After his death at the Porziuncola, Francis’s body was temporarily buried in the church of San Giorgio in Assisi. In 1230, following his canonization, a solemn translation to the newly built Basilica of Saint Francis was planned under papal authority. The ceremony degenerated into conflict when the citizens of Assisi forcibly intervened, claiming control over the saint’s body as a civic treasure. Pope Gregory IX responded with severe sanctions, revealing deep tensions between papal power, civic religion, and the Franciscan Order. The episode shows how Francis’s sanctity could not be confined to a local cult, given the universal scope of his message and Order.
D'Acunto, N., Voce "Traslazione", in Francesco d'Assisi. Enciclopedia francescana, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, Roma 2025:2 637-639 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/327446]
Traslazione
D'Acunto, Nicolangelo
2025
Abstract
After his death at the Porziuncola, Francis’s body was temporarily buried in the church of San Giorgio in Assisi. In 1230, following his canonization, a solemn translation to the newly built Basilica of Saint Francis was planned under papal authority. The ceremony degenerated into conflict when the citizens of Assisi forcibly intervened, claiming control over the saint’s body as a civic treasure. Pope Gregory IX responded with severe sanctions, revealing deep tensions between papal power, civic religion, and the Franciscan Order. The episode shows how Francis’s sanctity could not be confined to a local cult, given the universal scope of his message and Order.
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