San Francesco, Assisi - Lower Church |
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This chapel belonged to
some important families over the years. In the early fifteenth century
it passed to the Montefeltros of Urbino, who held it for two
hundred years before it passed to the Medicis, who seem to have
forgotten that they owned it. Paying for chapels was the medieval
equivalent of a Mercedes in the driveway, but the Medicis had a pretty
impressive fleet elsewhere. |
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An aside: the story of the Mule. An odd and perhaps not entirely convincing story. St Anthony was in Rimini, where he came across a 'heretic' who announced that he would not believe the real presence of the Lord in the Mass unless a mule, unbidden, knelt before the sacrament. Anthony held the sacrament in his right hand, and some oats in his left. Guess what? A passing mule obliged, ignoring the food and kneeling before the sacrament. |
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Stained glass The stained glass dates from the early 14th century. The rose window shows head and shoulders of distinguished Franciscans, including St Louis of Toulouse. The panels in the windows below show events in the life of St Anthony of Padua. |
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