he uncovered not his
hands and feet, and that he could not put the soles of his feet to the
ground ... knew of a surety that in his hands and feet, and likewise in
his side, he bore the express image and similitude of Our Lord Jesus
Christ crucified." On the day after the feast of St. Michael, St.
Francis left La Verna never to return.

* * * * *

It was with a certain hesitation that I first came to La Verna, as
though something divine that was hidden in the life of the Apostle of
Humanity might be lost for me in the mere realism of his sacred places.
But it was not so. In Italy, it might seem even to-day, St. Francis is
not a stranger, and, in fact, I had got no farther than the Cappella
degli Uccelli before I seemed to understand everything, and in a place
so lonely as this to have found again, yes, that Jesus whom I had lost
in the city.

On a high precipitous rock on the top of the mountain you come to the
convent itself, through a great court, il Quadrante, under a low
gateway. The buildings are of the end of the fifteenth century, simple,
and with a certain country beauty about them, strong and engaging. In
the dim corridors the friars pass you on their way to church at all
hours of the day, smiling faintly at you, whom they, in their simple
way, receive without question as a friend. It is for St. Francis you
have come: it is enough. You pass into the Cappella della Maddalena,
where the angel appeared to S. Francesco promising such great things,
and it is with a certain confidence you remind yourself, yes, it is
true, the Order still lives, here men still speak S. Francesco's name
and pray to God. And there, as it is said, Jesus Himself spoke with him,
and he wrote the blessing for Frate Leone. Then you enter the Chiesina,
the first little church of the Mountain that St. Francis may have built
with his own hands, and that S. Bonaventura certainly enlarged; and thus
into the great Church of S. Maria Assunta, built in 1348 by the Conte di
Pietramala, with its beautiful della Robbias. Coming out again, you
pass along the covered way into the Cappella della Stigmata, built in
1263 by the Conte Simone da Battifolle, where behind the high altar is
the great Crucifixion by one of the della Robbia. Next to this chapel is
the Cappella della Croce, where of old the cell stood in which St.
Francis kept the Lent of St. Michael. Close by are the Oratories of S.
Antonio di Padua and S. Bonaven