San Francesco

I visited today, October 7, 2018, for the memorial service for Brother Gualtiero Bellucci, who died last September. The Sanctuary of Saint Francis is along Provincial Road 33, heading toward Lugnano in Teverina (TR).

I spent much of my summer vacation here as a child, and like those childhood memories, the place still feels a little magical. I’ve come back to visit several times, but the gates are always closed now, with access limited to residents. I remember them being open before. It’s a shame that such an important historical and artistic heritage is kept for just a select few instead of being open to the public.

These days the old Franciscan convent has become a modern condominium, and only residents can enter. I’m grateful, though, that as a city dweller I got to keep such tender, naive memories of a world that had barely changed for centuries, at least when I was young. Back then, I’d go with my grandmother to the Convent of San Francesco to visit one of her relatives, who was in the nursing home inside the complex. I waited outside, and the first thing I did was go into the little church. There was a small fresco on a side wall, painted when the church was built. It showed Saint Francis passing through Lugnano and saving a child from a wolf’s jaws. The village grandmothers used to tell us kids that story, and it left me with so many questions. Each time I’d go back to look at the scene again, staying there for a while, lost in daydreams and feeling afraid, curious, and unsure whether to believe it. Then my childhood energy would take over and I’d rush out happily into the forest behind the convent buildings. It was thick, wild, and mysterious to me, and in my mind it went on for miles and miles. I’d wander along its rough paths, keeping the massive wall in sight, until sunset, when I heard my grandmother call me home. We’d climb toward the village’s old houses along Strada dei Mantrioli, a dirt road scattered with red stones, with her still walking at a rifleman’s pace.

It’s a beautiful place, but we were disappointed to find the church shut. It only opens on Sundays.