Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata

Francis is one of the most prominent saints of the Catholic Church. He lived 800 years ago and founded orders of monks, nuns, laypersons, and a separate one devoted to the protection of holy sites. Born to a rich family, he renounced wealth for a life of poverty and fasted in the wilderness for extended periods. Procaccini shows us the most famous moment of Francis’s life, as related by Brother Leo, whom we see reading just beyond the trees. After 40 days of fasting and prayer on a mountaintop, Suddenly [Francis] saw a vision of a seraph, a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave him the gift of the five wounds of Christ in the form of nail holes in his hands and feet, and a gash in his side. Procaccini’s dense network of nervous lines perfectly captures the emotional intensity of the mystical event.