Day 8: Epiphany at Assisi

Assisi street

Cathedral of St Francis

The Epiphany is the feast celebrating the manifestation of love and goodness in the world in history– the greatest example of this is the Incarnation and the 3 events of the Epiphany mark this:  the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, the first miracle of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana and the visit of the wise men from the East to pay homage to the infant Jesus.  These all mark public manifestations or signs of who Jesus really was.  In a sense, Assisi is also an 'epiphany' because nearly 800 years after the death of Saints Francis and Clare it is 

view from our window

still a place of profound peace and goodness where a palpable love of Francis and Clare still exist.  This is reinforced by the number of pilgrims (most from Italy) and the array of exhibitions, musicals, dramas and displays with every angle of their lives re-interpreted for today.  Assisi is also a great example of a ancient fortified Umbrian town with a rich history of conflict and many rulers.  The town can be walked end to end in ~25 minutes and is full of interesting local shops (at least half them selling religious items).  As we were there on a holiday weekend it was pretty busy and gave us a sense of what an incredible place of pilgrimage it is. After visiting the tomb of St Francis and admiring, in the upper cathedral, the superb frescos of Giotto, Cimabue and others recounting events in the life of Francis, we celebrated a special sung Mass for the Epiphany in the lower level of the Basilica of St Francis.  The Mass was celebrated by the local Bishop along with ~20 priests and many Franciscan Friars and Sisters.  He has a reputation for long homilies and was true to form (30 minutes) - the sisters at the convent we stayed with had a joke with us about this given we could not understand a word of it!