Iconic

The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

The architecture of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi is Gothic austere, of no real significance except for the unusual design of an upper and lower church stacked one atop the other. The phenomenal beauty of this church is in the decoration. It is a who’s who of late gothic artists including Cimabue, Giotto, Lorenzetti and Martinii. The rich frescoes cover almost all surfaces- it borders on suffocating in the lower church, which already is vertically challenged. Francis was revered even in his own lifetime: he was canonized only 2 years after his death and a couple of centuries of work on his basilica began.

When I visited, during the 7:30 a.m. mass, I sat waiting for it to end to continue my tour. I contemplated the myriad of images of Saint Martin of Tours. And the crowded allegorical images of the vaults over the altar. I remember the times as a child when I was bored in Church, Immaculate Conception Church back in Monrovia to be exact, and I would stare at the stained glass images of the apostles or the Madonna panel over the altar with the strange-sounding ‘Ave Maria Gratia Plena’. Icons, rendered in great detail in stone chips, colored glass and painted scenes may have been created to reach an illiterate and unimaginative rabble, but I find them comforting in the depictions of the proximity of humanity and divinity. If I had attended a Protestant church when I was little, I probably would have been doodling in the hymnals as a way to keep my aesthetic sense on.

By the way photography isn't allowed inside the Basilica.