Pilgrimage to Venerate St Francis relics in Assisi 16th March 2026
I set off on the ides of March on a three-day pilgrimage unlike any that I’ve ever made before. This time, I wasn’t going to simply be at the tomb of a saint or in a place where a saint had been; I was actually going to see one. I arrived at the airport in Rome, took a local train, then a tube train to the railway station and boarded my train to Assisi. After squashing into the cramped space on the plane, first-class rail travel was rather luxurious, and worth the extra 1 euro for the extra legroom. Not sure what St Francis would have said about it, but never mind. On arrival in Santa Maria degli Angeli, I made my way from the railway station, just after 10pm, past the huge basilica of St Mary of the Angels that houses the tiny church of the Portiuncula, to my hotel. First thing in the morning, I set off into the countryside up the hill towards the convent of San Damiano, the church where Francis first heard God calling him to ‘rebuild my church, which as you can ...