The broken voice, the wet eyes. Fra Marco Moroni, father custodian of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, is moved by looking at the photo of the morning when the worn body of Saint Francis is exhumed for the exposition. They are expected in the Umbrian town 200 accredited journalists and over 400 thousand pilgrims from all over the world who will be welcomed and followed by 416 volunteers, by the police and by a network of partners capable of guaranteeing safety and services.
«It is not an appointment with the macabre», explains Lorena Bianchetti immediately, presenter of A sua Immagine and coordinator of the press conference to present the event which will take place from February 22nd to March 22nd. This, if anything, he adds David Rondoni, president of the National Committee dedicated to the eighth centenary of the saint’s death, «is the celebration of a living person who left a mark by dying. His bones are not the spoils of death, but the ones stolen by Saint Francis at the time, they are a sign that celebrates life.”
The prolonged display of the remains of Saint Francis in the Basilica of Assisi is a unprecedented historical, mystical and organizational event, with strong spiritual resonance in the context of wars and divisions.
The consumed bones, as the life of Saint Francis was consumed for Christ, then become a sign of life, evangelical fruitfulness and invitation to brotherhood, forgiveness, service and respect for creation. The contemplation, through a transparent bulletproof and shatterproof case, of the poor man’s remains becomes awareness of how much that seed sown 800 years ago is still capable of making life sprout. Not just words, the president of the Province Stefania Proietti, recalls how those bones «so worn, or rather precisely because they are worn, tell us that Francis’s is a sanctity within everyone’s reach. We can all imitate Christ as he did.” He underlines how, in the name of Francis, laws have been passed unanimously, not least the one that re-establishes October 4th as a national holiday, which encourage devotion to Francis as a sign of brotherhood, safeguarding creation, support for the little ones. And he gives Brother Moroni a copy of law number one of 2026 which establishes, dedicating it to the Saint, a pediatric hospice as a lasting sign of attention to the suffering of children.
«Francis is a living icon», says Brother Moroni, «a human icon of ours, one of us who testifies that what Jesus said in the Gospel is truly true: “If a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it produces much fruit”. He who gives himself with love produces much fruit and Francesco is precisely this butterfly effect. A butterfly effect of good that runs through history, through the centuries, because even today there are people who, inspired by him and provoked by him, continue to live or try to live in a style of fraternity respecting creation by building relationships based on forgiveness and service.”
For the VIII centenary, among the many initiatives, the Franciscans have prepared a special monographic issue of their magazine with the theme of “St. Francis lives”, organized a “Young Franciscan” meeting on “sister death”, to say that «that of Francis is not a relic under glass, but an engine of meaning for generation Z», and opened the portals www.giovaniversoassisi.org and sanfrancescovive.org. All to cultivate that precious legacy of St. Francis who is “first and foremost”, explains Brother Giulio Cesareo, brotherhood”.
