St. Francis’ remains go on display in Assisi for a month

Brother Marco Borgioli, a Franciscan friar from Florence, arrived early on Sunday to see dawn break over Assisi and found hundreds of people of all ages lining up at the basilica. “It’s striking that after 800 years, Francis is alive. He’s not a museum, he’s alive, and he touches people’s hearts,” he said.

To mark the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death, the bones believed to be his were removed on Saturday from a crypt and brought by procession to the church above, where they will be on display for a month. Preserved in a nitrogen-filled plexiglass case, the remains have been shown to the public only once before, briefly, in 1978; nearly 400,000 people have already registered for time slots, and many more are expected without reservations.

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