La Verna, Franciscan Sanctuary, 06/08/2019
The original purpose of my European tour was to stay in monasteries' accommodation. Because I wanted to observe daily lives of catholic monks during stay at near distance. Unfortunately but happily, here was the only place that had fulfill my requirement. Because most of the monasteries to visit had already been overbooked, I should stay hotel near village. It was difficult to feel the atmosphere of the monks who have selected voluntary isolated life. The other places except Sacro speco and Camaldoli were located close to the village rather than in the middle of mountains.
The charm of here is that you can meditate while walking in the forest at any time.
The pilgrim should get here following this road from the village below.
Here, you can climb to the La Verna Sanctuary
Over the centuries, the structure of monastery continued to be added up on the vestiges left by Saint Francis and his successors. The passages inside the monastery are so complicated like a maze that it was easy for me to get lost. As a stranger from East of Asia, I was able to experience a little bit of the old-fashioned taste of the European Middle Ages and spirituality.
La Verna is one of the most famous monasteries of the Casentino, and one of the most important Franciscan. St. Francis in the spring of 1213 met the Count Orlando of Chiusi della Verna, who, impressed by his preaching, made a gift of La Verna to him and his followers. It became a place of numerous and prolonged periods of withdrawal. Some small cells were built and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (1216–18). The decisive impulse to the development of a large monastery was given by the episode of the stigmata (1224). The last visit of Francis to the mountain was in the summer of 1224. He retired in August, for a 40-day fast in preparation for the feast of St. Michael, and while he was absorbed in prayer, he received the stigmata. Pope Alexander IV took the site under papal protection and in 1260 a church was built and consecrated. St. Bonaventure and many bishops were in attendance. A few years later the Chapel of the Stigmata was built by Count Simon of Battifolle, close to the place of the miracle. An older chapel, Santa Maria degli Angeli, had been built in 1218 by St. Francis. The main church was begun in 1348 but remained unfinished until 1459. From the main church, the friars make a solemn procession twice a day to the Chapel of the Stigmata.The monastery was partially destroyed by fire in the fifteenth century and later restored. The restorations took three centuries. In 1810 and in 1866 the friars were expelled temporarily following the suppression of religious orders. History of La Verna Sanctuary