800TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER

Motif: Saint Francis of Assisi by Celestin Medović, the main altar of the church of St. Francis, Kaptol, Zagreb Saint Francis of Assisi was born as Giovanni Bernardone at Assisi in 1182 into a middle class family. He was nicknamed Francesco since his mother was originally from France. Up to his 24th birthday he lived an average life of a wealthy young noble. A mystical vision in the Church of San Damiano in which the Icon of Christ said to him «go and repair My house» changed completely his attitude towards life. By changing his former habits he devoted himself to a life of poverty, praying and avoiding company. He was from 1205 until 1209 gradually joined by his followers, which encouraged Francis in creating an image of an ideal life. After acquiring some experience of life in poverty he decided to seek permission of the Church and departed to Rome with eleven of his followers and on April 16, 1209 he presented to the Pope Innocent III the basic rules of a life devoted to poverty. His community of followers started to grow in a new order. Pope Innocent III, at that time only informally approved of his way of life and the Order of Friars Minor spread throughout the world, after (1223) the Rules of the new Order had been officially adopted. The First Franciscans arrived to Zagreb, Kaptol very early. Legend has it, and the person who first recorded it was the famous renaissance historian of the Order of Friars Minor, father Francisco Gonzaga wrote that “Zagreb friary was founded during St. Francis’ lifetime, and even St. Francis personally paid a visit to the Zagreb Friary”. St. Francis’ followers settled down close to the Zagreb Cathedral before 1242. Gothic structure of the interior of a large nave confirms the age of the church and also marks the north border of the monastery. On the south side of a monastery is a small chapel dedicated to St. Francis. The chapel in the 17th century was richly decorated with mural paintings with scenes from Saint Francis’ life, and the legend has it that on that very spot previously had been a cottage donated, by Katarina Galović, a Zagreb citizen, to brother Francis and his followers. The altar of the chapel contains the painting of St. Francis and an angel holding an open volume with the legible inscription: Regula et Vita Fratrum Minorum. It is the reproduction of a Vatican baroque statue from the year 1725, and it thematically matches this year’s 800th anniversary from the date of the formal approval of the Rule of Friars Minor. In the sanctuary of the gothic monastery church, St Francis is pictured above the main altar. The image of St. Francis radiates author’s profound knowledge of St. Francis’ life conducted according to his Rule. The author of the painting is a Croatian painter Celestin Medović (1857 – 1920), Franciscan himself, born in Kuna on Pelješac, ordained a priest in the Monastery of the Friars Minor in Dubrovnik. As a gifted young man he was given the opportunity to continue with the study of painting in Rome. He dedicated his whole life to painting. He had been commissioned by Franciscans monasteries during his studies in Italy. He went to continue his study in Munich where he developed his own style. Before his arrival to Zagreb (1895 – 1907), he combined, in his own way, the characteristics of Italian academic style and Munich mannerism with a subdued sensibility, elaborating social and political themes of that time. However, there is an essential difference between themes and figures the artist is familiar with, present particularly in his early works painted in Zagreb – a portrait of his mother and images of saints, particularly this very image of Saint Francis of Assisi. Franciscan education and identification with Franciscan way of life enabled Medović to present to us in a sensitive and talented way his image of Saint Francis. He is presented as a humble founder of the Order of Friars Minor, a person who ignored life of his contemporaries. After a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the Church of San Damiano he dedicated his life to Christ. In La Verna he received the stigmata and came as close as possible to his idol. He followed Christ and dedicated his life to God and his neighbour’s good. People talked that he resembled the Redeemer, but not physically, he was spiritually merged with the Teacher, as his follower. A subdued grey-brown shades of colour, essentially different from the images on the murals of the halls of Zagreb, Medović presented Francis as a person kneeling in an imaginative space, totally immersed in prayer and separated from life, holding an open book in his hand, however not any more interested in its content, with wide open hands and eyes wide open, fixed upon slander wooden cross. Untrained eye of an average observer shall barely notice a stream of light, fighting its way to the ecstatic face of a Saint and his widely open hands, radiantly resting on pages of the open volume, probably the Rule, illuminating the entire painting. It represents the light of artist’s divine inspiration and his effort to transfer it to the attentive observer.