OUR MOTHER OF ANGELS, ITALY - 02nd Aug

 Our Mother of Angels is located six hundred yards from the city of Assisi, in Italy. It was a desolate locality, and apparently an unsettled one where robbers and the lawlessness 

    flourished, for the Benedictines who had lived at the monastery felt it was too hazardous to remain there. They abandoned the monastery, relocating to Mount Subasio, 

    which was a fortified monastery. The original Chapel is thought to date from the 4th Century, and was built by holy hermits who had come from the Valley of Josaphat. 

    They brought relics of the Blessed Virgin with them to the region when they constructed the Chapel. When St. Francis chanced to come upon the little abandoned Chapel of Our Mother 

    of Angels in the year 1208, it was almost completely hidden in shrubs and brush. St. Francis entered the hidden Church which measured only twenty-two feet by thirteen feet, 

    and saw the ancient fresco that had been placed above the main altar. It was an image of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin surrounded by angels and that angels could often 

    be heard singing there. This was the place where Saint Francis first understood his vocation, received visions and was also where the Saint desired to live. 

    The Benedictines had lived at that location for hundreds of years, but the Benedictine monks gave this Chapel to Saint Francis upon his request. 

    It was here that the Franciscan Order was founded.






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