San Damiano (9th Century ?)
The church stands on the site of a subterranean pre-Roman temple of Mithras. The earliest surviving documentary reference to it dates to 1030, when it belonged to the Abbazzia di San Benedetto. By 1103, it belonged to a family from Assisi: they transferred it in that year to the canons of San Rufino. It passed to the Bishop of Assisi in the early 13th century.
St Francis and San Damiano
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| Fresco (ca. 1290) of St Francis before the San Damiano Crucifix Upper church, San Francesco Image courtesy of Paolo Rossi |
St Francis came across the ruined church in ca. 1205, a time early in his conversion. He prayed to the Crucifix that hung over the altar and was rewarded by the words of Christ: Francis . rebuild My house; as you see it is all being destroyed. (This Crucifix is now in Santa Chiara).
St Francis took the message literally. He sold goods from his fathers house and returned to San Damiano to press the ill-gotten money on the priest who looked after it. When the priest sensibly refused the money, St Francis threw it onto a windowsill.
The priest then gave St Francis permission to hide in the subterranean space that adjoined the crypt, which had once been the centre of the Mithraic cult. He stayed there for about a month before returning to Assisi to face the music. Once he had renounced his inheritance, he returned to San Damiano and spent several months restoring the church while searching for his new vocation. During this period, he was probably recognised as a hermit living under the protection of Bishop Guido I, a status that he probably retained until ca. 1209 when Pope Innocent III recognised the form of life that he proposed for himself and a small band of followers.
St Clare and San Damiano
At the behest of St Francis, Bishop Guido I allowed St Clare to establish a small community at San Damiano shortly after she left the world in ca. 1212. This poor, cloistered community relied largely on the Franciscans of Assisi for both spiritual and material support. Over the next 30 years, it emerged as the exemplar for a female Franciscan order that became known as the Order of San Damiano.
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| St Clare repels saracens at San Damiano Detail from a tabernacle (ca. 1275) attributed to Guido da Siena Pinacoteca, Siena |
St Clare spent most of her time at San Damiano in contemplation of Christ. Her main external preoccupation was to protect the Franciscan character of her way of life in the face of the repeated attempts of a series of popes to impose a more conventional form of life on the sisters. She also occasionally faced the intrusion of the secular world. For example, a band of Saracens in the army of the Emperor Frederick II attacked San Damiano in September 1240, but withdrew when St Clare appeared before them carrying the Eucharist.
St Francis visited St Clare and her sisters only rarely. In 1225, during the early stages of his final illness, he made what he probably expected to be his last visit to them. However, his condition suddenly deteriorated, and he spent a few
weeks in their care in a hut in the cloister: it was here that he wrote the
Canticle to Brother Sun.
When St Francis died at the Portiuncula in the following year, the brothers carried his body to San Damiano en route for Assisi. The coffin was laid in the apse and opened so that St Clare and her sisters could see it for the last time through the grill from which they usually took Communion.
St Clare died at San Damiano in 1253. Pope Innocent IV presided as the Office for the Dead was celebrated, and then headed the procession in which St Clares body was carried to San Giorgio (later Santa Chiara).
The Later History of San Damiano
After the death of St Clare, the sisters were keen to move to San Giorgio to be close to her relics. This church belonged to the canons of San Rufino, and they were reluctant to negotiate the exchange. However, it was finally accomplished in 1260, and San Damiano duly passed to the canons.
San Damiano is first mentioned as a Franciscan convent in 1307, when it belonged to the Sacro Convento. It was among the first twelve convents of the Observant Franciscans that were under the direction of Paoluccio Trinci in 1380, and it passed to the Riformati in 1604. The Franciscan community at San Damiano was suppressed in 1867.
In 1894, George Robinson, Lord Ripon bought the complex from the Italian state and gave the use of it back to the Franciscans. A Latin inscription [on the garden wall as one descends to the convent from Assisi] records the fact that he restored the convent at his own expense in that year. [The road leading down from Assisi to San Damiano is called the "Via G.F.S. Robinson, Marchese di Ripon."] The convent finally reverted to the formal ownership of the Franciscans in 1983.
Facade
The rose window in the facade was probably added to the original facade in the 14th century.
The room above it was probably built above the nave when St Clare and her sisters took over in order to serve as a dormitory. The sisters accessed the dormitory via the door above and to the left of the rose window, which was presumably reached by a rope ladder. It was from this door that St Clare brandished the pyx to ward off the invading Saracens in 1240.
The extension of the façade to the right dates to a later period, and the portico was built in the 16th century.
Itinerary
The following description of the church and convent follows the itinerary mandated for present-day visitors.
Exterior AediculeThis aedicule is at right angles to the portico, on the right. It contains a fresco (14th century) of the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Francis (who commends a kneeling donor) and Clare. Figures of SS Rufinus and Damian are depicted to the sides, with God the Father above.
