Book VI · The places
Where the stones
remember footsteps
Assisi, the Portiuncula, San Damiano, Greccio, La Verna, and other Franciscan places told through history, tradition, and sacred art.
Sources, context, and contemplation
A story brought close without losing the truth.
Every page is written to be clear and welcoming without flattening the complexity of history.
We distinguish documents, traditions, and legends, and always explain the origin of prayers and quotations.
Complete contents
12 paths to explore
Choose a page to begin. Follow the order or enter through the story you need most today.
Assisi: the streets that formed Francis
Before the saint in the frescoes, there was a boy among cloth workshops, towers, markets, wars, and stone stairways in a restless little city.
Read now →Assisi, Umbria, Italy · c. 1181–1206 · childhood, youth, and conversion02
The Portiuncula: the little portion that became home
Inside an enormous basilica remains a tiny chapel: the place where the fraternity took shape, Clare began her path, and Francis wished to die.
Read now →Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi, Umbria, Italy · c. 1207–1226 · birth and home of the fraternity03
San Damiano: the house repaired by many hands
Among olive trees, a wounded church received Francis’s stones, the voice of a tradition, Clare’s community, and the song of an almost blind man.
Read now →San Damiano, Assisi, Umbria, Italy · c. 1205–1260 · conversion, Clare, and the Canticle04
Rivo Torto: the shelter where no one fit alone
Before the great friaries, the first brothers shared bread, prayer, and discomfort in a shelter beside a crooked stream on the Assisi plain.
Read now →Rivotorto, Assisi, Umbria, Italy · c. 1208–1211 · first brothers and first form of life05
The Carceri Hermitage: a Silence That Sets You Free
In the caves of Mount Subasio, Francis and his brothers learned that stepping away for a while could make room to hear God and return to the world with greater tenderness.
Read now →Mount Subasio · about 4 km from Assisi, Umbria · Early thirteenth century · retreats of Francis and his first companions06
Greccio: the Night Bethlehem Came Close
At Christmas in 1223, Francis gathered country people, friars, animals, and a manger to contemplate the poverty of Jesus’s birth.
Read now →Greccio · Rieti Valley, Lazio · Christmas night, 122307
Fonte Colombo: the Rule Written amid Stone and Prayer
At the hermitage of Fonte Colombo, Francis faced a difficult task: finding firm words for a growing brotherhood while keeping the simplicity of the Gospel alive.
Read now →Mount Rainiero · Rieti Valley, Lazio · 1223 and 1225–122608
La Verna: the Mountain of the Secret
On the mountain of La Verna, among forest and sheer rock, Francis experienced his most mysterious retreat and received in his body the memory of Jesus’s Passion.
Read now →Mount Penna · Casentino, Tuscany · 1213–1224 · decisive retreat in September 122409
Gubbio: between the wall and the woods
Francis arrived in poverty at a city of stone. Gubbio kept the memory of a gift of clothing, care for the sick, and a wolf whose story still asks us to listen.
Read now →Gubbio, Umbria, Italy · c. 1206–1207 · the first months after giving up his possessions10
Isola Maggiore: forty days upon the water
On Lake Trasimeno, an island keeps the memory of Francis alone among stones, olive trees, and wind. The silence is old; the details belong to tradition.
Read now →Isola Maggiore, Lake Trasimeno, Umbria, Italy · traditionally 1211 · a Lent spent in solitude11
Damietta: crossing into the enemy camp
In 1219, while crusaders and Muslims fought in the Nile Delta, Francis crossed the lines and was received by Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil.
Read now →near Damietta, Nile Delta, Egypt · 1219 · Fifth Crusade12
Porziuncola: the final return
Gravely ill, Francis asked to return to the little church where his brotherhood had begun. There, on October 3, 1226, his life ended among his brothers.
Read now →Porziuncola, Saint Mary of the Angels, Assisi, Umbria, Italy · September–October 3, 1226 · final illness and passing