The Way of St Francis. The Reverend Sandy Brown

With your pack on your back you have rounded the last bend of the Tiber River. You have walked past the looming brown hulk of Castel Sant’Angelo, past some offices and stores and, with 140 stern, saintly and stony witnesses watching from the colonnade above, you have stepped out of Italy and into bustling Saint Peter’s Square. This is holy ground, the Vatican City – for millions the center of the world. After many days of walking you should be exhausted, but instead you’re exhilarated.

Vittorio Emanuel II Monument in Rome (Pilgrim Churches Tour)

Before you is Michelangelo’s spectacular dome, soaring over the tomb of St Peter. To your upper right is the Pope’s balcony where he speaks to tens of thousands of the assembled faithful. Beyond is the treasure-filled Vatican Museum. Behind you are relics of Ancient Rome, its temples and palaces sprinkled within one of the world’s most beloved and beautiful modern cities.

Around you are pilgrims from all over the world, here like you to experience the drama and grandeur of this place. They came in a bus or train or car; but like millions of pilgrims from centuries past who spent weeks or months getting to this very place, you walked. You feel your arrival in a joyful heart, but also you feel it in your bones and muscles and on the soles of your weary feet. You take off your pack to rest your back after a journey of many kilometers, and with a mixture of relief and joy you think back over your amazing pilgrimage – the Way of St Francis.

Interior of St Peter’s Basilica, Rome (Stage 28)

Stretching out over 28 days and 550 kilometers, the Via di Francesco unveils countless unforgettable wonders. In Florence are the smooth, muscular lines of Michelangelo’s David, the amazing heights of Brunelleschi’s dome, the heavy bells of Giotto’s tower and intricate details of Ghiberti’s bronze doors. After Florence are countless medieval and Renaissance churches and monuments that stand in timeless testimony to a people’s enduring faith over many centuries. In Assisi are delicate frescoes by Cimabue and Giotto. Roman amphitheaters, Etruscan arches and relics of saints dot the path that traces a pilgrim walk through cities and villages but also under the shade of mighty forests and ancient olive groves.

Many have walked to Rome − heroes and conquerors, saints and reformers − but none loved this land more than St Francis of Assisi, a simple man of Umbria who became patron saint of Italy. In his Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon he offered a poetic vision for a life that calls people to befriend the earth and all God’s creatures. That song and his life sprang under the this sun shining over these fields, these forests, these stones.

The modern Way of St Francis connects places and paths important in the life of this beloved saint and makes them available

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