Cappella di San Girolamo
This chapel was built to the side of the original church, probably in the early 16th century. It contains two frescoes by Tiberio d' Assisi:
Galeotto de' Bistochi commissioned the fresco (1517) in the lunette of the altar wall, which depicts the Madonna and Child with SS Bernardino, Jerome, Francis and Clare.
Sante di Santorello commissioned the fresco (1523) of SS Sebastiano and Rocco on the left wall.
This chapel, which was built in 1555, now acts as the vestibule to the church. A venerated wooden Crucifix (1637) by Fra. Innocenzo da Palermo is on the altar wall.
ChurchThe church probably originally had a raised presbytery over a crypt, like other monastic churches ot its period. This arrangement was not appropriate for a cloistered community of nuns. Thus the floor of the crypt was raised, the floor of the presbytery was removed and a new ceiling was installed as a platform for an upper oratory (see below). This new presbytery would have been used for public services, while the nuns took Communion through the grill in the back wall. The choir stalls that partially obscure it were installed later for use by the Franciscan friars.
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[Image credit to follow] |
The fresco (13th century) of the Madonna and Child with SS Rufinus and Damian in the apse, which was re-discovered in 1927, has been heavily repainted. It seems to be integral with the decoration around the grill below, and was thus probably painted when that grill was installed soon after St Clare took over the complex.
Father Leone Bracaloni made the copy (1912) of the Crucifix before which St Francis prayed that hangs above the entrance to the presbytery. (The original is now in Santa Chiara).
The window into which St Francis subsequently threw the money that the priest refused to accept is in the right wall, near the counter-façade. Frescoes of scenes from the life of St Francis (early 14th century) surrounding this "window of the money" and continue on the adjacent part of the counter-façade.
The scenes depict:
St Francis praying before the Crucifix;
St Francis throwing the money onto the windowsill; and
St Francis father threatening him with a club (on the counter-façade).
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This last scene (of which only a fragment survives) takes place before a cityscape of Assisi that pre-dates the new walls of 1316 and the building of Porta Nuova. It clearly shows the Arco di Santa Chiara (1260) and the church and convent of Santa Chiara beside it.
There is also a fresco (early 14th century) of the full-length figure of St Agnes holding the symbol of the Lamb of God on the right wall, nearer to the apse. She was the name saint of St Agnes of Assisi, the sister of St Clare, who belonged to the community until 1219.
Sisters Choir
A door in the right wall leads to a room with stairs that lead up to the oratory above the apse. [The entrance to the subterranean cell in which St Francis hid in 1205 is visible to the left of the entrance].
An opening in the left wall allows visitors to see the choir that St Clare and her sisters used. They assembled in front of the grate on the left to receive Communion from the priest officiating at the altar of the main part of the church, and it was from here that they said their final farewell to the dead St Francis. The wooden stalls probably survive from the time of St Clare.
A fresco of the Crucifixion (1482) on the altar wall is by Pierantonio Mezzastris.
 St Clare's garden (above), seen from the cloister Image courtesy of Paolo Rossi |
The stairs lead to the oratory that was built over the re-modelled presbytery of the ancient church. The niche to the left of the altar was used to hold the pyx that contained the consecrated Host. St Clare probably removed the pyx from this niche in 1240 when she brandished it before invading Saracens and saved her sisters from harm. The frescoes (14th century) have been heavily repainted, but follow the original design.
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| [Image credit to follow] |
On the left wall, St Clare and her sisters adore the Host, which would have been kept in a pyx in the niche in the nearby altar wall. This is probably a reference to the occasion on which St Clare used the pyx to repel an invasion of Saracens. An angel frescoed on the sidewall of the niche commends St Clare to a figure of Christ that is frescoed on its back wall.
The arch of the presbytery has frescoed tondi of the Throne of Heaven with the four Evangelists.
The dome of the presbytery contains other tondi of the Madonna and Child with SS Francis and Clare.
Steps from the oratory lead to the sisters dormitory, which was built over the nave of the church.
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[Image courtesy of Jim McIntosh] |
A Crucifix on the left wall marks the site of the death of St Clare in 1253. The relief to the right depicts her on her deathbed, with a friar showing her the precious papal signature that conferred papal approval on her Form of Life.
Cloister and Refectory
Steps lead down from the dormitory into the cloister, with the refectory along the opposite side. The refectory probably existed at the time of St Clare, although the cloister took on its present appearance at a later date.
Frescoes (1507) of the stigmatisation of St Francis and of the Annunciation, which are signed by Eusebio di San Giorgio and dated, are in the corner of the cloister, to the right of the refectory.
You can take a virtual tour of San Damiano on the website of the Laboratorio di Fotogrammetria Architettonica, Politecnico di Bari.
Read more:
J. Wood, "Women, Art and Spirituality", Cambridge (1996)
R. Miller, "In the Footsteps of St Clare", St Bonaventure (1993)
M. Bigaroni, "San Damiano, Assisi: the First Church of St Francis", Franciscan Studies 47 (1987) 45 - 97
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