he conceiver of the Sanctuary of Assisi is no doubt to be identified with Friar Elia, the favourite disciple of Saint Francis, besides being his Vicar and, later, the second Minister General of the Franciscan Order. He took so much trouble in getting all the friars of the Order to take part in the realization of the great Basilica wanted by the Pope and by the whole Church to honour the sanctity of the Poverello.
Supposed contrasts between Elia and the other disciples of St Francis because of the grandiosity of that holy building were but mere fables born out of the rebellious fantasy of the so-called Spirituals of the XIV century. The historical groundlessness of such defamatory tales and the like is officially stated today. Moreover, Friar Elia is also credited with being the architect of the double church and of the most ancient part of the convent. That attribution is not accepted by those who see in the building of the basilica several successive architects, denying any value, on the ground of its being too late, to an indirect witness of the Franciscan annalist Friar Mariano da Firenze.(1553).
The structures of the whole building, though, seem to have been ended in 1239; on the other hand we know that Friar Elia was removed from his post as General by Gregorio IX just in 1239, which would not have happened had the building of the basilica not been completed yet on that date.
As for the witness of Mariano da Firenze, it can be placed side by side to what, two centuries before, in 1365-69, Arnaldo de Serrant said in his chronicle written on the base of all the previous sources: that Friar Elia was removed “because of his excesses in building the Basilica” of Assisi, and that occurred only “after he had ended (perfecit) that double church with bell tower in Assisi“.
So that first masterpiece of the Italian gothic architecture originated from the ingenious art of Friar Elia. Later, out of mere ill-will, a few fanatic children of Saint Francis charged him with betraying the Franciscan ideal by his art. That basilica is a monument of piety raised to the Poverello, almost as a reflection, in the bosom of the earthly church, of that glory to which God has elevated His humble servant in the heavenly Church. St Francis’s children, the convent Friar Minors, who have been living in the shade of that church for more than seven centuries, have always remained just as Friar Elia had wanted them to: faithful children of Saint Francis and simple guests in a building belonging to the Holy Roman Church, as humble servants who give their services for the splendour of the ceremonies by which all the Church wants to honour its Seraphic Father.
Gherard Ruf
O.F.M.CONV
