February 26 - March 2, 2026
Pilgrimage to Saint Francis of Assisi and visit to the mortal remains of Saint Francis.
With Father Gabriele Dipaola and Francesco Vaiasuso.
The pilgrimage to Franciscan sites was an occasion for spiritual and human growth for the entire community, as well as an opportunity to strengthen the already existing fraternal bonds and build new ones with brothers from Apulia.
Through the spiritual guidance of Father Gabriele, a regular visitor to the Franciscan sites in Umbria, we immersed ourselves in Franciscan spirituality, grasping the message, still revolutionary today, of the Little Poor Man of Assisi.
We visited the Church of San Damiano, the "hospital of the soul" where Francis, wounded by failures and shattered dreams, found the Physician. Following his example, we too practiced bringing our ruins, our failures before God, encountering Him not in the splendor of precious decorations, but in the poverty of peeling walls and bare stones.
The visit to the mortal remains of Saint Francis was a way to consolidate, humanly as well as spiritually, our closeness to him; it was also an opportunity to reflect on the various "deaths" in our lives, learning to see them not as "sunsets," but as "dawns." Just like Francis, who called Death "Sister."
At the Eremo delle Carceri (Hermitage of the Prisons), we rediscovered the importance of silence, contemplation, and intimate prayer. To Francis and his friars, the hermitage was not a place to escape the world, rather a place to rediscover the heart of the world, God.
We visited the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Porziuncola, celebrating the Pardon of Assisi. Here we meditated on the beginnings of the Franciscan experience. If San Damiano church represents the place of the calling, the Porziuncola is the symbol of the operosity of faith, the place that teaches us that faith must be lived in the concreteness of life, with simplicity.
The pilgrimage was ended with the visits to Spello, the Basilicas of Saint Clare and San Rufino, Francis's family home, and a pleasant touristic afternoon in the citycenter of Perugia.
