Tuesday, June 18th - it must be the province of Umbria. Today we travel to Assisi to visit the birthplace of St. Francis. Driving 2 hours through the Tuscan countryside, where each turn is more beautiful than the last and it is impossible to turn your head away from the bus window.
Assisi, although Umbrian in origin, is influenced by nearby Etruscan settlements. Christian since the 3rd century, and birthplace of Francis of Assisi, it is dominated by the Basilica Di St. Francesco.
While there, we also learned that it's citizens have continued to live by his philosophy through the centuries - during the Nazi occupation, the people of Assisi hid and protected over 300 Jews from arrest and persecution until liberated by the Allied forces. Many of those who risked their own lives and freedom are forever remembered in Yad Vashem's "Garden of the Righteous of the Nations", the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
To quote a few words of St. Francis in his Simple Prayer -
"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
It is in giving that we receive"
A credo for all to live by, no matter what one's beliefs' are.
Assisi, although Umbrian in origin, is influenced by nearby Etruscan settlements. Christian since the 3rd century, and birthplace of Francis of Assisi, it is dominated by the Basilica Di St. Francesco.
While there, we also learned that it's citizens have continued to live by his philosophy through the centuries - during the Nazi occupation, the people of Assisi hid and protected over 300 Jews from arrest and persecution until liberated by the Allied forces. Many of those who risked their own lives and freedom are forever remembered in Yad Vashem's "Garden of the Righteous of the Nations", the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
To quote a few words of St. Francis in his Simple Prayer -
"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
It is in giving that we receive"
A credo for all to live by, no matter what one's beliefs' are.