Collection: Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi

ARTIST: Museum Religious Art Classics

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Artist: Giovanni Baglione – c. 1601

This work by Baglione depicts the moment he received the stigmata in the summer of 1224. Francis journeyed to the mountain retreat of La Verna to fast for forty days in preparation for the Feast of St. Michael on September 29th. Praying for guidance on how to best serve Christ, he experienced a vision in which he encountered a seraph of unearthly beauty and grace. Its appearance banished Francis’s fears, renewed his devotion, and left him with the telltale marks on his hands. For two years until his death, he put in every effort to hide his stigmata, in true modest Franciscan fashion.

His feast day is October 4.