can see falling into ruin.’ Francis restored it in 1206. He also predicted this place would become a dwelling place of Clare and her sisters of San Damiano who remained here from 1211 until 1260. As we enter, we also can see the chapel of St. Jerome which is believed to be the primitive friary of the friars to whom Francis gave them the task of assisting the community of Poor Clares. In the main chapel, we also can see the Crucifix of San Damiano which spoke to him. The chapel of the poor Clares, the refectory where in 1228 Pope Gregory IX came to visit them and when Clare asked him to bless the food, a cross was formed on each loaf of bread, and then climbing up to the first floor, the dormitory where poor Clares slept on humble straw mats as symbol of poverty, and we can also see the cells in the infirmary which are part of the friars cloister are preserved till today. San Damiano is also a place of novitiate of friars minor. In the sanctuary, there are prayers and Masses are celebrated for the faithful every day. I also had opportunity to visit the town of Assisi and cherished beautiful moments in holy sanctuaries of Portiuncula, the Basilica and the hermitage of Carceri. pax et bonum!!

-Br Sujith,OFM

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