Nearly 400,000 people pre-registered to see the bones of St. Francis of Assisi in the hilltop town in Italy’s Umbria. The remains of Italy’s patron saint date back to the 13th century.<\/p>\n
A long line of pilgrims and visitors waited patiently on Sunday to view the remains of Saint Francis of Assisi outside his namesake basilica in the central Italian town of Assisi.<\/p>\n
First full public display in almost 800 years<\/p>\n
For the first time in nearly eight centuries, the general public was able to see the remains of one of the Catholic Church’s best-known saints.<\/p>\n
The patron saint of Italy’s remains have been resting in a stone sarcophagus for centuries. On Saturday, the coffin was ceremoniously transferred from the crypt to the lower church of the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.<\/p>\n
The display will last one month and end on March 22. According to the Franciscan Order, nearly 400,000 people from across the globe have registered to attend.<\/p>\n
Apart from previous exhumations for inspection and scientific examination, Saint Francis’ bones have only been displayed once, for a very limited group and for one day, in 1978.<\/p>\n
The public is permitted to touch the outer glass case containing the remains of St. Francis Image: Gregorio Borgia\/AP Photo\/picture alliance<\/p>\n
Who was Saint Francis?<\/p>\n
Francis of Assisi, born around 1181, founded the Franciscan Order after renouncing his wealth and devoting his life to helping the poor. After his death, the coffin was buried in a hidden location.<\/p>\n
In 1818, Pope Pius VII granted the Franciscans permission to uncover the tomb. A new crypt was built for the sarcophagus in the lower church of the basilica.<\/p>\n
In celebration of the 800th anniversary of his death, the saint’s remains are on display in a plexiglas case near the altar of the lower church. Visitors are permitted to touch the outer case of the display.<\/p>\n
Celebrations in Italy will continue after the display ends. October 4, which is the feast day of St. Francis, was reinstated as a public holiday last year, coming into effect in 2026.<\/p>\n
Edited by: Kieran Burke<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly 400,000 people pre-registered to see the bones of St. Francis of Assisi in the hilltop town in Italy’s Umbria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}