It was only a short bus trip down the hill from from Assisi to the beautiful Santa Maria degli Angeli, a beautiful basilica constructed around a house famed to have been built in the 300s AD from relics of the original house where the Assumption of Our Lady took place. It is said this is one of the chapels restored by St. Francis after his vision: “Francis, go and rebuild my house…” St. Francis also had his followers bring him to the chapel at his death..
I remember the experience of the interior and exterior of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli as being simple in their beauty. After spending so many days immersed in all the baroque and renaissance art that necessarily makes up an Italian pilgrimage, it was certainly refreshing to visit a Church whose purpose is simply to accentuate the treasured relic within. The lights were dim on our arrival, flickering candlelight light up the walls, and I took pause to enjoy a moment of reverence and connection to all the pilgrims who had come to visit this powerful place through the centuries.
The Portiuncula itself is tastefully adorned in Roman-style frescoes, and as a relic from the Holy Land certainly brings back memories of the Aedicule within the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. There are very few churches built around chapels – where this happens, you know it’s a place of unique Catholic importance.
Having explored the church, we found ourselves once more on the streets of Italy, with more holy places to visit, in all the hustle and bustle that makes up a pilgrimage.
