Full-Day Excursion to Assisi from Rome

See the Tomb of St. Francis in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Francis. The saint's remains in their stone container were excavated between 1818-1824, and his tomb was rebuilt and restored in the late 1920s. Above the altar, in the space of the ancient tomb, you can see the simple stone container enclosed by iron bars in two grids surrounded by four rough walls. The body of St. Francis still lies inside this container. In the corner niches lie the remains of four companions of St. Francis: Rufino, Angelo, Masseo, and Leone. Above is a lamp in bronze and alabaster, offered by the Regions of Italy in 1939 to the "patron saint of the Nation Primary."

St. Francis died next to the Porziuncola, the modest chapel where his church had begun, on October 3, 1226. The next day, his body was brought back into Assisi for his followers to kiss the stigmata.

In 1228, Brother Elias (the successor to the command of the Order) had received the gift of a plot of land outside of the western gate of Assisi. It was on a steep rise of Mount Subasio where they hanged criminals, and therefore he called it the Hill of Hell. On that cursed place they determined to build a very large church that would welcome the body of the great saint (he became a saint in 1228). The pope came to the Hill of Hell to bless the first stone, and work began on the basilica.

The saint's remains were interred in 1230 in the crypt below the Lower Basilica, but the exact location of his tomb was secret to keep Saracen invaders from raiding the tomb. The tomb was only re-discovered in 1818, when excavations began.