The Tomb of Saint Francis

Saint Francis died on the evening of 3 October 1226, at the Portiuncula below Assisi, and was buried the next day in the little church of San Giorgio in the town. Less than two years later he was canonized, and Brother Elias, his successor, began a great double basilica on the western edge of Assisi, on a hill once called the “hill of hell,” where criminals were executed. Francis’s followers renamed it the “hill of paradise.”

In 1230 his body was carried to the new basilica. To protect it from relic thieves, Elias had it buried secretly, deep in the rock beneath the high altar, and for nearly six hundred years no one knew exactly where it lay. It was found again in 1818, after fifty-two nights of excavation, and a crypt was built so that pilgrims could pray at the tomb. In the 1920s the crypt was remade in simple, rough stone, more fitting for the poor man of Assisi.

The stone coffin of the saint, bound with iron bands, can be seen above the altar of the crypt. Around it lie four of his first companions, Brothers Leo, Rufino, Masseo and Angelo, and nearby rests the noble Roman widow Jacopa de’ Settesoli, whom Francis called “Brother Jacopa.”

Above the crypt, the two churches of the basilica are covered with the frescoes of Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti.

Where

Basilica of San Francesco (the crypt of the Lower Basilica), Assisi, Italy

When to see it

Open daily. The crypt is reached by stairs from the Lower Basilica.

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap

Read about

Saint Francis of Assisi