Journeys for your Heart and Soul!
We all love our Nativity scenes. These have been popular Advent and Christmas decorations for centuries. But were you aware they originated by our beloved St. Francis? St. Francis of Assisi had a special devotion to the Child Jesus. He is credited with creating the first …
A pilgrimage is a gift to yourself, a form of self-care. When you embark on a pilgrimage, you are taking part in a voyage that is both heartwarming and soul-warming, and not just simply a vacation. Give yourself a gift and enjoy all the benefits …
“In 1213 Count Orlando Catani of Chiusi gave Francis a mountainous parcel of land called La Verna to use as a place of retreat. Tucked into the wilderness east of Florence, La Verna features a solitary peak, known as Monte Penna, and is covered with …
FRANCIS OF ASSISI, FRIAR D. 1226 PATRON OF ANIMALS AND OF ECOLOGY St. Francis was born in the hill country of central Italy in the town of Assisi around 1181. He was the only child of a prosperous cloth merchant and grew up among the …
Some of the highlights along The Way of St. Francis Santuario della Verna (La Verna, our starting point) We start our walk from La Verna, a remote mountain retreat. As we leave the Sanctuary of La Verna, through the Casentino park, it is like walking back in time …
A Mystical encounter in Tuscany By: Andrew Harvey When I was 18, I spent eight months hitchhiking around Italy. At the time, I was about to go to Oxford, and I thought that I wanted to be an art historian. So I visited all the …
BY Gretel Ehrlich | MAY 1, 2000 Gretel Ehrlich walks in the footsteps of St. Francis through the Umbrian countryside and ponders the life of a saint who was “radical without bitterness, vital yet gentle, dramatic—even outrageous at times—without narcissism.” The road to Gubbio veers north …