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Assisi, Umbria, Italy |
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Back to the Piazza Santa Chiara from the Rocca Maggiore, I started heading further down the hill of olive groves to see San Damiano where San Francesco first heard the voice of God and Santa Chiara spent her life with her. |
On my way down to San Damiano, I saw some friars preaching to students in the olive groves." | And finally I found a sign that said "S. DAMIANO" and cypress trees leading me down to the convent. |
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| I finally got here at the San Damiano convent. One day in summer of 1205, while San Francesco was praying at the ancient and ruined church of San Damiano, he heard the crucified Christ (it's now housed at the Basilica di Santa Chiara) speaking to him, "Francesco, repair My house." He built this chapel with his own hands. He also built a place to live next to the chapel for Santa Chiara and the women who joined her Order of the Poor Ladies, later called the Poor Clares. |
There was a lovely courtyard in the convent. It had a well in the middle of it. Chiara and her nuns lived a "cloistered" life for the rest of their lives. |
Inside the convent, there were a lot of narrow stairs ups and dows. I reached the room where Chiara died on August 11, 1253. Two years after her death, Pope Alexander IV canonized her as Santa Chiara d'Assisi. |
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The statue of Santa Chiara stands in front of the convent. I was touched by the way she lived for the poors. |
There was a beautiful fresco of Madonna and Child between San Francesco and Santa Chiara on the wall of the convent. | The San Francesco statue stands in the garden. This Francesco statue looked different from other Francesco statues I'd seen. I immersed myself in pure peace and tranquility. |
