tanding at the centre of the cross vault, the “Cell of memory” keeps the stone ark with the mortal remains of Saint Francis. It is the heart of the sanctuary, one of the places most frequently visited by the crowds of people going on pilgrimages to the tombs of saints.
One of the two staircases, opened at the middle of the main aisle of the Lower Basilica, leads down to it. All the fascination and singularity that can be found about the streets, houses, and churches in Assisi, through the play of its meandering streets and long flights of steps, seems to make for the bowels of the bare rock, where, to our greatest wonder, in this severe and unadorned tomb, rests He “who was full of seraphic ardour”.
However Saint Francis is more alive than ever here, since from every corner of the earth millions of pilgrims of any race and continent go up to Him.
The light shining from his holy Tomb is a constant attraction for men who, lost about the ways of the world, are looking for a little peace. It is as if the tormented image of the Saint of Assisi were rising in a halo of light, holding out his stigmatised hands to the world and repeating his seraphic greeting “Peace and Love” to all creatures! Saint Bonaventura called him “the supporter of peace”, as he used to preach peace in every sermon of his, to wish peace at any greeting, to long for the ineffable peace of ecstasy on his moments of contemplation. Now we can duly call him a citizen of that Jerusalem, for which the Psalmist, a man of peace, pacific in front of those who hated peace, would sing: “Ask for peace for Jerusalem” (Saint Bonaventura)
Here, in the rough stone sarcophagus, situated in the pillar built at the centre of the cross-vaulted room, is kept the Holy Body of the Poverello. That is exactly where Friar Elia had hidden him, integral, in 1230. In 1476, in order to protect the relics from the frequent attempts at stealing them on the side of the town of Perugia, Sisto IV ordered that the narrow hall that let into the underground cell, should be made impassable.
On September 12th, 1818, motu proprio Pio VII agreed to the Ministry General Giuseppe de Bonis’s request for starting excavating under the high altar in the Lower Basilica. Works started on October 5th. On December 12th the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains of the Saint were brought to light. Then they were put into a bronze urn and, on September 5th, 1820, by the papal breve Assisiensem basilicam, Pio VII announced to the Christendom that Saint Francis’s body had been brought to light again. In 1824 there was the inauguration of the new crypt realized by the pontifical architect Pasquale Belli in conformity with a classic Greek project. Thus the ancient cell of memory became the third church.
The neo-Romanesque style of the present setting in substitution for the XIX century neo-classic one, was realized by architect Ugo Tarchi in 1932.
Into the corner niches of the Tomb of the Saint, the tombs of Friar Leone, Friar Masseo, Friar Ruffino, and Friar Angelo, four of the Saint’s disciples, who had originally been buried in the Lower Basilica, have been arranged. At the joining point of the two stairs that lead to the Tomb, there are the remains of the Roman noblewoman Jacopa de’ Settesoli, a devout benefactress of the Saint, who used to call her Friar Jacopa.
Between January 24th and March 4th, 1978, a second exhumation of the Saint’s relics took place, under the authorization of Pope Paolo VI.
